About

Dr. Andre E. Johnson serves in the department of Christianity and Culture as the Dr. James L. Netters Assistant 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, Dr. Johnson also serves as an instructor in Communications and African American Studies at the University of Memphis. Along with his academic titles, he is currently Senior Pastor of Gifts of Life Ministries an inner city church built upon the servant leadership philosophy and is married to a wonderful woman—Lisa Jones Johnson.

Dr. Johnson was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and after graduation; he attended the University of Tennessee at Martin where he received my Bachelor of Science degree in Communications. He graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary where he took the Masters of Divinity degree and completed the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communications at the University of Memphis. Dr. Johnson's dissertation, The Prophetic Oratory of Henry McNeal Turner, was under the direction of Michael C. Leff. He is currently editing the works of Henry McNeal Turner under the title The Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner (Edwin Mellen Press). He has already published the first two volumes, "An African American Pastor Before and During the American Civil War" (2010) and "The Chaplain Letters, (2012). The third volume, "An African American Pastor During Reconstruction," is set for publication in 2013. 

In addition to collecting the writings of Bishop Turner, Dr Johnson is also the author of  "The Forgotten Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition," (2012) from Lexington Books. 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 also with Lexington Books and the editor of the popular Rhetoric Race and Religion Blog.

Dr. Johnson 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 and the Black Theology Journal. He also serves as president 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. Dr. Johnson is an avid blogger for The Huffington Post, Political Theology and the Religious Left blogs. 

In addition to what many consider groundbreaking work on Bishop Turner, Dr. Johnson maintains 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, religion and media and more recently, the prophetic rhetoric of W.E.B. Du Bois. 

In addition, you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.