Dr. Brad R. Braxton is Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee.  Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, he taught at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dr. Braxton holds a B.A. in religious studies from the University of Virginia, a Master of Philosophy in New Testament studies from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. in New Testament studies from Emory University.  His research interests include Pauline interpretation, hermeneutics, and the history and theories of Christian preaching.  

He is the author of three books: Preaching Paul (Abingdon Press, 2004); No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience (The Liturgical Press, 2002); and The Tyranny of Resolution: I Corinthians 7:17-24 (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).  He also has published numerous essays and sermons.

He is a member of a team of scholars who have created The African American Lectionary, the first, on-line, ecumenical preaching lectionary for use by African American congregations.  The African American Pulpit journal is sponsoring the project, and Dr. Braxton serves on the journal’s Advisory Board.  He also is co-authoring a three-volume preaching commentary entitled The New Interpreter’s Commentary on the Lectionary.  Abingdon Press is scheduled to publish the first of these three volumes in 2009.

Dr. Braxton, an ordained Baptist minister, served for five years as the Senior Pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church, a 600-member interdenominational congregation in Baltimore, Maryland.  In addition to his teaching and writing, he is a frequent guest preacher and lecturer in national and international settings.  Dr. Braxton recently lectured in Ghana and preached at Westminster Abbey in London as part of the bicentennial commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

He is married to the former Lazetta Rainey.  Dr. and Mrs. Braxton are the proud parents of Karis, their two-year old daughter.