Jawanza Clark

Associate Professor, Religious Studies

Education

  • PHD, Emory University
  • M.DIV, Yale Divinity School
  • BA, Morehouse College

Courses Taught

REL 110 The Nature and Experience of Religion
REL 238 Theologies of Liberation

REL 300 Black Theology

REL 300 African Christianity Study Abroad: "The Christian Experience in Ghana"

REL 351 God and Evil

REL 420 Majors' Seminar: Colonial Christianity and Indigenous Religions in America 

  • Research

    My primary training is in Protestant Christian theology, with specialization in Black liberation and womanist thought, but I am also interested in comparative theology as it pertains to African religions and African and African-American Christianity.  My research investigates the doctrine of the human being to determine whether the indigenous African concept, ancestor, offers a construal of the human being that can address and correct oppressive features of established Protestant approaches to theological anthropology for Black and Womanist theology and the theology of African and African American Christians generally.  My research raises questions about theological method and epistemology in a liberationist agenda if indigenous African religions and the black experience are included as theological sources for Black theology.  It also explores historical questions regarding black Christian formation in America during the antebellum and early post-bellum periods.  I conducted research in Accra, Ghana in 2006 where I studied indigenous African religions and African Christianity among the Akan and Ga peoples. 

  • Publications and Scholarly Activities

    Books

    Albert Cleage Jr and The Black Madonna and Child, edited book, Jawanza Eric Clark, Palgrave Macmillan 2016.

    Indigenous Black Theology: Toward An African-Centered Theology of the African-American Religious Experience, Jawanza Eric Clark, Palgrave-Macmillan 2012.

    Articles/Book Chapters
    "The Great Ancestor: An African Conception of God," in Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities, Springer, 2013.

    "Jonathan Edwards," in Beyond the Pale: Reading Theology from the Margins, eds. Miguel de la Torre and Stacey Floyd Thomas, Westminster John Knox, 2011.

    "Reconceiving the Doctrine of Jesus As Savior in Terms of the African Understanding of Ancestor: A Model for the Black Church," in Black Theology: An International Journal Vol 8 (2) 2010.

    Works in Progress:

    Crisis in the Black Theological Imagination: An Argument for Creativity (forthcoming book).

  • Professional Experience and Memberships
    Professional Experience
    • Associate Professor of Global Christianity, Manhattan College, Bronx, NY (Fall 2016-present)
    • Assistant Professor of Global Christianity, Manhattan College, Bronx, NY  (Fall 2012- Spring 2016)
    • Lecturer, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA. (Fall 2008-Spring 2012)
    • Adjunct Professor, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. (Spring 2007-Fall 2007)
    Memberships
    Dr. Clark is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and the American Academy of Religion.  He is also a member of The Black Theology in South Africa Group and the North American Paul Tillich Society.