NEW HAVEN, Conn. (ABP) — An American Baptist theologian has become the first African-American woman elected president of the nation's largest professional society for religion professors.
Emilie Townes, the Andrew Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School, is the new president of the American Academy of Religion. AAR's membership includes thousands of academics who teach religious studies or theology at institutions of higher learning. Their membership includes people who teach religion both from a religious perspective and a secular perspective.
Townes specializes in interdisciplinary “womanist” theology. According to the Yale Bulletin, her work “has explored womanist perspectives on theological themes, linking the subjects of race, gender and class and issues such as health care, economic justice, poetry and linguistic theory.”
Roy Medley, general secretary for the American Baptist Churches USA, released a statement Nov. 29 congratulating Townes on her election.
“She is a woman of strong faith in whose life the gifts of Christ are being used to benefit people of all backgrounds,” Medley said. “We are proud of her impressive accomplishments, but most especially of her efforts to encourage black women to answer the call to ministry and theological education.”
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