Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas (born 1969) is an American author and educator. She is associate professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Floyd-Thomas is a Womanist Christian social ethicist whose research interests include Womanist thought, Black Church Studies, liberation theology and ethics, critical race theory, critical pedagogy and postcolonial studies. continues to mentor and influence Floyd-Thomas' work and pedagogical style.

Womanist thought

In the late 1960s and 1970s, theological education was fundamentally altered through the development of black theology, most notably the work of theologian James Hal Cone. Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, espoused a theological program that connected the black liberation struggle to the New Testament idea that God has a preferential option for the poor. Thus, God is "on the side of the oppressed."

Placing this idea within the context of the historic struggle for black liberation from the oppression of enslavement, Jim and Jane Crow laws, and continued racism, Cone's work placed a premium on experience as a source for "doing" theology. that set the black female experience in contradistinction to both white women and black men. Using this frame, Womanist theology and ethics was born through the work of Cannon, Williams, and Grant.

Floyd-Thomas' work continues this Womanist scholarship started in theology and ethics.

Works Mining The Motherlode: Methods in Womanist Ethics

Of Floyd-Thomas' contributions to Womanist thought, perhaps the most pivotal has been her Mining the Motherlode: Methods in Womanist Ethics. In this text, Floyd-Thomas firmly grounds Womanist ethical methodology in Walker's definition of the term "Womanist" in order to highlight it as a unique and legitimate ethics within the larger discipline of Christian ethics, and provides an easy-to-use text for anyone wishing to do Womanist ethics. Paralleling the four-part definition provided by Walker, Floyd-Thomas names four "tenets" of Womanist ethics as "Radical Subjectivity, Traditional Communalism, Redemptive Self-Love and Critical Engagement." These tenets explore the relationship between Womanists' use of Walker's definition, and the various methodologies employed within Womanist ethics.

Other notable publications

Floyd-Thomas served as primary author/editor for other books. Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society collects various essays from many leading Womanist scholars and Womanist allies. Black Church Studies: An Introduction is a textbook that covers a range of disciplines that make up the interdisciplinary field of Black Church Studies. In 2010, she co-edited with theologian Anthony B. Pinn "Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction."

In 2011, Floyd-Thomas co-edited two books with Miguel A. De La Torre titled Beyond the Pale—one subtitled Reading Ethics from the Margins (exploring twenty-four classic ethicists and philosophers from a Christian liberationist perspective), the other Reading Theology from the Margins (looking at thirty classic theologians) Her most recent publication co-authored with Juan M. Floyd-Thomas and Mark G. Toulouse, is entitled The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Significance of Popular Culture.

Floyd-Thomas also serves as general editor of two-book series: Religion and Social Transformation (New York University Press) and 'Making It Plain': Approaches in Black Church Studies (Abingdon Press).

Black Religious Scholars Group

The Black Religious Scholars Group is an organization founded by Floyd-Thomas, her husband Juan Floyd-Thomas, and Duane Belgrave while graduate students. It was conceptualized during a session of the Black Theology Group during the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The mission of the organization is to "promote meaningful dialogue and partnership between black religious scholars, the larger black community and its churches and community organizations in order to promote the goals of black religion—namely, liberation and human fulfillment in all areas of life.

To this end, the BRSG functions "to make the academic work and activity of black religious scholars more relevant, committed and accessible to the larger Black church and community", and "to create opportunities for collaboration between black scholars, churches and community organizations in order to achieve the aforementioned goals of Black religion. This includes working together to address the many crises and quality-of-life challenges facing black communities

Past BRSG honorees include James H. Cone, Peter Paris, Cornel West, J. Deotis Roberts, Henry and Ella Mitchell, Jacquelyn Grant, Katie G. Cannon, Vincent Harding, Delores S. Williams, Robert M. Franklin, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Gayraud S. Wilmore, Renita J. Weems, Walter E. Fluker, M. Shawn Copeland, Emilie Townes, Luther E. Smith, Jr., Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Jeremiah A Wright Jr., Michael Eric Dyson, James A. Forbes, Jr., Randall C. Bailey, Teresa Fry Brown, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Rev. Dr. James H. Evans, Jr., and others.

Floyd-Thomas continues to serve as executive director of the BRSG. Other executive board members include Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas, Rev. Dr. Duane Belgrave, Rev. Dr. Christine Wiley, and Rev. Dr. Dennis Wiley, co-pastors of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C.