Psychologist,
Teacher, Scholar, Singer and Workshop Leader.

Author of Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals

Now retired from full-time teaching, Dr. Jones remains passionately commited to presenting lectures and workshops that illuminate the enduring psychological, spiritual and social justice power of the sacred songs created by enslaved Africans in North America. His current work builds on decades of immersion in the melodies, rhythms and poetry of these iconic songs, through research, writing, teaching, singing, lectures and workshops, and the founding and development of the award-winning Spirituals Project.

Dr. Jones received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) in 1974, where his graduate study was funded by prestigious fellowships from the Danforth and Woodrow Wilson foundations. He also served honorably for three years (1969-1972) as a commissioned officer on active duty in the United States Naval Reserve before returning to Iowa to complete his doctoral studies.

He is currently Professor Emeritus of Music, Culture and Psychology in the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver (DU). During more than three decades at DU, he has served in a variety of teaching and administrative roles, including Associate Dean and Clinical Professor at the university’s Women’s College, Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology, President of the DU Faculty Senate, and Interim Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Prior to coming to DU in 1991, Dr. Jones held full-time faculty positions in psychology at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

He maintained an independent psychology practice in Denver during the 1980s and early 90s. And in the mid1990s, he also served as a core faculty mentor in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program of the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati.

Dr. Jones is a past chair of the Colorado Board of Psychologist Examiners, which awards licenses to psychologists and monitors professional conduct among psychologists state-wide. During his tenure as chair, he coordinated a successful initiative to include the demonstration of multicultural competence as a required part of the licensing process for all Colorado psychologists.

The recipient of numerous awards for his teaching, scholarship and community work, Dr. Jones was an early pioneer in the fields of African American and multicultural psychology, which laid the foundation for his subsequent work on African American Spirituals, beginning in the early 1990s, when he also found himself reviving his childhood love of singing, and entering into 14 years of private vocal study. He has presented lecture-concert and workshop programs throughout the U.S. The first edition of his groundbreaking book, Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals, was published by Orbis Books in 1993, and he founded The Spirituals Project in 1998.

Dr. Jones has experienced his now decades-long immersion in the the music and teachings of the Spirituals tradition as a personal and professional calling.

“I have been inspired by the power of the music and teaching passed on to us through song by my enslaved ancestors, and particularly the lessons these songs offer for building an inclusive, compassionate world. Long before our twentieth and twenty-first century focus on the idea of a ‘beloved community,’ women and men in bondage passed on to us a clear blueprint for the building of such a community!”

— Dr. Arthur C. Jones

Dr. Jones is the author of numerous professional publications, including the award-winning book, Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals, now available in a 30th anniversary revised edition.

Spirituals emerged from the crucible of slavery. They inspired enslaved African Americans to risk their lives for the chance to be free. Wade in the Water celebrates these Spirituals as an art form and as unique and powerful cultural expression. For those with little knowledge of the tradition, it provides a wealth of information. For those who know and love the Spirituals, it offers a fresh perspective and an invitation to deeper understanding, spiritual transformation, and social renewal.

Drawing on his expertise and experience as a psychologist, scholar and singer, Dr. Jones has presented concerts, lectures, and workshops on Spirituals throughout the United States.

He also has been the recipient of a variety of professional and community service awards, including a Distinguished Career Award from the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM, Inc.), a Menola Upshaw Humanitarian Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission; and a Negro Spirituals Heritage Keepers Award from the Friends of Negro Spirituals (Oakland, California).

The Spirituals Project

Dr. Jones is the Founder of the award-winning Spirituals Project, which has worked since 1998 to preserve and revitalize the music and teachings of the sacred folk songs called “Spirituals,” created and first sung by enslaved African Americans. The Spirituals Project has operated in several domains, including research, educational programming, and musical performance, anchored by its multi-ethnic, inter-generational Spirituals Project Choir. 

In the Fall of 2016, The Spirituals Project became an official program of the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, under the able direction of M. Roger Holland II – a nationally renowned conductor, composer, pianist, and singer – who was  recruited to serve as the Spirituals Project’s first faculty director. In his role as Spirituals Project Founder and Chair Emeritus, Dr. Jones currently serves as an informal advisor to Professor Holland and The Spirituals Project, and he participates actively with The Spirituals Project Choir as a chorister, soloist and communal song leader.

Singing, researching and teaching about the Spirituals has evolved into a calling of sorts – a life mission.

In recent years, Dr. Jones has been exploring the contemplative foundations of early Christianity and their meanings for effective social action. He has encountered multiple parallels to the teachings embedded in the African American Spirituals tradition. In current lectures and workshop programs, he is including an increased focus on the contemplative dimensions of the Spirituals and their helpful applications to our intensely fractured twenty-first century cultural landscape.