The Black Religious Scholars Group Twenty-Seventh Annual Consultation
Making It Plain: Building A New Way Forward
Honoring Rev. Dr. Leslie Callahan and Rev. Dr. Obery Hendricks
Friday, November 21, 2025
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
The theme for this year’s BRSG gathering: “Celebrating the Imago Dei of Blackness,” calls for the affirmation of the divine, dignified, and enduring value of Black life, culture, and faith. In today’s society, the preciseness and primacy of Black humanity must be emphasized. By centering Blackness, we seek to build a new path forward, transforming race and religion from tools of division and control into sources of healing, resistance, and sacred possibilities. Rooted in love and shaped by generations of communal wisdom spanning the diaspora, Blackness carries a sacred quality born from struggle. The vision of a beloved community empowered by this sacredness is not an abstract concept but a lived experience of Black people. Despite enduring dehumanization and systemic oppression since the nation’s founding, they have forged beauty, brilliance, belonging, and belief. In an era where political forces aim to marginalize and erase inclusive histories, we gather to counter this narrative and advance a vision where Blackness is not a problem to be solved, but a precious inheritance to be redeemed and honored. It is crucial to embrace and celebrate the sacred dimensions of Blackness, ensuring that it remains a source of pride and empowerment for generations to come.
Honorees
Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton | Distinguished Honoree; Founding Senior Pastor of The Open Church, Baltimore; Renowned preacher, scholar, and lecturer
Dr. Anthony B. Pinn | Distinguished Honoree; Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Rice University; Scholar of African American Religion and Humanism
Council of Griots
Dr. Shonda Jones | Moderator; Senior higher-education leader and scholar of faith, health, and intercultural engagement
Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley | Senior Pastor, Historic Myrtle Baptist Church (Newton, MA); Senior Research Fellow in Religion, Homiletics, and Ecclesiology
Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey | Scholar, theologian, and public intellectual in Black feminist and womanist studies
Dr. Tracey Hucks | James A. Storing Professor of Religion and Africana & Latin American Studies, Colgate University; Scholar of Africana religions
Rev. Dr. Jeremy Williams | Biblical scholar focused on New Testament and early Christian communities