William H. Brackney

William Henry Brackney (January 30, 1948 – November 13, 2022) was the Millard R. Cherry Distinguished Professor of Christian Thought and Ethics Emeritus at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He was an ordained Baptist minister, accredited by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches and the American Baptist Churches, USA. He was previously the Dean of Theology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, He was also a regular columnist for websites focused on ethics.

Early life Brackney was born on January 30, 1948 in Washington, DC, the second son of Samuel Harp Brackney and Mildred Braisted Pointer. His mother was of Methodist heritage; his father came from a line of Quakers; the two parents determined upon a Baptist orientation because of the outreach of a neighborhood congregation. The family's early years blended Southern Baptist and Northern (American) Baptist outlooks. William attended Gabriel DuVal Senior High School in Glenn Dale, Maryland and matriculated in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Maryland (College Park) with a scholarship to study astrophysics.

In 1967, he was admitted to the honors program in history and he defended a thesis in economic history, for which he received a BA (honors) degree. In 1970 he married Kathryn Godfrey Edens (born 1949) of Landover Hills, Maryland, and had two sons and a daughter.

He next completed an MA in religion from the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1972. being awarded a prize for his thesis in Patristic Evidences. He received a second MA from Temple University in Philadelphia, after which he earned the Doctor of Philosophy (with distinction), and Archivist of the American Baptist Churches USA, service which lasted until 1986. This role also involved being curator of the Samuel Colgate Baptist Historical Collection. In this period he was also an associate professor in church history at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, as well serving on the senior staff of the American Baptist Board of Educational Ministries (BEM) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In 1986 he was named vice president and dean, and professor of the history of Christianity, at the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

For eleven years, from 1989 until 2000, Brackney was the principal and dean of McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, and was also the professor of historical theology.

Publications His published books include: