• President (by nomination/election), Society of Biblical Literature, 2010
• Achievement Award, Fund for Theological Education, Inc., 2010
• President, Mid-Atlantic Region, SBL, 1997-98
• Vice-President, Mid-Atlantic Region, SBL, 1996-1997
• Dissertation Fellowship, Fund for Theological Education, 1982–83
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, United Negro College Fund, Connecticut chapter, July 1979
• Doctoral Fellowship, Fund for Theological Education, 1978–79
• Two Brothers Fellowship, Yale Divinity School (Graduating Senior Academic Award), 1978
• Protestant Fellowship, Fund for Theological Education, 1975–78
• Phi Beta Kappa, Delta of Georgia, Morehouse College, 1975
• Crown Zellerbach Foundation Scholarship (year of study at University of California at Berkeley), 1973–74

• Blais Faculty Research Grant, $7,000, Claremont Graduate University, 2012
• Ford Foundation Three-Year Research Grant, in support of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures ($600,000), Claremont Graduate University, June 2008
• Henry W. Luce Foundation Three-Year Grant, in support of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures ($300,000), Claremont Graduate University, March 2006
• Ford Foundation Three-Year Research Grant, for establishment of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures ($600,000), Claremont Graduate University, October 2003
• Ford Foundation Research Grant, transition year for Institute on Sacred Texts and Social Textures ($95,000), Claremont Graduate University, October 2002
• Ford Foundation Research Grant, two-year planning for major research project on Society, Culture and Sacred Texts: Africa and the African Diaspora ($79,000), November 2000
• Ford Foundation Research Grant: African Americans and the Bible: Contemporary Ethnography Project ($108,000), October 1998
• Lilly Endowment Three-Year Research Grant: African Americans and the Bible: The History and Dynamics of an Interaction ($341,000), September 1996
• Society of Biblical Literature Research Grant, research project and conference on Asceticism and the New Testament ($2000), Spring 1996
• Henry W. Luce III Fellowship in Theology (Historical Studies), sabbatical year, 1995–96
• Louisville Institute Award, in support of International Conference on Asceticism, Union Theological Seminary, New York City ($5000), April 1993
• American Council of Learned Societies Travel Grant, Spring 1990 (for travel to Society of Biblical Literature International Conference, Vienna, Austria, July 1990)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers, Princeton University (Afro-American Religious History), Summer 1986
• Younger Scholars Award, American Council of Learned Societies, Fall 1985

• Claremont Graduate University, School of Religion
  Professor of Religion, July 2003–December 2014
  Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies, Claremont Colleges, Affiliate Faculty, 2003–2014
• Iliff School of Theology, Denver CO
  Visiting Professor
  Summer Session, 1999
• Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley CA
  Visiting Professor
  Summer Session, 1997
• Columbia University
  Adjunct Professor, Department of Classics
  Fall 1996–2003
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Visiting Professor of Religious Studies and Afro-American Studies
  September 1995–June 1996
• Columbia University
  Adjunct Professor, Department of Religion, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  December 1992–2003
• Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
  Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins
  January 1991–June 2003
• Harvard University Divinity School
  Visiting Associate Professor of New Testament
  Fall 1989
• Claremont Graduate School
  Assistant Professor of Religion
  Fall 1983–Spring 1986
• Associate Professor of Religion
  Fall 1986–Fall 1990

School of Theology at Claremont

• Assistant Professor of New Testament
  Fall 1983–Spring 1986

Associate Professor
Fall 1986–Fall 1990

• Through a Glass, Darkness: The Black Atlantic Reads King James (in progress; under contract with Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2015)
• Editor, MisReading America: Scriptures and Difference (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• White Men’s Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012; pbk, 2014)
• Editor, Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon (Signifying [on] Scriptures Book Series; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008)
• The Bible and African Americans: A Brief History (Facets Series; Fortress Press, 2003)
• Editor, with the assistance of Rosamond Rodman, African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures (New York: Continuum International, 2000; pbk, 2001)
• Editor, The Bible and the American Myth: A Symposium on the Bible and the Constructions of Meaning (Studies in American Biblical Hermeneutics 16; Macon: Mercer University Press, 1999)
• Editor, Rhetorics of Resistance: A Colloquy on Early Christianity as Rhetorical Formation, Semeia 79 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999)
• Co-editor with Leif Vaage, Asceticism and the New Testament (New York: Routledge, 1999)
• Co-editor with Richard Valantasis, Asceticism: Papers Presented at the International Conference on The Ascetic Dimension in Religious Life and Culture, 25–29 April 1993, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; pbk, 2002)
• Editor, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Source Book (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990)
• Editor, Discursive Formations, Ascetic Piety and the Interpretation of Early Christian Literature, Semeia 57 and 58(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992)
• Paul the Worldly Ascetic: Response to the World and Self-Understanding According to 1 Corinthians 7 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1987)
• Renunciation Toward Social Engineering: An Apologia for the Study of Asceticism in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Occasional Papers, no. 8; Claremont, CA: Institute of Antiquity and Christianity, October 1986)

Special Projects

• Executive Producer, Documentary Film, “Finding God in the City of Angels” (Institute for Signifying Scriptures, 2009)
• Guest Editor, “Signifying (on) Scriptures: Text(ure)s and Orientations,” Spotlight on Teaching: Religious Studies News, vol 23, no. 3 (American Academy of Religion, May 2008)
• “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?,” Echoes from Calvary: Meditations on Franz Joseph Hayden’s Seven Last Words of Christ, ed. Richard Young (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005)
• Executive Producer, Documentary Film, “Reading Darkness, Reading Scriptures: African Americans and the Bible” (Institute for Signifying Scriptures, 2004)
• Guest Editor, “The Sexual Politics of the Ascetic Life: A Comparative Reader,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 48, nos. 3–4, 1994/95 (1996)
• Contributor, “Room for Debate” (“Natural Disasters or ‘Acts of God?’”), New York Times, November 18, 2013
  nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/18/natural-disasters-or-acts-of-god

Articles and Essays

• “Signifying on the Fetish II: Outlines for a New Critical Orientation,” Theologische Literaturzeitung 138 (2013) 9
• “Signifying on the Fetish: Mapping a New Critical Orientation,” The Future of the Biblical Past: Envisioning Biblical Studies on a Global Key, ed. Roland Boer and Fernando F. Segovia (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012)
• “Response to: D. Max Moerman, The Death of the Dharma: Buddhist Sutra Burials in Early Medieval Japan.” The Religion & Culture Web Forum. The Martin Marty Center of the Advanced Study of Religion. March 2011. divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/archive.shtml
• “Interpreters—Enslaving/Enslaved/Runagate,” in Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no. 1 (2011) 5-24
• “Ex-Centric Reading: A Case for Critical Reorientation,” in Foster Biblical Scholarship: Essays in Honor of Kent Harold Richards on the Occasion of His Retirement, ed. Frank R. Ames and Charles W. Miller (Society of Biblical Literature, 2010)
• “The Work We Make Scriptures Do For Us: An Argument for Signifying on Scriptures as Intellectual Project,” in Transforming Graduate Biblical Studies, ed. Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza and Kent H. Richards (Society of Biblical Literature, 2010)
• “African Americans and The Bible,” Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, ed. Daniel Patte (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
• “Abstinence,” in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol 1, ed. Hans-Josef Klauck et al (Walter de Gruyter, 2009)
• “Equiano’s Interesting Narrative: Re-Reading a Modern Scriptural Story,” in Caught Reading Again: Scholars and Their Books, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah (SCM Press, 2009)
• “Scriptures for Strangers: the Making of an Africanized Bible,” in Postcolonial Interventions: Essays in Honor of R. S. Sugirtharajah, ed. Tat-siong Benny Liew (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009)
• “‘…no modern Joshua…’: Nationalization, Scriptures, and Race,” in Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christianity, ed. Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza and Laura Nasrallah (Augsburg Fortress Press, 2009)
• “The Bible as a Text in Cultures: African Americans,” in The Peoples’ Bible, ed. Curtiss P. De Young, et al (Augsburg Fortress, 2009)
• “Introduction: TEXTureS, Gestures, Power: Orientation to Radical Excavation,” in Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon, ed. V. L. Wimbush (Signifying [on] Scriptures Book Series; New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008)
• “‘Naturally Veiled and Half Articulate’: Scriptures, Modernity, and the Formation of African America,” in Still at the Margins, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008)
• “Race and Religion,” in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (MacMillan, 2008)
• “We will Make Our own Future Text: A Proposal for an Alternate Interpretive Orientation,” in True to our Native Land: African American New Testament Commentary, ed. Brian Blount, et al (Philadelphia: Fortress, 2007), 43-53
• “Asceticism,” in New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon, 2006)
• “Afrocentric Interpretation,” in New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon, 2006)
• “Signifying on Scriptures: An African Diaspora Proposal for Radical Readings,” in Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future Perspectives, ed. Kathleen O. Wicker, et al. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005)
• “Asceticism,” in Westminster Handbook to Origen, ed. John McGuckin (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003)
• “In Search of a Usable Past: Reorienting Biblical Studies,” in Toward a New Heaven and New Earth: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, ed. Fernando Segovia (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2003), 179–98
• “Response,” in Reading the Bible in the Global Village, ed. Justin S. Ukpong, et al. (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 173ff
• “Introduction: Reading Darkness, Reading Scriptures,” in African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures ed. V. L. Wimbush, with the assistance of R. C. Rodman (New York: Continuum International, 2000, 2001)
• “Bible: African Americans,” in Dictionary of Third World Theologies, ed. Virginia Fabella and R. S. Sugirtharajah (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000)
• “The Hellenistic World in the First Century,” in Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed. Adrian Hastings, et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
• “Asceticism,” in Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed. Adrian Hastings, et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
• “Case, Adelaide Teague,” in American National Biography, ed. J. A. Garraty and M. C. Carnes, vol. 4 (Oxford University Press, 1999): 530–31
• “Interrupting the Spin: What Would Happen Were African Americans to Become the Starting Point for Biblical Studies,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 52, nos. 1–2 (1998): 61–76
• “Contemptus Mundi Means ‘…Bound for the Promised Land…’: Religion from the Site of Cultural Marronage,” in The Papers of the Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology, vol.2, ed. Jonathan Strom (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 131–61
• “Contemptus Mundi—Redux: The Politics of an Ancient Rhetorics and Worldview,” in Power, Powerlessness, and the Divine: New Inquiries in Bible and Theology, ed. Cynthia L. Rigby (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 263–80
• “Past as Present, Present as Past: Freedom to Read the Self and the World,” in Baptists in the Balance: The Tension Between Freedom and Responsibility, ed. Everett C. Goodwin (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1997)
• “Religious and Theological Studies as Religious Criticism: A Future for Biblical Studies” in Putting Body and Soul Together: Essays in Honor of Robin Scroggs, ed. Virginia Wiles, et al. (Trinity Press International, 1997), 294–310
• “The Bible and African Americans,” in HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (rev. ed.; San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1996)
• “‘Not of This World:’ Early Christianities as Rhetorical and Social Formation,” in Reimagining Christian Origins: A Colloquium Honoring Burton L. Mack, ed. E. Castelli and H. Taussig (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1996), 23–36
• “The Ecclesiastical Context of the New Testament,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 43–55
• “The Influence of the Bible in African American Culture,” in The Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, ed. J. Salzman et al. (Macmillan Library Reference USA; Macmillan, 1995)
• “Reading Texts as Reading Ourselves: A Chapter in the History of African American Biblical Interpretation,” in Reading From This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995), 95–108
• “Contemptus Mundi: The Power of an Ancient Rhetorics and Worldview,” in Union Seminary Quarterly Review 47:1–2 (1994): 1-13
• “Reading Texts Through Worlds, Worlds Through Texts,” Semeia 61 (1993): 129–40. Also in Black and Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk, ed. Jamie T. Phelps, O.P. (Marquette University Press, 1998), 59–73; and Biblical Studies Alternatively: An Introductory Reader, ed. Susanne Scholz (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003)
• “African American Traditions and the Bible,” Oxford Companion to the Bible, ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 12–15
• “The Ascetic Impulse in Early Christianity: Some Current Methodological Challenges,” Studia Patristica XXV: Papers Presented to the Eleventh International Conference on Patristic Studies Held at Oxford (Peeters Press: Louvain, 1993), 462–78
• “The Ascetic Impulse in Ancient Christianity: A Cultural Critical Investigation,” Theology Today 50, no. 3 (1993): 417–28
• “Foreword,” in Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora, by Walter F. Pitts, (New York: Oxford University, 1993), x–xvi
• “Ascetic Behavior and Color-ful Language: Stories About Ethiopian Moses,” Semeia 58 (Fall 1992): 81–91
• “Introduction,” The New Testament: Books That Changed the World (Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1992), vii–xiv
• “Influence of Feminist Scholarship on My Theological Work,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 7, no. 1 (1991): 125–26
• “African Americans and the Bible: Outline of An Interpretive History,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Hermeneutics, ed. Cain Felder (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1991), 81–97; also in Theological Interpretations of Scripture: Classic and Contemporary Readings, ed. Stephen E. Fowl (Blackwell Readings in Theology, 1997)
• “SOPHROSYNE: The Greco-Roman Origins of a Type of Ascetic Piety,” in Gnosticism and the Early Christian World: Volume Two of Essays on Antiquity and Christianity in Honor of James M. Robinson, Jack T. Sanders et al. (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1990), 89–102
• “Revelation,” in Harper’s Encyclopedia of Religious Education, ed. Iris V. Cully and Kendig Brubaker Cully (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), 558–60
• “Resurrection,” in Harper’s Encyclopedia of Religious Education, ed. Iris V. Cully and Kendig Brubaker Cully (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), 556–57
• “1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus,” in The Books of the Bible, ed. Bernhard W. Anderson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989)
• “Historical/Cultural Criticism as Liberation: A Proposal for an African American Biblical Hermeneutic,” Semeia 47 (1989): 43–55
• “Historical Study as Cultural Critique: A Proposal for the Role of Biblical Scholarship in Theological Education,” Theological Education vol. 25, no. 2 (1989): 30–4
• “Joining the Debate,” Roads Not Taken: Proceedings: Forum on Church and Land, vol. 2, ed. C. Dean Freudenberger and Carol Ann Seckel (Claremont, CA: School of Theology at Claremont, 1987)
• “Biblical-Historical Study as Liberation: Toward an Afro-Christian Hermeneutic,” Journal of Religious Thought 42, no. 2 (1986): 9–21; also in African American Religious Studies: Selected Documents, ed. Gayraud S. Wilmore (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989), 140–54
• “‘Rescue the Perishing’: The Importance of Biblical Scholarship in Black Christianity,” Reflection 80 (1983); also in Black Theology: A Documentary History, Volume Two: 1980–1992, ed. James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 210–15

Book Reviews

• Nancy Klein Maguire, An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the western World’s Most Austere Monastic Order (Public Affairs, 2007). In The Historian (70:4, Winter 2008)
• Randall C. Bailey, ed., Yet With A Steady Beat: Contemporary U.S. Afrocentric Biblical Interpretation (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003). In Review of Biblical Literature 6 (2004)
• Brian K. Blount, Then the Whisper Put on Flesh: New Testament Ethics in an African American Context (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001). In Interpretation 57, no. 1 (2003): 88–92
• Musa W. Dube, ed., Other Ways of Reading: African Women and the Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001). In Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 21, no. 3 (2003): 167–169
• Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999). In Journal of the American Academy of Religion 69, no. 4 (December 2001): 912–13
• Lee I. Levine, Judaism and Hellenism: Conflict or Confluence (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1998). In Interpretation 54, no. 3 (2000): 322–23
• Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999). In Theological Studies 61, no. 3 (2000): 548–49
• Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). In Journal of Religion (1999): 660–61
• Geoffrey Galt Harpham, The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992pb [first published in 1987]). In Method & Theory in the Study of Religion: Journal of the North American Association for the Study of Religion 8, no. 4 (1996): 385–88
• William R. Baker, Personal Speech-Ethics in the Epistle of James (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 68; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1995). In Theological Studies 57, no. 2 (1996): 343–44
• Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations in Black America (New York: Oxford University Press). In Theological Studies 56 (1995): 380–81
• Margaret M. Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation: An Exegetical Investigation of the Language and Composition of 1 Corinthians (Louisville KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991). In Journal of Religion 74 (October 1994): 558–560
• Itumeleng J. Mosala, Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1989). In Theology Today 47, no. 4 (1991): 4
• Frederick B. Craddock, Luke (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990). In Princeton Seminary Bulletin 13, no.2 (1992): 251–52
• Christopher Rowland, Radical Christianity (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988). In Theology Today 47, no. 2 (July 1990): 182–83
• Roland A.N. Kydd, Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church: An Exploration Into the Gifts of the Spirit During the First three Centuries of the Christian Church (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1984). In Second Century: A Journal of Early Christian Studies (1990)
• Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1987). In Theology Today, vol. 45, no. 4 (January 1989)
• Herbert Hirsch and Jack D. Spiro, eds., Persistent Prejudice: Perspectives on Anti-Semitism (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1988). In Religious Education, vol. 84 (Spring 1989): 298–99
• Gerhard A. Krodel, Acts (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986) and Robert C. Tannenhill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986). In Circuit Rider (1989): 14–15
• Cain H. Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class and Family (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989). In Theology Today 46, no. 3 (October 1989): 345–46, 348
• Norman R. Petersen, Rediscovering Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985). In Religious Studies Review 14 (1988): 121–124

Editorial Supervision (Book Series):
Semeia Studies Monograph Series (Scholars Press)

• Yehoshua Gitay, ed., Prophecy and Prophets (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997)
• E. Theodore Mullen, Jr., Ethnic Myths and Pentateuchal Traditions (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997)
• Roland Boer, Jameson and Jeroboam (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996)
• John G. Cook, The Structure and Persuasive Power of Mark: A Linguistic Approach (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995)

Signifying (on) Scriptures Book Series

• V. L. Wimbush, ed., Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon (Rutgers University Press, 2008)
• James Bielo, ed., The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism (Rutgers University Press, 2009)
• Velma E. Love, Divining the Self: A Study in Yoruba Myth and Human Consciousness (Penn State University Press, 2012)
• Jennifer Reid, Finding Klusap: A Journey into Mi’kmaw Myth (Penn State University Press, 2013)
• Leif E. Vaage, Borderline Exegesis (Penn State University Press, 2014)

• Discussant, Workshop, “Negotiating Cultural Capital,” University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology, 21-22 September 2013
• “Scripturalization as Violence,” Plenary Keynote Address, Philosophy and Religion Department/B. Frank Hall/Megivern Interfaith Conference (“God of Abraham: God of Peace? God of War?”), University of North Carolina, Wilmington, 11 April 2013
• “White Men’s Fetish: The Black Atlantic Reads King James,” paper, Society of Biblical
  Literature International Meeting,/Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, Kings College, London,
  England, July 6; Rhodes College, November 11; and SBL Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 2011
• “White Men’s Fetish,” paper, Society for Anthropology of Religion, Santa Fe NM, April 30, 2011
• “Making Do with the Fetish: Scriptures and Vernaculars II,” Paper, Iconic Book Project Symposium III, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY, October 2 2010
• “Ripping the Veil, Weaving Meanings: The Textures and Performativity of African Diaspora Religious Formation,” Lecture, California African American Museum, I Am America Project, Los Angeles CA, 28 February 2010
• Review Panel, Burton Mack’s Myth and the Christian Nation, Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 2009
• “Knowing Ex-Centrics/Ex-Centric Knowing,” Opening Lecture, National Conference, “Reading Scriptures, Reading America: Interruptions, Orientations, and Mimicry Among U.S. Communities of Color,” Institute for Signifying Scriptures, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA, October 15, 2009
• “African Americans, Sacred Texts, and the Quest for Social Power,” Lecture, Humanities Honors Program, California State University Dominquez Hills, CA, 21 April 2008
• “Making Scriptures, Making Worlds,” Keynote Lecture, Urban Ministries Conference, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh PA, 4 April 2008
• Panelist/Discussant, Symposium, “Retrieving Texts, Recasting Traditions: Scriptures, Ethiopian
  Christian Origins and ‘World’ Christianities,” Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School NY, 4 March 2008

“Reading Scriptures: A Comparative Critical Approach,” Claremont Mormon Studies Students Association, Claremont Graduate University, 11 February 2008

• “Making Do with the Fetish: Scripturalization and Vernaculars,” Keynote Speaker, Symposium on Iconic Texts, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY, 19 October 2007
• ‘“…no modern Joshua…’: Nationalization, Scripture, and Race,” Conference on Race, Ethnicity
  Gender and Early Christian Studies, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge MA, March 2007
• “Black Religion,” Keynote Speaker, “After the Storm: Art, Culture, and Politics after Katrina” Conference, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore MD, October 2006
• “Ripping the Veil, Weaving Meanings: The TEXTures, Performativity, and Therapeutics of African
  American Religion,” Plenary Address, Southeast Commission for the Study of Religion, Annual Meeting, Atlanta, March 2005
• “Ripping the Veil, Weaving Meaning: The Textures of African American Expressive Culture,” Claremont Colleges Discourse Lectures, Honnold Library, Claremont CA, 9 March 2005
• “Excavating Darkness: The Textures of African American Expressive Culture,” Michaelsen Endowed Visiting Scholar, Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, 30 November 2004
• “TEXTureS, Gestures, and Power: Orientation to Radical Excavation,” Plenary address, Annual Meeting, American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, San Antonio, TX, 20 November 2004
• “Study of Scriptures as Humanistic Challenge,” Lecture, Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, 14 September 2004
• “TEXTureS of African American Culture,” conference in Honor of P. Sterling Stuckey, History Department, University of California, Riverside, 22 May 2004
• Plenary address, Pacific Region, Society of Biblical Literature, Whittier College, Whittier, CA, March 2004
  Panelist, Special Session: “In Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza: Looking Back and Looking Forward,” Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Atlanta, 24 November 2003
• Reviewer, Philip Jenkins’s The Next Christendom, History of Christianity Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, 22 November 2003
• Panelist, “Exploring the Contours and Seam of Asian American Biblical Interpretation,” Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, November 2003
• “Signifying on Scriptures,” Keynote Address, Conference on Global Future of Feminist New Testament Studies, Scripps College, Claremont CA, 24-25 April, 2003
• Panelist, “Early Church History and New Testament Studies,” American Society of Church History Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 8 January 2003
• Lectures: “Not word, but worlds: a proposal for the study of the Bible in the 21st century”; “African Americans and the Bible: a history of a quest for social power,” Wheeler Lectures, Convocation, “The Bible, the Church, and the World: Reflections on a Spiritual Journey,” Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa OK, Jan 15-17, 2002
• “Not Word but Worlds: A Proposal for a Future for Biblical Studies,” Keynote address, Conference, University of Frankfurt am-Main, Germany, April 19–21, 2001
• “Ascetics of Social Formation,” paper read, conference on “Psyche, Soma and Spirit: A Question of Healing,” Rice University, 30 March 2001
• “African Americans and the Bible,” speaker, Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapel Convocation Luncheon, Morehouse College, 29 March 2001
• Presenter, “Study of Bible and Ethnography Project,” special session on new research projects, World Congress on Religion, Cape Town, South Africa, July 2000
• Lecturer, Black History Celebration, St. Meinrad Abbey and Seminary, St. Meinrad, IN, February 2000

Organizer/Presenter, special session on African Americans and the Bible, International Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, Helsinki/Lahti, Finland, 15–21 July 1999

• Lecturer, Philosophy and Religion Department, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA, 15 February 1999
• Lecturer, Philosophy and Religion Department, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, 10 February 1999
• Lecturer/Discussant, class on multi-cultural interpretation of the New Testament, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL, 21 May 1996
• “African Americans and the Bible: The History and Dynamics of an Interaction,” lecture in celebration of American religious history at DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, 19 March 1996
• “African American Religion,” lecture, Afro-American Studies 100, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 28 November 1995
• Panelist/Reviewer, Women in the Biblical World Section, “Rethinking The Woman’s Bible: The State of the Art,” review of The Woman’s Bible and Searching the Scriptures: A Feminist Commentary, vols. 1 and 2, Annual Meeting, American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, Philadelphia, PA 19 November 1995
• “Religious Criticism (II): A Challenge for Doctoral Programs in Religious and Theological Studies,” Paper, Doctoral Programs Consultation (Session 3), Auburn Theological Seminary New York, NY, 20-23 October 1995
• “The African Presence in Early Christianity,” Geddes Hanson Lecture, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ, 10 April 1995
• “Blacks and Blackness in Early Christian Discourse: The Stories about Ethiopian Moses,” lecture, Drew University Theological School, Madison, NJ, 6 April 1995
• “On Being Ambivalent about Ambivalence,” review essay of Wayne Meeks’s The Origins of Christian Morality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), Conference on New Testament Ethics, Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC, 31 March–2 April 1995
• “Biblical Studies as Cultural Criticism,” paper read, Conference on the Future of Biblical Studies, McGill University, Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 7 May 1993
• “Reading Worlds Through Texts, Texts Through Worlds,” paper read, Black Catholic Conference, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago IL, 11 March 1993
• “A History of African American Readings of the Bible,” Iliff Week of Lectures, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, CO, 25-28 January 1993
• “Reading Texts as Reading Ourselves: A Chapter in the History of African American Biblical Interpretation,” paper read, National Conference: “Reading From This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation, “Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, TN, 22–24 January 1993
• “‘Not of This World…’: Early Christianity as Rhetorical and Social Formation,” Public Lecture, “More on the Core,” Columbia College Contemporary Civilization and Literature-Humanities Lecture Series, 28 October 1992
• “Augustine,” presentation to leaders of Core Curriculum, Columbia University, New York, NY, 9 October 1992
• “The Study of Religion as Religious Criticism: A Future for Doctoral Programs in Theological and Religious Studies,” paper read, Conference on Theological Education, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York, NY, June 1992
• “The Ascetic Impulse in Ancient Christianity: A Cultural Critical Investigation,” Alexander Thompson Lecture, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ, 9 March 1992
• “The Ascetic Impulse in Early Christianity: The Methodological Implications of a Shift in Assumptions,” master theme, Eleventh International Conference on Patristic Studies, University of Oxford, England, 22 August 1991
• “The Bible and African Americans: A Proposal for an Interpretive History,” Fred O. Francis Lecture, Chapman College, Orange, CA, November 1990
• “The Study of Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: Gains and Prospects,” main paper, Special Session on Asceticism, International Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, 6 August 1990 (Response by Professor Susanne Heine, University of Vienna)
• Panelist/Reviewer, Cain Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters (1989), Annual Meeting, Society for the Study of Black Religion, Chicago, IL, March 1990
• “Early Christian Responses to the World: 1 Corinthians as Case Study,” Princeton Theological Seminary Continuing Education Course, Princeton, NJ, 6–8 December 1989
• Panelist/Reviewer, book forum in honor of L. William Countryman, Dirt, Greed & Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA, 8 May 1989
• “African American Religious History,” lecture, course on African American history, Scripps College, Claremont, CA, 27 April 1989
• “Uses of Scripture in Afro-American Religion,” lecture, Tenth Anniversary Lecture Series, Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA, 13 April 1989
• “APATHEIA: The Greco-Roman Origins of a Cultural Orientation,” paper read, Western Regional Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, Claremont, CA, March 1989
• “Historical Study as Cultural Critique: A Proposal for the Role of Biblical Scholarship in Theological Education,” paper read, Summer Colloquium on Commitment and Inquiry, Association of Theological Schools, Santa Barbara, CA, June 1988
• “The Bible and African Americans: An Interpretative History,” lecture, Religious Studies Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 10 May 1988
• “Paul and the Rise of Worldly Asceticism,” public lecture series, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, CA, 24 April 1988
• “Self-Restraint in the Exercise of Male Dominance: Isolating a Type of Ascetic Piety in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” paper read, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity Group, Annual Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, Boston, December 1987
• “‘The Bible Sez’: A History of African Americans,” paper read, Conference of African American Biblical Scholars, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN, July 1987
• “The Bible and the Response to the Creation,” lecture, Conference on the Church and the Land, Boise, ID, June 1987
• “Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas,” paper read, Conference on Hermeneutics (“Conversations”), Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ, May 12, 1987
• “Historical Study as Cultural Criticism: An Apologia for the Study of Asceticism,” opening plenary paper read at Asceticism Conference I, Monastery of Holy Spirit, Conyers, GA, 19-21 November 1986
• Discussant, Interfaith Trialogue (Jewish, Christian, Muslim devotees and scholars), led by philosopher of religion John Hick, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont CA, 1985–86
• “Responses to the World as Religious Self-Understanding: The Early Christians,” Palmer Lectureship, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, October 1985
• “Renunciation as Social Engineering: Delimiting a Model of Asceticism in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” paper read, International Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, Amsterdam, Holland, August 1985
• “MERIMNAN TA TOY KYRIOU: The Pauline Application of a Model of Asceticism in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” paper read, Western Regional Meeting, Society of Biblical Literature, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, March 1985
• “The Bible and Ethics,” paper read, Philosophy of Religion Conference, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA, January 1985
• “Against Denominationalism: The African American Religious Heritage,” lecture, Colby College, Waterville, ME, February 1985
• Respondent, “The History of ‘World’ as Grid for Hermeneutics,” Biblical Hermeneutics Session, Liberation Theology Working Group, Annual Meeting, American Academy of Religion, Dallas, TX, December 1983
• Respondent/Discussant, “Religions of the Oppressed Revisited,” Annual Meeting, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Religious Research Association, Knoxville, TN, November 1983

• Organizer/Convener, Institute for Signifying Scriptures’ Tenth Anniversary Forum, Claremont, CA, January 25, 2014
• Organizer/Convener, Scripturalizing the Human Collaborative Research Project (Meeting, Claremont, Fall, 2012)
• Creator/Founding Chair, Critical Comparative Scriptures Graduate Program, Claremont Graduate University, 2009
• Organizer/Convener, “Reading Scriptures, Reading America,” National Conference, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA, October 2009
• Director, Scriptural Ethnologies Collaborative Research Project, Institute for Signifying Scriptures, 2006—2009
• Organizer, Institute for Signifying Scriptures Distinguished Speaker Series, inaugural lecture, Wole Soyinka, 17 January 2007
• Organizer/Co-chair, Signifying on Scriptures Program Unit, American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, 2005–07
• Organizer/Convener, International Conference, “Theorizing Scriptures,” Inaugural Conference, Institute for Signifying Scriptures, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA, February 27–28, 2004
• Founding Director, Institute for Signifying Scriptures, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA, February 2004
• Organizer/Convener, International Conference, Africans Americans and the Bible: Social-Cultural Formation and Sacred Texts, Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 8–11 April 1999 (over 60 participants; 200 attendees)
• Organizer, Panel Discussion, “African Americans and the Bible: Announcing and Discussing Some Implications of an Interdisciplinary Research Project,” Annual Meeting, American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, 23 November 1997
• Founding Director, African Americans and the Bible Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Project, Union Theological Seminary, New York City, September 1996–2003
• Organizer/Convener, Society of Biblical Literature Racial and Ethnic Minority Undergraduate Recruitment Conference, Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 11–13 October 1996
• Co-convener, Conference on Asceticism and the New Testament, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, Canada, 3–6 October 1996
• Organizer/Co-chair, The Ascetic Impulse in Religious Life and Culture Group, Program Unit, American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature, 1993–1995
• Convener, “The Ascetic Dimension in Religious Life and Culture,” An International Conference held at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 25–29 April 1993 (58 participants; over 150 total conferees)
• Organizer, Asceticism Conference V, New Orleans, LA, November 1990
• Organizer, Asceticism Conference IV, Center for Spiritual Development, Orange, CA, 15–17 November 1989
• Organizer, Asceticism Conference III, The Fullerton Cenacle, Chicago, 16–18 November 1988
• Organizer, Asceticism Conference II, Convent of the Sisters of St. Margaret, Duxbury, MA, 2–5 December 1987
• Principal Organizer, Asceticism Conference I, Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, GA, for approximately twenty participants in connection with Research Project on Asceticism in Greco-Roman Antiquity, 19–21 November 1986
• Chair, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity Consultation/Group, Program Unit of the Society of Biblical Literature, 1986–1993
• Organizer/Moderator, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity Consultation, “Ascetic Behavior as Response to Greco-Roman World,” National Meeting, American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 25 November 1986
• Director, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity Research Project, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate School, 1985—1990
• Organizer/Professor, All–Claremont Colleges Humanities Seminar, Afro-American Religious History, Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies, Fall 1985

• Editorial Board, Journal of Africana Religions, 2011–
• Founding Editor, Signifying (on) Scriptures book series: in connection with Rutgers University Press, 2006–08;
• Penn State University Press, 2008–
• Editorial Board, Journal of Biblical Literature, 2001–2007
• Editor, Semeia Studies book series, January 1994–1996
• Member, Editorial Board, Biblical Interpretation Series, E.J. Brill Publishers, 1993–2012
• Associate Editor, Semeia Studies book series, 1990–1993
• Associate Editor, Semeia, 1989–1996