Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies Overview

The Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies exists to highlight the theological and religious witness, which arises out of the African American and African Diaspora Christian experience. The Center helps to prepare men and women for vocational ministry or scholarly pursuits shaped by a wider knowledge and deeper appreciation of Black life within American and global Christianity.

The Betsey Stockton Center aspires to be a national leader in research on the Black church through the collaborative creation of scholarship with leading scholars, community leaders, and pastors to address the critical issues confronting clergy, congregants, and communities served by the Black church.

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The Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies was born out of the painful acknowledgment of the intersection of slavery and theological education at Princeton Theological Seminary. This necessary confession by the Seminary led to an institutional commitment to the following:

• Bringing Princeton Seminary's exceptional strengths to support the prophetic and social justice traditions of the Black church,
• Learning from and contributing to the support and development of current and future leaders of the Black church,
• Strengthening the Seminary’s commitment to theological education and ecclesial support in Africa, with a particular commitment to Liberia’s educational and ecclesial institutions.