Black Seminary and Experience

Yung Suk Kim

Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity

Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology

Virginia Union University

I am an Asian American scholar with Korean heritage—a Diaspora living in America as a citizen. With my hybrid identity, I enjoy teaching in a predominantly African-American school in the South—Richmond, once the capital of the Confederacy and the current capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

As a minority scholar within the minority culture, I often hear the importance of the black seminary and the black experience and ask the following questions: Is the black experience shareable with other cultures and people? Does blackness come from a collective or personal experience? Is it a human condition or a unique hermeneutical lens? African American seminary has an unparalleled role for “black” people and churches. The black seminary provides care to students in a more sustainable culture and community. It can be a safe place for their identity formation or reformation, deeply rooted in African-American heritage, culture, and experience. By being authentic to African American spirit and experience, a black seminary can foster critical spirituality and solidarity with others.

But critical questions remain to be answered down the road. In my view, the biggest challenge would be how the HBCUs set their position in changing contexts. How much can they adapt to fast-moving trends and conditions while keeping their traditions? What model of transformation or success can they establish?