Willie Jennings, one of the country’s most distinguished scholars in the areas of theology and race, is joining the YDS faculty as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies.
Currently Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School, Jennings is the 2015 winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the largest prize for a theological work in North America. His Yale career will begin officially this summer, but he will be on his planned sabbatical during his first year.
“As attested by his winning the Grawemeyer Award, among other honors, Dr. Willie Jennings has few peers as a scholar, teacher, and writer,” YDS Dean Greg Sterling said. “He is an outstanding addition to our faculty and will be a tremendous resource for our students and for the Yale community more broadly.”
A Calvin College graduate, Jennings received his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in religion and ethics from Duke. He has been on the faculty at Duke since he was a doctoral student. In addition to his faculty duties, he served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for 10 years.
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 the year after it appeared and the Grawemeyer Award this past spring. Englewood Review of Books called the work a “theological masterpiece.” Jennings is nearing completion of a popular commentary on the Book of Acts and has another major monograph in the initial stages provisionally entitled Unfolding the World: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation.
Writing in the areas of liberation theologies, cultural identities, and anthropology, Jennings 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.
Jennings is an ordained Baptist minister and has served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches. He is in high demand as a speaker and is widely recognized as a major figure in theological education across North America. He played a major role in the construction of the black church program at Duke.
“My wife, Joanne, and I are thrilled about joining the Yale community, and I am excited about joining the Yale faculty,” Jennings said. “I look forward to many years of fruitful collaboration with my colleagues and being enriched by the intellectual environment of Yale.”