The Center for the Study of African American Preaching Established at Anderson University

The Divinity School at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina, has announced the establishment of The Center for the Study of African American Preaching. A new Ph.D. in preaching degree program also will be offered by the divinity school this fall.

Anderson University, which is affiliated with the Baptist Church, enrolls about 4,000 students. African Americans make up 5 percent of the student body.

The Center for the Study of African American Preaching will have two missions: developing significant new scholarship regarding the use of preaching in the Black church and creating a publicly available online library of audio recordings of well-known African American preachers.

Dante Wright, an assistant professor of preaching and pastoral ministry, has been named director of the new center. Dr. Wright is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, where he played football. After college, he served as a football coach at several universities before becoming pastor at a church in Arkansas. He holds a master’s degree in Christian leadership, a master of divinity degree, and a doctorate in ministry from the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. He also earned a master’s degree in theology and a Ph.D. in Biblical studies with an emphasis in homiletics at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.