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Womanism is a term originating from the work of African American author Alice Walker in her 1983 book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens,denoting a movement within feminism,primarily championed by Black feminists. Walker coined the term "womanist" in the short story Coming Apart in 1979. Her initial use of the term evolved to envelop a spectrum of issues and perspectives facing black women and others.
Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women,particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s,and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse,Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives,or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly,womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology,written predominantly by male theologians,failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women. Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition. Rather,these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist,antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.
James Hal Cone was an American Methodist minister and theologian. He is best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church. His message was that Black Power,defined as black people asserting the humanity that white supremacy denied,was the gospel in America. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed,advocating the same thing as Black Power. He argued that white American churches preached a gospel based on white supremacy,antithetical to the gospel of Jesus.
Katie Geneva Cannon was an American Christian theologian and ethicist associated with womanist theology and black theology. In 1974 she became the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).
Prathia Laura Ann Hall Wynn was an American leader and activist in the Civil Rights Movement,a womanist theologian,and ethicist. She was the key inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas is an American author and educator. She is associate professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,Tennessee. Floyd-Thomas is a Womanist Christian social ethicist whose research interests include Womanist thought,Black Church Studies,liberation theology and ethics,critical race theory,critical pedagogy and postcolonial studies.
Monica A. Coleman is a contemporary theologian associated with process theology and womanist theology. She is currently Professor of Africana Studies and the John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence at the University of Delaware,as well as the Faculty Co-Director Emerita for the Center for Process Studies. Her research interests include Whiteheadian metaphysics,constructive theology,philosophical theology,metaphorical theology,black and womanist theologies,African American religions,African traditional religions,theology and sexual and domestic violence,and mental health and theology. Coleman is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Jacquelyn Grant is an American theologian,a Methodist minister. Alongside Katie Cannon,Delores S. Williams,and Kelly Brown Douglas,Grant is considered one of the four founders of womanist theology. Womanist theology addresses theology from the viewpoint of Black women,reflecting on both their perspectives and experience in regards to faith and moral standards. Grant is currently the Callaway Professor of Systematic Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
Marcia Y. Riggs is an American author,the J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics,and the Director of ThM Program at Columbia Theological Seminary,a womanist theologian,and a recognized authority on the black woman’s club movement of the nineteenth century. She was one of six Luce Scholars named by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and The Henry Luce Foundation,Inc. as Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2017-2018.
Delores Seneva Williams was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor notable for her formative role in the development of womanist theology and best known for her book Sisters in the Wilderness:The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Her writings use black women's experiences as epistemological sources,and she is known for her womanist critique of atonement theories. As opposed to feminist theology,predominantly practiced by white women,and black theology,predominantly practiced by black men,Williams argued that black women's experiences generate critical theological insights and questions.
Emilie Maureen Townes is an American Christian social ethicist and theologian. She was Dean,E. Rhodes,and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Townes was the first African-American woman to be elected president of the American Academy of Religion in 2008. She also served as the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012–2016.
Renita J. Weems is an American Protestant biblical scholar,theologian,author and ordained minister. She is the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Old Testament studies in the United States. She is the Dean of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta,Georgia. She was influenced by the movement in the last half of the 20th century which argues that context matters and shapes our scholarship and understanding of truth. She is best known for her contribution to womanist theology,feminist studies in religion and black religious thought. She is recognized as one of the first scholars to bring black women's ways of reading and interpreting the Bible into mainstream academic discourse. In 1989 she received a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from Princeton Theological Seminary making her the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the field. Her work in womanist biblical interpretation is frequently cited in feminist theology and womanist theology.
Mary Shawn Copeland,known professionally as M. Shawn Copeland,is a retired American womanist and Black Catholic theologian,and a former religious sister. She is professor emerita of systematic theology at Boston College and is known for her work in theological anthropology,political theology,and African American Catholicism.
The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is an African-American Episcopal priest,womanist theologian,and interim president of Episcopal Divinity School. She was previously the inaugural Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. She became interim president when EDS departed from Union in 2023. She is also the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral. She has written seven books,including The Black Christ (1994),Black Bodies and Black Church:A Blues Slant (2012),Stand Your Ground:Black Bodies and the Justice of God (2015),and Resurrection Hope:A Future Where Black Lives Matter (2021). Her book Sexuality in the Black Church:A Womanist Perspective (1999) was groundbreaking for openly addressing homophobia within the Black Church.
Mitzi J. Smith is an American biblical scholar who is J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in New Testament from Harvard. She has written extensively in the field of womanist biblical hermeneutics,particularly on the intersection between race,gender,class,and biblical studies. She considers her work a form of social justice activism that brings attention to unequal treatment of marginalized groups.
Nyasha Junior is an American biblical scholar. Her research focuses on the connections between religion,race,and gender within the Hebrew Bible. She holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. She was associate professor at Temple University before moving to the University of Toronto in the department for the Study of Religion. She was a visiting associate professor and research associate at Harvard Divinity School for the 2020–21 academic year.
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is an African-American womanist theologian,professor,author,poet,and an elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. She is Professor-Emerita of Religion and Women's Studies and Director of Women's Studies at Shaw University Divinity School. She is the author or editor of numerous books,including the volume Women and Christianity in a series on Women and Religion in the World,published by Praeger.
Diana L. Hayes is an African-American Catholic theologian specializing in womanism and Black theology. The first African-American woman to earn a pontifical doctorate in theology,she is professor emerita of systematic theology at Georgetown University.
Cheryl J. Sanders is an African-American professor and scholar of Christian Ethics. Her work on womanist ethics has been influential in the development of the field. She teaches Christian Ethics at Howard University School of Divinity. Her books include Ministry at the Margins,Saints in Exile:The Holiness Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion,and Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People:A Path to African American Social Transformation.
Karen Baker-Fletcher is an American theologian and professor notable for her womanist scholarship,particularly on the crucifixion and resurrection. She is currently Professor of Systematic Theology at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology in Dallas,Texas.
References
- 1 2 3 "Gilkes, Cheryl Townsend 1947- | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
- ↑ "Cheryl Townsend Gilkes". wsrp.hds.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
- ↑ "REV. DR. CHERYL TOWNSEND GILKES #BlackChurchHERSTORY". .base - Black Theology Project. 2017-03-26. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
- ↑ "The Souls of Black Folk (Mass Market) | Politics and Prose Bookstore". www.politics-prose.com. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
- ↑ Gilkes, Cheryl (2001). If it Wasn't for the Women--: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community. Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-57075-343-5.
