Ethics That Matters: African, Caribbean, and African American Sources

Contributors

vii Contributors Victor Anderson is professor of Christian ethics at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, with a joint appointment as professor of African American studies and religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is author of Beyond Ontological Blackness: An Essay in African American Religious and Cultural Criticism (1995); Pragmatic Theology: Negotiating the Intersection of an American Philosophy of Religion and Public Theology (1999); and Creative Exchange: A Constructive Theology of African American Religious Experience (Fortress Press, 2008). Katie Geneva Cannon is the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va. In 1983 Cannon became the first African American woman to receive a PhD from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was also the first African American woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is the author or editor of numerous articles and seven books, including Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community and Black Womanist Ethics (1998). James H. Cone is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Cone is best known for his groundbreaking works, Black Theology and Black Power (1969) and A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), as well as the highly acclaimed God of the Oppressed (1975), Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a Nightmare? (1991), and, most recently, Risks of Faith (1999). An ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Cone’s current research focuses on the cross and the lynching tree, exploring the relationship between the two theologically. Contributors viii Lewis V. Baldwin is professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University . Among his many publications are There Is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King Jr. (Fortress Press, 1991); To Make the Wounded Whole: The Cultural Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. (Fortress Press, 1992); and Toward the Beloved Community: Martin Luther King Jr. and South Africa (1995). An ordained Baptist preacher, his most recent book is Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King Jr. (Fortress Press, 2010). Riggins R. Earl Jr. is professor of ethics and theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. His significant publications include Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self and Community in the Slave Mind (2003); Dark Salutations: Ritual, God, and Greetings in the African American Community (2001); and The Jesus as Lord and Savior Problem: Blacks’ Double Consciousness Self-Worth Dilemma (forthcoming ). He is currently researching a book-length manuscript titled Blacks, the Bible, and the Constitution. Noel Leo Erskine is professor of theology and ethics at Emory University ’s Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in black theology and pedagogy, the history and development of the black church, and theological method in the work of James Cone, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King Jr. His publications include From Garvey to Marley: Rastafari Theology (2005); King Among the Theologians (1994); Decolonizing Theology: A Caribbean Perspective (1981, 1998); and Black People and the Reformed Church in America (1978). Melanie L. Harris is associate professor of religion at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth. An ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she holds degrees from Union Theological Seminary, Iliff School of Theology, and Spelman College. As a former broadcast journalist, Dr. Harris worked as a television news producer and news writer for ABC, CBS, and NBC news affiliates in Atlanta and Denver. She is the author of Gifts of Virtue: Alice Walker and Womanist Ethics (2010). Contributors ix Barbara A. Holmes is professor of ethics and African American studies at Memphis Theological Seminary, where she was formerly vice president of academic affairs and dean of the seminary. Ordained in the Latter Rain Apostolic Holiness Church in Dallas, she has privilege of call in the United Church of Christ and recognition of ministerial standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Her most recent publications include Liberation and the Cosmos: Conversations with the Elders (Fortress Press, 2008) and Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church (Fortress Press, 2004). Dwight N. Hopkins is professor of theology in the University of Chicago Divinity School and senior editor of the Henry McNeil Turner/ Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion. Among his many works are Being Human: Race, Culture, and Religion (Fortress Press, 2005); Heart and Head: Black Theology—Past, Present, and Future...