Willie James Jennings

Willie James Jennings is a theologian who teaches in the areas of Christian thought, race theory, decolonial and environmental studies. Dr. Jennings is the author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race published by Yale University Press and recipient of the 2010 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive- Reflective Studies category. It is one of the most important books in theology written in the last 25 years and is now a standard text read in colleges, seminaries, and universities.  Dr. Jennings is also the recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his groundbreaking work on race and Christianity. Dr. Jennings’s commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award, from The Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, which was the inaugural book in the much-anticipated book series, Theological Education between the Times, and has already become an instant classic, winning the 2020 book of the year award from Publisher’s Weekly. It was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive- Reflective Studies category, and in 2023 won the Lilly Fellows Program Book Award.

Dr. Jennings is in high demand as a speaker and is widely recognized as a major figure in theological studies and theological education across North America and the world. He has given several prestigious lectures, including the Bampton Lectures at Oxford University, the Huslean Lectures at Cambridge University (Fall 2024), the Cole Lecture at Vanderbilt University, the Parks-King Lecture at Yale University, the Ferguson Lecture at Manchester University, and the Hughes-Cheong Lecture at the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Jennings is completing work on a two volume project on the doctrine of creation. Volume two, provisionally entitled, Jesus and the Displaced: The Redemption of Habitation, will be published before volume one which carries the provisionally title, Unfolding the Word: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation. Dr. Jennings is also finishing a book of poetry entitled, The Time of Possession. 

Dr. Willie James Jennings is an ordained Baptist minister and has served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches. A Calvin College graduate, Jennings received his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in religion and ethics from Duke.

Read More

• To Build a Sad Land: Coloniality, Racial Reasoning, and the Imagined Built Environment of Christian Zionism

• Gathering the pieces that remain: Weaving life together from the fragments of faith, race, and land (2023 J.J. Thiessen Lecture)

• “Let America be America Again”: Willie Jennings’ reading of the Langston Hughes poem on the eve of Election 2020

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere: The Christ at the Checkpoint webinar

• After Whiteness: A Conversation with Dr. Willie James Jennings

• Willie Jennings wins grant for exploration of religion, race, and built environment

• Violence: A faithful response to the plague in our neighborhoods and nation

• Leading scholars join Yale Divinity School faculty

​
Books

1. Reframing the World: A Christian Doctrine of Creation (forthcoming, Yale University Press)
2. The Place of Story and the Story of Place, co-editor with Ernst M. Conradie (forthcoming, AOSIS Scholarly Books)
3. The Time of Possession: Poems (in progress)
4. Jesus and the Displaced: Christology and the Redemption of Habitation (forthcoming, Yale University Press)
5. After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Eerdmans, 2020)
6. Acts: A Commentary, The Revolution of the Intimate (Westminster/John Knox, 2017)
7. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale, 2010)