Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) is a private ecumenical Christian liberal seminary in Morningside Heights,Manhattan,affiliated with neighboring Columbia University. Since 1928,the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964,UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Womanism is a social theory based on the history and everyday experiences of black women. It seeks,according to womanist scholar Layli Maparyan (Phillips),to "restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcil[e] human life with the spiritual dimension". Writer Alice Walker coined the term "womanist" in a short story,Coming Apart,in 1979. Since Walker's initial use,the term has evolved to envelop a spectrum of varied perspectives on the issues facing black women.
Founded in 1855,the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is the oldest higher education institution in the City of Chicago and was established with two principal goals:first,to educate pastors who would minister to people living on the new western frontier of the United States and second,to train ministers who would advance the movement to abolish slavery. Originally started under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet and the Congregational Church by charter of the Illinois legislature,CTS has retained its forward-looking activist outlook throughout its history,graduating alumni who include civil rights activists Jesse Jackson Sr. and Howard Schomer,social reformer Graham Taylor,and anti-Apartheid activist John W. de Gruchy. It is one of six seminaries affiliated with the United Church of Christ and follows an ecumenical tradition that stresses cooperation between different Christian denominations as well as interfaith understanding.
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. Yet,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 theologian,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. Cone's work was influential from the time of the book's publication,and his work remains influential today. His work has been both used and critiqued inside and outside the African-American theological community. He was the Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Columbia University-affiliated Union Theological Seminary until his death.
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary (Garrett) is a private seminary and graduate school of theology related to the United Methodist Church and ecumenical in spirit. It is located in Evanston,Illinois,on the campus of Northwestern University. The seminary offers masters and doctoral-level degrees,as well as certificate,micro-credentialing,and lifelong learning programs. It has thousands of alumni serving in ministry,education,organizational leadership,and public service throughout the world.
Queer theology is a theological method that has developed out of the philosophical approach of queer theory,built upon scholars such as Marcella Althaus-Reid,Michel Foucault,Gayle Rubin,Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick,and Judith Butler. Queer theology begins with the assumption that gender variance and queer desire have always been present in human history,including faith traditions and their sacred texts such as the Jewish Scriptures and the Bible. It was at one time separated into two separate theologies;gay theology and lesbian theology. Later,the two would merge and expand to become the more inclusive term of queer theology.
Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped establish these areas of theology as distinct fields of study;she is recognized as one of the first scholars to bring women's perspectives on Christian theology into mainstream academic discourse. She was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s,and her own work was influenced by liberation and black theologies. She taught at Howard University for ten years,and later at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Over the course of her career,she wrote on a wide range of topics,including antisemitism,the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,the intersection of feminism and Christianity,and the climate crisis.
Theodore Wesley Jennings Jr.,also known as Ted Jennings,was an American theologian and Methodist minister. He was Professor of Biblical and Constructive Theology at the United Church of Christ's Chicago Theological Seminary,where he had previously served as Acting Academic Dean. Jennings gained a notoriety for his work on ritual studies,the Messianic politics of Pauline discourse,and theological engagement with the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jacques Derrida.
Lynda Serene Jones is the President and Johnston Family Professor for Religion and Democracy at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. She was formerly the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and chair of gender,woman,and sexuality studies at Yale University.
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).
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 a Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware. She is Faculty Co-Director Emerita for the Center for Process Studies. Her research interests are in 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.
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 is currently Dean and 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 and served as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012–2016.
Kelly Delaine Brown Douglas is an African-American Episcopal priest,womanist theologian,and the inaugural Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and is slated to be the interim president of Episcopal Divinity School upon its departure from Union in 2023. She is also the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral. She has written six books,including The Black Christ (1994),Black Bodies and Black Church:A Blues Slant (2012) and 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.
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.
Debra Mubashshir Majeed was an American religious historian,activist and womanist.
