About the Author

Dr. Andre E. Johnson serves as chair of the department of Christianity and Culture as the Dr. James L Netters Professor of Rhetoric and Religion and African American Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary. He teaches classes in contextualized ministry, prophetic rhetoric, black church, African American theology, rhetoric and religion, pulpit rhetoric, race, and hip hop theology. In addition to his work at Memphis Theology Seminary, he also serves as an instructor in Communications and African American Studies at the University of Memphis. Along with his academic titles, he also currently serves as Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries an inner city church built upon the servant leadership philosophy and is  married to a wonderful wife—Lisa Jones Johnson.

Dr. Johnson is currently editing the works of Henry McNeal Turner under the title The Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner. The first volume, An African American Pastor Before and During the American Civil War was published in 2010 and the second one, The Chaplain Letters, was published in 2012 and the third volume, An African American Pastor During Reconstruction is due in 2013. The Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner is part of a 12 volume series I have with Edwin Mellen Press.  In addition, he is also editing a collection of essays on hip hop and spirituality titled, Urban God Talk: Rap, Religion, and a Spirituality of Hip Hop with Lexington Books.

He has presented academic papers at national, regional, and state conferences winning awards at each level and have published essays in the Memphis Theological Seminary Journal, Black Theology Journal, and the Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric. He serves as the first vice chair of the African American Communication and Culture Division of the National Communication Association and holds membership in several national, regional and state Associations in the areas of Communication, African American and Religious Studies. He is the editor of the cutting edge Rhetoric Race and Religion blog and a contributor to several other blogs such as HuffingtonPost and religiousleft.org

In addition to what many consider groundbreaking work on Bishop Turner, Dr. Johnson tries to maintain an eclectic research agenda. Ongoing research projects explore the nexus between rhetoric, theology and the Bible, urban ministry and theology, religion and politics, the religious rhetoric of Barack Obama, and religion and media.