BIOGRAPHY
"He is both a scholar of world renown as well as a preacher whose voice resonates with both the timbres of a long and sublime African American tradition...In other words, he excels both as a person of thought and a person of faith,”
-Henry Louis Gates, Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor, Harvard University
Jonathan Lee Walton is a social ethicist whose scholarship focuses on evangelical Christianity and its relationship to mass media and political culture. His first book, Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism (NYU Press, 2009), examines the theological and political traditions of African American religious broadcasters.
His second book, A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), blends his work from the pulpit and classroom. A Lens of Love explores the Bible from the perspective of the most vulnerable and violated characters toward developing a Christian social ethic of radical inclusion and human affirmation.
Dr. Walton's work and insights have been featured in national and international news outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, and the BBC. He has also served as a content advisor on several PBS documentaries, including the four-part series The Black Church, (2021), Billy Graham on American Experience (2021), and GOSPEL (2024).