Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton Presents Endowed Chair Inaugural Lecture

Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton presented this inaugural lecture November 5, 2012, at an event honoring his appointment as Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

Text of the original news article announcing this events follows this video: 

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Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton will present an inaugural lecture November 5, 2012, at an event honoring his appointment as Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. The lecture is scheduled for 4:00 pm in the Great Hall of Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall, 5901 Bishop Boulevard, on the campus of Southern Methodist University. A reception in the Great Hall will immediately follow the lecture.

Brad R. Braxton

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Braxton earned the Ph.D. in 1999 from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, where he was a George W. Woodruff Fellow concentrating on New Testament Studies and Homiletics. He earned the Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford in 1991, as a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where he majored in Religious Studies as a Jefferson Scholar. He is author of three books, Preaching Paul (2004); No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience (2002); and The Tyranny of Resolution: I Corinthians 7:17-24 (2000); as well as numerous articles, published sermons and lectures.

Braxton’s previous service includes: Distinguished Visiting Scholar at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois; Senior Minister at The Riverside Church in New York, New York, an interdenominational and interracial congregation with 2,400 members and affiliates from more than 40 different denominational, national, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds; Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament, with tenure, at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee; Jessie Ball duPont Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Biblical Studies at Wake Forest University Divinity School, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Senior Pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church, Baltimore Maryland, an urban interdenominational congregation. Braxton was ordained in 1991 at First Baptist Church, Salem, Virginia.

Braxton’s current responsibilities include teaching at Perkins School of Theology and the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. Additionally, he is senior pastor of The Open Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

Braxton is the first African American to come to SMU with an appointment to an endowed chair. The Lois Craddock Perkins Chair of Homiletics was established in 1985 through the generosity of The Joe and Lois Perkins Foundation, Perkins-Prothro Foundation, and Charles N. and Elizabeth Prothro. Braxton is the third appointee to the Lois Craddock Perkins Professorship of Homiletics, following the late James Wharton (appointed 1985-1997) and Perkins Professor Emeritus John C. Holbert (appointed 1997-2012).