Kelly Brown Douglas is the Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religion at Goucher College where she holds
the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professorship.
Dr. Douglas recently published What’s Faith Got to Do With It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls. Published
by Orbis Books, the work was inspired by a question from one of her students: “How could you, a black woman,
possibly be a Christian?” Douglas’s book explores provocative questions about the role of Christianity
in African-American history, including slavery and racism, and discusses the complexity of Christian faith in African-American
culture.
Douglas, an ordained Episcopal minister, taught theology at the Divinity School of Howard University in Washington,
D.C. for fourteen years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Denison University, and master’s
and doctoral degrees in divinity and systematic theology, respectively, from Union Theological Seminary. In
1985, Douglas was ordained at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Dayton, Ohio—the first black woman
to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Southern Ohio Diocese. At the time, she was one of only five
black female Episcopal priests nationwide.
A leading voice in the development of a womanist theology, Essence magazine counts Douglas “among this country’s
most distinguished religious thinkers, teachers, ministers, and counselors.” She has published numerous
essays and articles in national publications, and her other books include The
Black Christ and Sexuality and the Black Church. |
