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Information on Participants
Leslie
D. Callahan
Cheryl
Townsend Gilkes
Clarence
Hardy
Shayne
Lee
Bishop
Andy C. Lewter, Jr.
Bishop
Carlton D. Pearson
The
Rev. Eugene Rivers
Amos Yong
Leslie
D. Callahan
 Leslie
D. Callahan is Assistant Professor of American Religious History and African
American Religion at the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches modern
American religion, with a special interest in African American religions and
Pentecostalism. She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2002.
Cheryl
Townsend Gilkes
 Cheryl
Townsend Gilkes is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American
Studies at Colby College. She holds degrees in sociology from Northeastern University (BA, MA, PhD) and has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University's School of Theology. Her research, teaching, and writing have specially focused on the role of African American women in generating social change and on the diverse roles of black Christian women in the twentieth century. Some of her essays on black Christian women are gathered in her recent book,
If It Wasn't for the Women: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001). She has published in several social science and religious studies journals. One recent article, "'Go and Tell Mary and Martha': The Spirituals, Biblical Options for Women, and Cultural Tensions in the African American Religious Experience," was published in
Social Compass: International Review of Sociology of Religion and is part of her book in progress,
That Blessed Book: The Bible and the African American Cultural
Imagination. In addition to her current research on contemporary African American churches, Dr. Gilkes is preparing an introduction for the re-publication of
W.E.B. Du
Bois's book The Gift of Black Folk: The Negro in the Making of America. Professor Gilkes is also an ordained Baptist minister and serves as an
assistant pastor (for special projects) of the Union Baptist Church (Cambridge, Massachusetts).
Clarence
Hardy
 Clarence Hardy
teaches at Dartmouth after having been several years at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He specializes in American religious culture and contemporary Christian thought, with a special emphasis on black religious culture and thought. After graduating from Princeton University
(AB 1992), he completed his graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City
(MDiv 1995, MPhil 2000, PhD 2001). Hardy is the author of James Baldwin's God: Sex, Hope and Crisis in Black Holiness
Culture. He is currently at work on his second book, tentatively entitled
"We Grappled for the Mysteries": Black God-Talk in Modern America, which will span the 1920s through the early 1970s and consider how black descriptions of the divine have evolved in the modern period.
Shayne Lee
 Shayne
Lee is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Houston. He earned a
PhD in sociology (Northwestern University, 2002), two master's degrees, in
religion and in biblical studies, a
BA in theology, and an AA in social science. Lee's forthcoming book, American Phenomenon: Bishop
T. D.
Jakes, offers the ministry of a popular preacher and cultural icon as a prism through which we can learn more about contemporary religion and America.
Lee's work also studies the striking interplay of politics and religion in black churches. His recent publications include
the articles "The Structure of a Spiritual Revolution: Black Baptists and Women in
Ministry," published in the
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (33:154-177), and
"The Church of Faith and Freedom: African American Baptists and Social
Change," published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (42:31-42).
Lee teaches various courses, including African American Religion, Race and Ethnicity, Postmodern Society, and Sociology of Mass Communication.
Bishop Andy C. Lewter,
Jr.
 Bishop Lewter's ministerial career began in 1973 while
still a student at Oberlin College majoring in communications and religion. While on campus Bishop
Lewter directed the Oberlin Black Ensemble, served as chairman of Abusua and president of African-Heritage
House. He also helped to found the Oberlin Voices of Christ. After graduating with a BA with honors in 1976,
he entered Harvard University in pursuit of a master's of divinity degree. In Boston he served at
the Union Baptist Church with Pastor Melvin G. Brown as an assistant pastor in
charge of communications and drama, directing James Baldwin's "Amen Corner."
In 1978 he was invited by the Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church to serve as pastor. For one year he commuted between Boston and New York finishing seminary
and serving his church. In 1979 he graduated from Harvard Divinity School and spent additional time in a post-graduate study program at Oxford University.
In 1985 Bishop Lewter responded to an invitation by the Oakley Baptist Church to
come and assume the pastorate. Since that time the church has experienced major
renovation programs. His tenure is marked by the development of a live TV
ministry, growth of the membership, and a church newspaper. Bishop Lewter is a
former columnist for the Columbus Black Communicator and board member of
Gospel Today Magazine.
In 1991, Bishop Lewter made history by leading the New Life Fellowship of Churches in the purchase of WO8BV TV8, Ohio's only African-American religious
television station. The station has the participation of approximately 40 churches ranging from Columbus, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta.
In February 1993, Bishop Lewter led the African American Religious Connection in the acquisition of their first radio station, WLGO 1170 AM, reaching 16 counties in central South Carolina.
In September 1993, Bishop Lewter traveled to Chicago and met with Bishop Paul S.
Morton, Sr., Presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.
Subsequent to that, Bishop Lewter joined the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship and was appointed as the Fellowship's first state overseer, serving
the State of Ohio. In December of that same year, Bishop Lewter was elevated to
Auxiliary Bishop and placed in charge of the Fellowship's overseers nationally.
In 1995 Bishop Lewter's outstanding performance and dedication in the Fellowship
since his joining earned him a seat on the Bishop's Council of the Full Gospel
Baptist Church Fellowship. He presently serves as Bishop of Christian Education
and Apostolic Training for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.
Bishop Lewter holds an earned doctorate of ministry degree from the United
Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
Bishop
Carlton D. Pearson
 Raised up as an apostolic and prophetic voice to the nations, Carlton Pearson is the Presiding Bishop of over 500 churches and ministries through the AZUSA Interdenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Ministries, Inc., and has pastored Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for over 20 years.
Bishop Pearson has been the host and overseer of the annual AZUSA Conferences, held each year in Tulsa and occasionally conducts Coast-to-Coast Conferences across America, for more than 14 years. AZUSA has become known for its high-energy music, powerful preaching, integrated crowds, and for exposing a number of now well-known ministries to the world. In 1997, AZUSA held its first International Conference in Durban, South Africa.
Carlton Pearson is the founder and president of Higher Dimensions Ministries, which has grown from a traveling evangelistic team in 1977, to a multi-faceted ministry, which includes a local church in Tulsa, prison and nursing home outreaches, a national Purity With Purpose Discipleship Program for men and women, with graduates nationally and internationally. The most recent outreach ministry targeted specifically and primarily to the
"un-churched" is a newly instituted local radio ministry program entitled
"Life in the World"—a talk-show format that addresses issues of social, moral, cultural, religious and political concerns in a practical, yet provocative manner—relating faith to culture. Bishop Pearson places high priority on family and country, reflected in his book and acclaimed preaching series,
"Is There a Man in the House." More recently, he has been given an apostolic mandate to proclaim the message of
"the finished work of Calvary," in his series entitled "Jesus, the Savior of the World," sometimes called the
"Gospel of Inclusion." This "Gospel" to the world is that Christ has accepted them; and that it is by and through the unconditional love and amazing grace of God that the human race has been reconciled and redeemed to God.
Bishop Pearson serves on the College of Bishops of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches, and on the boards of several other Christian missionary organizations. He has authored a variety of books and booklets and is a two-time Stellar Award-winning and Dove Award-nominated recording artist.
Bishop Pearson has been blessed with the opportunity and mandate to impact the lives of countless thousands and to influence the works of other Christians as well. His work toward racial
reconciliation—bridging the gap between ethnic groups, nations and
denominations—has given him audience with kings, presidents, and other government officials, both in America and abroad. Believing that
"a silent church is a saltless church," Bishop Pearson's frank and often controversial take on a number of different subjects has earned him appearances on television programs such as
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley,
BET News, The Edge with Paula Zahn, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Bishop Pearson was recognized as one of
"America's 10 Most Influential Black Ministers" by Gospel Today and has received several honorary doctoral degrees.
The
Rev. Eugene Rivers
 The
Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III is pastor of the Azusa Christian Community, a Pentecostal church whose pastor is ordained within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and located in the Four Corners section of Dorchester, Massachusetts where he also lives with his wife, Jacqueline C. Rivers, and their children.
Rev. Rivers was born in Boston and reared in South Chicago and North Philadelphia. He was educated at Harvard University, and has worked on community development and various aspects of Christian activism for nearly thirty years, especially on behalf of the black poor. As President of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation (www.ntlf.org), he is working to build new grassroots leadership in forty of the worst inner city neighborhoods in inner city America by the year 2006. He serves as President of The Ella J. Baker House (www.thebakerhouse.org), the separate 501 (c)(3) non-profit originally created by the Azusa Christian Community, which provides street intervention, education and mentoring for hundreds of youths in Dorchester and elsewhere in Boston each year.
The Rev. Rivers has interests in foreign policy and geopolitics, and is now General Secretary of the Pan African Charismatic Evangelical Congress (www.pacec.org) that was formed to organize churches in the U.S. to assist their counterparts in Africa in dealing with the AIDS in Africa pandemic, as well as advocating for changes in foreign and development policies of the U.S. vis-à-vis Africa. He spoke at the 1998 meeting of the World Council of Churches to urge them to act in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Rev. Rivers has appeared on CNN's Hardball, NBC's Meet the
Press, PBS's The Charlie Rose Show, and BET's Lead Story, and National Public Radio, among other programs. He has been featured or provided commentary for publications such as
Newsweek, The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Herald, and the Boston
Globe, as well as periodicals such as the Boston Review, Sojourners,
Christianity Today, and Books and Culture. He has lectured at numerous universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Calvin College. He has also authored or co-authored numerous essays, including
"On the Responsibility of Intellectuals in an Age of Crack," "Beyond the Nationalism of Fools: A Manifesto for a New Black Movement,"
"Black Churches and the Challenge of U.S. Foreign and Development Policy" (2001),
"An Open Letter to the U.S. Black Religious, Intellectual, and Political Leadership Regarding AIDS and the Sexual Holocaust in Africa" (1999), and
"A Pastoral Letter to President George W. Bush on Bridging our Racial Divide" (2001).
Amos
Yong
 Born in Taiping, West Malaysia, to Chinese parents, Amos Yong is an associate professor of theology at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a minister in the General Council of the Assemblies of God. He has written extensively on pneumatology and theology of religions. A graduate of Bethany College in Santa Cruz, California, he earned a master's degree in Christian history and thought at Western Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and a second master's degree in history at Portland State University before receiving his
PhD in religious studies and theology from Boston University in 1999. Dr. Yong has served as a youth pastor of an Assembly of God congregation in Fairfield, California, and as associate pastor of one in Mansfield, Massachusetts. He began his teaching career as an assistant professor of theology at Bethany and then joined the Bethel faculty. He was named to his present position in 2002 and also serves as an adjunct professor of theology at North Central University in Minneapolis. He is a contributing editor of
Pneuma Review: The Journal of Ministry Resources and Theology for Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministries and
Leaders, book review editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal
Studies, and book notes editor of the Evangelical Theology Section of the Religious Studies
Review. The author of some thirty-five articles published in scholarly journals and chapters in volumes of collected works, he is the co-editor of one book and the author of
Spirit-World-Community: Theological Hermeneutics in Trinitarian Perspective (2002) and
Beyond the Impasse: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Religions (2003),
and The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global
Theology (2005). Dr. Yong recently completed a study of Christian-Buddhist
dialogue, "Does the Wind Blow through the Middle Way?"
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