The Reverend James H. Evans, Jr., Ph.D., Litt. D., the Robert K. Davies Professor of Systematic Theology at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, will speak at the Ithaca College Community Church on Sunday, October 28, 5:00 p.m., Muller Chapel.
Rev. James H. Evans, Jr. is a pastor, educator, administrator, and scholar. He is a fourth-generation minister and the son of a Baptist pastor. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of the Cranbrook School and the University of Michigan.
He currently serves as the Robert K. Davies Professor of Systematic Theology at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York, where he served as president from 1990 to 2000. He is also the founding pastor of the St. Luke Tabernacle Community Church of Rochester.
Following college, he received a master of divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School, and his doctor of philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In the city he served as associate pastor of the Chambers Memorial Baptist Church. In 1979 he was appointed to the position of instructor of theology and Black church studies at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.
A year later he accepted the position as a full-time professor at the Divinity School. He was named Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, and in 1989 he was made dean of the program of Black church studies. In August of 1990, he became the first African-American president in the 180-year history of the divinity school. He holds an honorary doctorate from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
Rev. Evans is the author of numerous articles and four books: We Shall All Be Changed: Social Problems and Theological Renewal; We Have Been Believers: An African American Systematic Theology; Black Theology: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography; and Spiritual Empowerment in Afro-American Literature. He is also the co-editor of Modern Christian Thought, Volume II, second edition.
His latest book, Praising God in Tough Times: The Anatomy of Preaching in the African American Tradition, was published by Judson Press in 2005.
