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Join us as we welcome THOMAS M FUERST in conversation with ANDRE E. JOHNSON on TUESDAY, MARTCH 4 at 6:00 PM to celebrate the release of his new book PROPHETIC PERIL: THE RHETORIC OF NINETEENTH-CENTRURY AFRICAN AMERICAN PHOPHETIC-CALL NARRATIVES (RACE, RHETORIC, AND MEDIA)ABOUT THE BOOK:
Prophecy reimagines the world. It critiques what is and encourages its audience to imagine what could be. All prophecy, therefore, begins with a person willing to reimagine their own situation. In the biblical and African American traditions, this person receives a "call" to prophetic ministry that upends their reality and compels them to change the way things are. Prophetic Peril: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century African American C invites readers into the imaginative, subversive, and ethically complicated stories of four nineteenth-century Black figures who received the call to challenge the what is and live into the what could be in the midst of a hard-hearted world. Focusing on the prophetic-call narratives of Maria Stewart, Nat Turner, Julia Foote, and Richard Allen, author Thomas M. Fuerst offers insight into the unique contributions this tradition makes to American oratory, storytelling, history, ethics, theology, and protest. As Fuerst demonstrates, Turner's call narrative subverts white, political interests and expands politics to include the resistance rhetoric and witness of those on the margins. Allen's apologetic narration combines deeply thoughtful Protestant exegesis with a liberation theology shaped by the experience of enslavement, anchoring his rhetorical power in the experience of Black people in the nineteenth century. The call narratives of Stewart and Foote circumvent patriarchy and resist patriarchal interpretations of the Bible through biblical, embodied, dramatic, visionary appeals that sidestep persuasion and demand either acceptance or rejection. Taken together, these case studies reveal how antebellum Black preachers used religious storytelling to resist white, patriarchal oppression and assert their own voices, offering unique insight to our understanding of prophecy and resistance
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Thomas M. Fuerst has a PhD in rhetoric and communications from the University of Memphis and an MA in religious studies from the University of Missouri. He specializes in religious rhetoric, with an emphasis in biblical texts, interpretation, and prophetic rhetoric. He currently pastors Memphis First United Methodist as he partners with his wife and four children in this thing called life.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER:
Andre E. Johnson, Ph.D., is a Benjamin W. Rawlins Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies in the Department of Communication and Film at the University of Memphis. He is also an Orlando Taylor Distinguished Scholar of Africana Communication, a Douglas R. Ehninger Distinguished Professor of Rhetorical Studies, and the Director of the newly created Center for the Study of Rhetoric, Race, and Religion. Dr. Johnson’s research examines the intersection of rhetoric, race, and religion, and he teaches classes in political communication, African American rhetoric and public address, religious communication, interracial communication, prophetic rhetoric, and social movements. He is the author of the award-winning "No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner," and his latest book (with Amanda Nell Edgar) is "The Summer of 2020: George Floyd and the Resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement.” He is also the Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
387 Perkins Ext, Memphis, TN, United States, Tennessee 38117
