Kelly Brown Douglas

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Kelly Brown Douglas is a 1-Time AALBC.com Bestselling Author

The Very Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas was named Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology at Union in September 2017. She was named the Bill and Judith Moyers Chair in Theology in November 2019. She also serves as the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral and Theologian in Residence at Trinity Church Wall Street.

Dean Douglas’ academic work has focused on womanist theology, Black theology, sexuality and the Black church, and racial and social justice. Prior to EDS at Union, she served as Professor of Religion at Goucher College where she held the Susan D. Morgan Professorship of Religion and is now Professor Emeritus. Before Goucher, she was Associate Professor of Theology at Howard University School of Divinity (1987-2001) and Assistant Professor of Religion at Edward Waters College (1986-1987).

Dean Douglas is widely published in national and international journals and other publications. Her most recent book, Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter, was published in November 2021 (Orbis Books). Her groundbreaking and widely taught book Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective (1999) was the first to address the issue of homophobia within the Black church community. Her Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (2015) examines the challenges of a “Stand Your Ground” culture for the Black church.

Dean Douglas’ other books include The Black Christ (1994, 25th Anniversary edition 2019), What’s Faith Got to Do with It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls (2005), and Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant (2012), which seeks to move the Black church beyond its oppressive views toward LGBTQ bodies and sexuality.

In addition to preaching in pulpits and speaking at universities and other institutions around the globe, Dean Douglas is a frequent and vocal presence in today’s print, broadcast, and digital public square, speaking on racial and social justice, among other matters.

Dean Douglas is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Denison University where she earned a Bachelor of Science Summa Cum Laude in psychology. She went on to earn a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union Theological Seminary under James Cone, Ph.D., the premier Black theologian. While at Union, she received The Hudnut Award for demonstrated preaching excellence and the Julius Hanson Award as the outstanding theological student.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Dean Douglas was ordained at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in 1983 — the first Black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest in the Southern Ohio Diocese, and one of only five nationwide at the time. She also was the first to receive the Anna Julia Cooper Award by the Union of Black Episcopalians (July 2012) for “her literary boldness and leadership in the development of a womanist theology and discussing the complexities of Christian faith in African-American contexts.”

Dean Douglas was an Associate Priest at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. for over 20 years.

She serves on the Public Religion Research Institute’s (PRRI) Board of Directors and is a member of Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program, the American Academy of Religion, the Union of Black Episcopalians, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and the Ecumenical Association for Third World Theologians.

She has been recognized with honorary doctorates from General Theological Seminary (2022), her alma mater Denison University (2021), and Ithaca College (2021).

EDUCATION

B.S. Denison University
M.Div. Union Theological Seminary, 1982
Ph.D. Union Theological Seminary, 1988

Learn more at Kelly Brown Douglas’s official website


7 Books by Kelly Brown Douglas