Dr. Obery Hendricks is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar in America today. He has been a Wall Street investment executive, a theological seminary president, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative think tank, and served in the U. S. Department of State Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Currently, he teaches Religion and African American and African Diasporic Studies at Columbia University, is an advisory board member at the Institute of Christian Socialism, and a PRRI board member. He is also an ordained elder in the AME Church, an Elder Scholar-in-Residence at the Children’s Defense Fund, and an advisor to the Abolition Sanctuary social justice organization. Among his books is the best-selling The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted (Doubleday: 2006), which was named one of the “best Faith and Justice books of the 21st century” by Sojourners Magazine. His most recent book is the critically acclaimed Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith (Beacon: 2021). Dr. Hendricks writes on Substack, at “The New Politics of Jesus.”
