Professor Allen Dwight Callahan's The Talking Book portrays the Bible as a pivotal character in African American culture by drawing a comparison between slavery's secluded forest prayer meetings to the bold style of hip hop artists today. Callahan's lecture will illustrate the ways in which African Americans have employed the Bible historically for education, liberation, and as a cultural tool for empowerment.
Callahan is professor of New Testament at the Seminario Teologico Batista do Nordeste in Bahia, Brazil. He received a bachelor's degree in religion from Princeton University, and master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in the study of religion, specializing in the literature and history of early Christianity and the New Testament.
He is an ordained Baptist minister, and has lectured throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe.
"Religious Cultures of the African Diaspora: New Trajectories of Inquiry" is one of nine projects funded by the Humanities Project an initiative by the University of Rochester emphasizing the influence and contributions of the humanities to academic and civil life.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the Web site at http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities or e-mail humanities@rochester.edu.