There he focuses his research on the intersection of religion, race, and colonialism. He also has a particular interest in exploring humanity in the age of intelligent machines. Johnson is co-editor of the Journal of Africana Religions. His African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom was published by Cambridge University Press, and his Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity garnered the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book Award. He is now co-editing a volume on religion and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He holds a doctorate in contemporary religious thought from the Union Theological Seminary.