Jacquelyn Grant

Jacquelyn Grant (born 1948) is an American theologian, a Methodist minister. Alongside Katie Cannon, Delores S. Williams, and Kelly Brown Douglas, Grant is considered one of the four founders of womanist theology. Womanist theology addresses theology from the viewpoint of Black women, reflecting on both their perspectives and experience in regards to faith and moral standards. Grant is currently the Callaway Professor of Systematic Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Biography Grant was born December 19, 1948, in Georgetown, South Carolina. She was one of nine children born to her father, the Rev. Joseph J Grant, a pastor, and her mother, Lillie Mae Grant, a cosmetologist.

Her doctoral thesis was titled "The development and limitations of feminist Christology: toward an engagement of white women's and black women's religious experiences." At Union, she worked under professor James H. Cone, who is known as the father of black theology.

Grant was ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1974. In 1976 and 1980, Grant wrote and presented position papers at the denomination's General Conference titled "The Status of Women in the AME Church" and "The AME Church and Women," respectively. She founded the denomination's Women in Ministry organization, which later became the Commission on Women and Ministry.

In 1981, Grant founded the Center for Black Women in Church and Society at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta in 1981, where she holds the title of Professor. The center's programs included The Womanist Scholars Program (WSP) and the Black Women in Ministerial Leadership Program (BWML). She is now the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Systematic Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Union in Atlanta. Grant was featured as a contributor in the 1983 April issue of Ebony magazine to the article "School of Religion for Men Behind Bars" and to the article "Gifts of the Spirit" in the 1992 December issue.

Grant was the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ministry Award in 1986 and has been nominated as the Woman of the Year in Religion by the Iota Phi Lambda sorority. She has appeared in the Who's Who Among African Americans. Grant illuminates how many black women share a commitment in using their faith to avoid construction of stereotypes. Grant also examines how black women are the vast majority of active participants in their churches and that their work tends to be undervalued.

The professor and former pastor argues that women serving as activists for the black church are sometimes put into institutional categories for their political expression by the black church itself. Grant expounds on this and similar notions in her writings. She explains while it may sound like a compliment that black women are called the "backbone" of the church, in fact the author chides "the telling portion of the word backbone is 'back'. It has become apparent to me that most of the ministers who use this term have reference to location rather than function. What they really mean is that women are in the 'background' and should be kept there." Grant also notably argues that the oppression of black women is different to that of black men. She also advances the idea that black women are more oppressed and ultimately need liberation more than white women and black men.

Grant and Cone both influenced scholar Delores S. Williams, who produced a commonly-referenced definition of womanist theology:

Book reception Jacquelyn Grant is widely regarded as an important "womanist theologian." Her 1989 book White Women's Christ and Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response was a best seller. The text lays out the complex relationship between Christology and feminism. In it, Grant centers the voices of black women and the intersections between Christology and womanist theology, addressing the historical and modern-day experiences of black women. as author Joan M. Martin points out in The Notion of Difference for Emerging Women Ethics. By exploring the relationship between black women and Jesus as a "divine co-sufferer", Grant's contribution to womanist theology provides meaningful examples and a theoretical framework to fuel conversation and research on an assortment of topics dealing with black women's experiences.

Publications White Women's Christ and Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1989. American Academy of Religion academy series). (co-ed. with Randall C. Bailey) The Recovery of Black Presence: An Interdisciplinary Exploration : Essays in Honor of Dr. Charles B. Copher. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995. Perspectives on Womanist Theology. Atlanta: ITC Press, 1995. "Black women and the church" in Hull, Gloria T., Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith (eds), All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1982. "The challenge of the darker sister" in Soskice, Janet Martin, and Diana Lipton. Feminism and Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.