Spirit Guide: How the Arson of a Black Church in Knoxville Has Affected More Than the Church Community
In June of 2015, a fire soon ruled as arson burned part of the College Hill Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Knoxville, one of several Black churches in the South that experienced arson that summer. Dr. Todne Thomas, a socio-cultural anthropologist and Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School, is studying what has happened in the church community and the city since the College Hill arson and she spoke about that work with WUOT’s Chrissy Keuper. Listen to the interview here.
Dr. Thomas is the speaker for the 2023 Distinguished Lecture for the University of Tennessee’s Department of Religious Studies. The lecture, “A Black Church Burned: Sanctuary, Loss, and Place-Making in Knoxville,” will be held Thursday February 16th at 5:30pm ET in the Lindsay Young Auditorium at Hodges Library (Room 101) on the UT campus and/or via live webcast.
More information is here.