The Black Church Studies Certificate Program (BCSCP) at Yale Divinity School (YDS) offers a Certificate in Black Church Studies for students who wish to respond to the evolving work of the Black Church and to the critical needs of marginalized communities. The program is open to students interested in serving in historically Black congregations, and /or who are inspired by the rich and ecumenically diverse traditions of the Black Church.
The BCSCP at YDS supports the inquiry of, and engagement with, practices of African American churches and other Christian communities throughout the African Diaspora. To cultivate such inquiry the BCS Certificate Program offers opportunities for dialogue with emerging and existing leaders in the Black church and in the broader community.
Through course work, colloquia, special lectures and other culturally relevant events, the BCSCP creates the opportunity for innovative and interdisciplinary thinking, and space for dialogue that supports the development of a student’s unique voice and perspective on Black religious life.
BCSCP Requirements
- Course work of at least twelve (12) credit hours of African American religious inquiry. One course must examine some aspect of African American history.
- Participation in one (1) colloquium per semester
- Participation in either the annual YDS/ New Haven Pilgrimage or the Biennial BCSCP Retreat.
- Complete one (1) supervised ministry in a BCSCP approved site.
- Participate in a regular meeting designed specifically for BCSCP participants.
- MDiv students are required to confirm with the BCSCP director their intention to receive the BCS certificate at the beginning of their second year of study, no later than the last day to change a course grade for that semester.
- MAR students are required to confirm with the BCSCP director their intention to receive the BCS certificate at the beginning of the spring semester of their first year of study, no later than the last day to change a course grade for that semester.
- STM students are required to confirm with the BCSCP director their intention to receive the BCS certificate at the beginning of their course of study, no later than the last day to change a course grade for that semester. STM students are also required to offer a presentation tied to their research project in relation to Black Church Studies, at the end of their course of study.
BCSCP Spring 2026 Courses
Spring 2026 course work that meets the requirements for the Black Church Studies Certificate Program are listed below:
- REL 3900B Transformational Leadership: Nonviolence Core Concepts
- REL 517 “Race” and the New Testament
- REL 603 Love, Prophecy and Social Criticism
- REL 615 Introduction to Christian Ethics
- REL 626 Systematic Theology
- REL 640 Body and Land
- REL 656 James Cone*
- REL 7101 Black Church Burning*
- REL 736 Black Gods of the Metropolis: Black Religion During the Great Migration*
- REL 803 Introduction to Religious Education
- REL 808 Black Religion and Radical Education
- REL 810 My Neighbor’s Faith: Building Interreligious Community
- REL 851 Practical Theology and the Carceral Continuum
- REL 876 Psychopathology and Pastoral Care
- REL 9100 The Gospel Imagination: Tradition and Revolution *
- REL 9205 African Urban Music: An Introduction to Transnational Themes
- REL 942 Islam at the Intersections: Readings in Liberation, Race, Gender and Sexuality
- REL 943 Gospel, Rap, and Social Justice : Prison and the Arts
- REL 988 Virtue, Vice and Epistemic Injustice
Courses marked * satisfy the BCSCP History requirement