By Camille Loomis Rehnborg
Minister of Spiritual Formation and Outreach
First Baptist Church, Greenville
First Baptist Greenville is partnering with Baylor University’s Baptist Heritage and History Society to host an online webinar featuring Kimberly Kellison, Professor of History at Baylor University.
The free online event will be Thursday, January 19, from 7:00-8:30pm.
Kimberly will present the research surrounding her new book, Forging a Christian Order: South Carolina Baptists, Race and Slavery, 1696-1860.
The webinar is part of a series titled, “Making Baptist History Public History.”
I will offer a pastoral response to Kimberly’s lecture that will include a discussion of how historical questions of humanity, slavery and faith continue to shape each person’s relationship to the church, the community, and God.
There will be plenty of time for questions and answers following the presentation, so come prepared with your questions and thoughts.
This is a public online event, meaning everyone is invited.
This would be a great event for Sunday School class leaders to gain material for future class discussions. It is also a fit for anyone sensitive to the tension between the reality of American history and how we choose to interpret and recollect our shared history.
Lifelong learners and anyone considering the history of slavery and the church for the first time are encouraged to attend.
Camille Loomis Rehnborg
Click here to register for the webinar. After you register, you will automatically receive the Zoom link for the event.
Questions? Email Camille or Anna Woodham.
About Kimberly
Kimberly R. Kellison is Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean for Humanities and Social Sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences. She previously served as Chair of the Department of History.
She earned her B.A. from Erskine College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.
Kimberly’s areas of interest include the American South, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and religion in the American South. Her work has appeared in publications including The Georgia Historical Quarterly, The South Carolina Historical Magazine, and American Baptist Quarterly.
Kimberly is also a founding member and current co-chair of Baylor University’s Bias Response Team (previously the Bias Motivated Incident Support Team).
Review
This is a well-researched and clearly written study that makes a significant contribution to the historiography of religion in the U.S. South. The author persuasively demonstrates that from the mid eighteenth century to the decades immediately preceding the outbreak of the American Civil War, South Carolina Baptists organized ecclesiastical institutions of increasing vigor and influence, with a wide-ranging Christian defense of slavery at their center, in order to extend their reach and strengthen their denomination.”—Thomas J. Little, author of The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670–1760