Plenty Good Room Student: A Bible Study Based on African-American Spirituals

by Lewis V. Baldwin

This unique short-term Bible study combines an in-depth look at Scripture, American history, and the musical melodies and rhythms of African American spirituals! The six-session study provides biblical, social, and historical analyses of the "Rock-a My Soul," "Go Down Moses," "Balm in Gilead," "Ain't Dat Good News?," "Every Time I Feel the Spirit," and "Plenty Good Room." Leaders use the teacher's guide for session format, discussion questions, and activities. An accompanying CD, included with the teacher's guide, features all six songs and makes listening and learning fun and interactive! Plenty Good Room is a powerful resource for small groups, Sunday schoools, choir groups, and any setting where persons seek to enrich their devotional and spiritual experience through God's Word and music.

48 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Dr. Baldwin is a native of Camden, Alabama. He received his early education in the public schools of Wilcox County, the heart of the so-called Alabama Blackbelt, where he participated in student demonstrations and other civil rights activities in the 1960s. He graduated from Camden Academy High School in 1967.

During the height of the civil rights and black power movement, Dr. Baldwin matriculated at Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama. He received a B.A. degree in History from that institution in 1971. He then studied at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminaries in Rochester, New York, where he was awarded the M.A. degree in Black Church Studies in 1973 and the M.Div. degree in Theology in 1975. In 1980, he received the Ph.D. degree in American Christianity from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

An ordained Baptist minister who has preached throughout the United States, Dr. Baldwin has also established himself as a professor and scholar with a growing reputation. He has taught at Wooster College in Ohio, Colgate University in New York, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in New York, Fisk University, and American Baptist College in Nashville, and is now a Professor in Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.