Searching for the Soul of Black Preaching
July 16–21
What is BTLI?
BTLI is a weeklong intensive continuing education event for clergy and laity for training, worship, and fellowship. The institute is designed for clergy and lay leaders who would like to deepen their thinking and preaching by learning from preeminent scholars of theology and religion.
Theme
Beyond the stylistic distinctiveness of Black preaching, this conference wrestles with the question of what is truly unique to Black preaching. Conference speakers and participants will explore how the very best of Black preaching invites hearers to reimagine personal and communal possibilities in defiance of contextual constraints.
The conference will explore the history, context, and performance of Black preaching to identify its boundary-defying elements. It will equip scholars and practitioners to understand and explore the ways in which Black preaching seeks to challenge the assumptions of the dominant and governing rationality of the movement to invite the communities we serve to see the world (and themselves) not as it currently exists but as it can be!
The 2022 Annual Black Theology and Leadership Institute (BTLI) is sponsored by Continuing Education at Princeton Theological Seminary in collaboration with The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary and The Center for African American Culture at Virginia Union University.
