Willie James Jennings

Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at the Yale Divinity School. A Calvin College graduate, he holds an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in religion and ethics from Duke. Rev. Dr. Jennings is widely recognized as a major figure in theological education across North America. Writing in the areas of liberation theologies, cultural identities, and anthropology, he has authored more than 40 scholarly essays and nearly two-dozen reviews, as well as essays on academic administration and blog posts for Religion Dispatches. He is the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Eerdmans, 2020), which examines the problems of theological education within western education. His book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale, 2010) won the American Academy of Religion Award of Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Constructive-Reflective category and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the largest prize for a theological work in North America. Englewood Review of Books called the work a “theological masterpiece.” His commentary on the Book of Acts, titled Acts: A Commentary, The Revolution of the Intimate (for the Belief Series, Westminster/John Knox), received the Reference Book of the Year Award from The Academy of Parish Clergy in 2018. He is now working on a major monograph provisionally entitled Unfolding the World: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation, as well as a finishing a book of poetry, entitled The Time of Possession. Rev. Dr. Jennings is an ordained Baptist minister and has served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches.