Making Black History Now - Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes

In honor of Black History Month, I'm sharing some of my favorite people who have accomplished amazing things during this time that many people might not be aware of. I'm thrilled to share what little I know about the great Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes today. Please check out Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes' works. 

Born in Durham, North Carolina, on August 1, 1955, Emilie Maureen Townes is a kind and inspirational American Christian theologian and social ethicist. She was Dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Leona B. Carpenter and E. Rhodes Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society. As the first African American woman elected president of the American Academy of Religion, Townes made history in 2008. As president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012 to 2016 and the Society of Christian Ethics from 2024 to 2025, she demonstrated her continued leadership. 

She is the former Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale University Divinity School. At Yale Divinity School, she was the first woman and the first African American to hold the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. She was previously a professor of social ethics at Saint Paul School of Theology and a Carolyn Williams Beaird Professor of Christian ethics at Union Theological Seminary.

Please support Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes by picking up her books. 

• Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2006).
• Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Care and a Womanist Ethic of Care (Continuum, 1998).
• Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation. (Orbis Books, 1997).
• In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness (Abingdon Press, 1995).
• Womanist Justice, Womanist Hope (Scholars Press, 1993).

Other Co-edited books

• With Katie Geneva Cannon and Angela D. Simms: Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)
• With Stephanie Y. Mitchem: Religion, Health, and Healing in African American Life (Praeger, 2008)