The mindset behind women called to the ministry will be explored during Vanderbilt University‘s annual Antoinette Brown Lecture.
Karen Baker-Fletcher, associate professor of systematic theology at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, will speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus.
Baker-Fletcher will speak on “Celebrating Holy Boldness: Women in Ministry Then and Now.”
“I will consider a diversity of women such as Sojourner Truth, Julia Foote, Phoebe Palmer, Antoinette Brown and Anna Julia Cooper, observing their questions regarding women in ministry in comparison and contrast to women in ministry today,” Baker-Fletcher said.
“For example, what did faithfulness to God mean for women like those? What can we learn from them about faith commitment and spiritual boldness to proclaiming good news? It is important to consider the best of their good news for our time and our own.”
Baker-Fletcher earned a bachelor‘s degree from Wellesley College, and two master‘s and a doctorate from Harvard University. Her books include Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit: Womanist Wordings on God and Creation and the upcoming Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective.
The Antoinette Brown Lecture Series is a student-run event that brings a distinguished female theologian and/or church leader to Vanderbilt each year. The series began in 1974 with a gift to Vanderbilt Divinity School by Sylvia Sanders Kelly of Atlanta, a 1954 Vanderbilt graduate. It is named for Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an abolitionist and feminist who became the first woman ordained to the Christian ministry in the United States in 1853.
Previous speakers in the series include Stephanie Paulsell, Laurel Schneider, Sallie McFague and Sharon Welch.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu