Adjunct Professor Thomas B. Slater, Professor of New Testament Studies Emeritus at McAfee School of Theology and Adjunct Professor in the Institute for African American Studies, is the third son of the late Thomas J. and Thelma B. Slater of Magnolia, AR. He was baptized in King’s Hill AME Church at the age of eight, where his two paternal great-grandfathers were among the 12 founders. He went on to study at Arkansas Tech University where he graduated with a degree in journalism with Honors. He received his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees, respectively, from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and the PhD in Biblical Studies from King’s College, the University of London. Dr. Slater has received a dozen grants and/or awards in the US and also the United Kingdom, including the Selecman Award in New Testament Greek at Perkins, an Overseas Research Scheme Award in the United Kingdom, a Research Grant from the Society of Biblical Literature and a Visiting Fellowship from Cambridge University. Moreover, Dr. Slater has published five books: Christ and Community, a study of Revelation’s Christology; Ephesians, a commentary in the Smyth & Helwys series; Revelation as Civil Disobedience and two books in his Afrocentric Interpretation series with Mellen Press. He has published over 40 articles in such prestigious venues as the Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Biblica, Review & Expositor, Perspectives in Religion, the New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible and the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology. He has professional memberships in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association and Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, an elite international organization of New Testament scholars. Dr. Slater is also an itinerant elder in Full Connection in the Georgia North Region of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and currently pastors St. Paul CME Church in Athens, GA. He and his wife Pat reside in Snellville, GA. They have four daughters, three god-daughters, four “UGA” daughters, two “McAfee” daughters, eleven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren at last count.
