The Prophetic Lens-Chronicling Black History

Resiliency Within welcomes back Dr. Phillip Allen.  Dr. Allen is a theologian and ethicist whose research and writings include the intersections of social structure, race, culture, and theology and ethics of justice.

He has authored two books: Open Wounds: A Story of Racial Tragedy, Trauma, and Redemption and The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency From MLK to Darnella Frazier. He is an affiliate assistant professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he completed his PhD in Theology. He is also a poet and documentary filmmaker.

Dr. Allen founded the nonprofit Racial Solidarity Project based in Pasadena, CA. As a former Division 1 college basketball player at North Carolina A&T State University, he has enjoyed opportunities as a guest chaplain for college and pro sports teams.  

Dr. Allen will talk about the nonprofit he started, the Racial Solidarity Project and his book, the Prophetic Lens. The Prophetic Lens takes an important look at the use of the video camera as an indispensable prophetic tool for the security of Black lives and greater possibility for racial justice.

He will share how the camera can be a catalyst for cultural change, using Walter Brueggemann's Prophetic Imagination as a framework for understanding the concept of "prophetic." Chronicling the use of the camera, particularly in film from J.D. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, Allen's historical approach reveals how effective this technology has been in achieving the goals of its respective storytellers.

Dr. Allen’s work is an example of the importance of chronicling the richness of black history.