Trailblazing African American Theologian Will Teach as Lilly Professor
Katie Cannon, Lilly Distinguished Professor of Religion
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1/20/2005
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Rev. Katie G. Cannon's life-long love of learning has led her to confront gender and racial barriers as both an ordained Presbyterian pastor and classroom teacher. Cannon will now share her passion for the Reformed tradition, Christian ethics, and womanist theology close by her childhood home, serving as Davidson College's Lilly Distinguished Professor of Religion for the spring semester.
As she grew up in nearby Kannapolis, N.C., Cannon displayed an early love for learning. At home, she acted the role of teacher with her brothers, sisters, and cousins in play games of “school.” Later, as a student at Barber-Scotia College, academic curiosity led her to explore multiple disciplines before earning a B.S. in elementary education in 1971.
When she recognized the lack of African-American women in religious education and the clergy in graduate school at Johnson C. Smith Seminary, she discovered her academic passion for the experiences and role of women in religion. Inspired to challenge the exclusive tradition, Cannon completed her master's of divinity degree and in 1974 became the first African-American woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She served as a supply pastor to a Presbyterian church in New York and as an instructor of Christian theological ethics at New York Theological Seminary before completing her Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1983.
Since then, Cannon has taught at Temple University, Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and New York Theological Seminary. She will be on leave from her current position as Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., to teach at Davidson.
She has lectured widely, and written or edited six books, including Teaching Preaching: Isaac R. Clark and Black Sacred Rhetoric, Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community, and Black Womanist Ethics. She is also the author of numerous essays on living with integrity in situations of oppression, which have appeared in publications such as The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions, Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories, An Encyclopedia of African American Christian Heritage, Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, and Dictionary of Third World Theologies.
In March of 2003, she was elected to serve a four-year term as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion.
Cannon said her enjoyment of the classroom experience carried her through difficult encounters with gender and racial barriers and strengthened her desire to teach. “My never-ending love of learning has motivated me to use transformative education as my pedagogical signature for thirty plus years,” she said.
Cannon said the study of Christian ethics is integral to addressing racial and gender barriers for minorities in religious institutions, especially for the African-American church. “Christian ethics is the field of study that enables people of faith to live out consciously the theology that they believe, and provides them with the answers for their daily existence,” she said. “The relational justice that is embedded in the work of Christian ethics is inextricably tied to the inner struggles of the Black church community.”
Timothy Beach-Verhey, director of Davidson's Lilly Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation, said Cannon will bring to Davidson classrooms a valuable perspective of the Reformed theological tradition and the concept of vocation, looking at each through the lens of the experience of oppression. “We wanted a professor who is an expert in the Reformed Tradition, and it's an honor to have a scholar of her prominence at Davidson,” he said.
Cannon will teach two courses, “Race-ing Justice,” and “Social Teaching in Black Sacred Rhetoric.” She will also conduct a monthly seminar for faculty, focusing on the vocation of the professor.
Cannon believes that vocational discernment in the Reformed tradition is a special spiritual message between the Creator and humans to consider their original, divine purpose in their career choices. She is looking forward to exploring questions of identity, vocation, and calling with students. She said, “The Reformed Tradition offers students the opportunity to beg the macro question 'who is God?' and the micro question 'how is God acting in the social fabric of our lives?'”
The public will have the opportunity to meet her and hear her speak on April 19 when she delivers the 2005 Lilly Distinguished Lecture. She will speak on the subject, “Articulating Vocational Calls from the Margin/Speaking Womanist Ethics from the Center.”
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,600 students. Since its establishment in 1837, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Davidson is engaged in “Let Learning Be Cherished,” a $250 million campaign in support of student financial assistance, academic resources, and community life.
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