Dr. Jimmy Kirby Installed as Professor

On February 7, 2002 the Lexington Theological Seminary community celebrated the formal installation of Dr. Jimmy L. Kirby as Professor of Church and Society. Dr. Kirby joined the faculty in 1994 and was approved as a tenured member of the faculty in 2001. Dr. Kirby is the first African American to hold the title of full professor at the Seminary since its founding in 1865.

Dr. Harold R. Watkins, Interim President, presided over the service of installation, and Dr. Philip N. Dare, Dean, read the charge to the professor.  Following his installation, Kirby gave a presentation entitled, "The Social Vision of Reverend C. Ransom: A Message for the Christian Community Today."  Kirby performed the research for the presentation during a recent sabbatical in which he studied the life of Reverend C. Ransom, a Christian social activist minister who lived from 1861-1959. Rev. Ransom, one of the founders of the NAACP, was called to minister to the disenfranchised poor blacks in America. A great orator and fearless defender of the poor, women, children, and elderly, Rev. Ranson had remarkable ministries in urban areas like Southeast Chicago and in the poorest sections of New York.

In conclusion, Dr. Kirby called for today's Christian community to follow the example of Reverend C. Ransom and accept the challenge of the Gospels to reach out to those in need in America and around the world.

Dean Philip N. Dare described Dr. Kirby as an excellent scholar, author, educator, and social injustice activist. "Dr. Kirby takes our students out of their comfort zones and into hard places where people face discrimination, are imprisoned, are homeless and hungry. He is a highly respected and valuable member of our faculty."

Dr. Kirby is a native of Tennessee and was reared in Kentucky and Indiana, where he became active in McClendon Tabernacle Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. He is a 1984 graduate of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.  Professor Kirby's active role in the church continued to grow. He became director of Christian education at McClendon Tabernacle C.M.E. Church and later entered Christian Theological Seminary. He earned a Master of Arts degree from CTS in 1988, and combined a major in Christian education with a strong focus in social ethics.

Professor Kirby completed a Doctorate in Theology at Boston University in 1997, where his curriculum continued his emphasis on Christian Education and Social Ethics. His dissertation was on the philosophy of the religious educator George Albert Coe and its implications for education with a social vision in the C.M.E. church.

He and his wife, Marion, are members of Phillips Memorial C.M.E. Church. They are the parents of three grown children, and six grandchildren.

Submitted by Marion Kirby