Willie James Jennings

Willie James Jennings (born April 29, 1961) is an American theologian, known for his contributions on liberation theologies, cultural identities, and theological anthropology. He is currently an associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University.

Jenning gained his B.A. in religion and theology at Calvin College in 1984, and his M.Div in Fuller Theological Seminary in 1987. He completed his Ph.D. in religion, with a concentration on theology and ethics, at Duke University in 1993, supervised under Geoffrey Wainwright. His Ph.D. dissertation topic is “Reclaiming the Creature: Anthropological Vision in the Thought of Athanasius of Alexandria and Karl Barth.”

From 1990 to 2015, Jennings worked at Duke University Divinity School and taught theology and black church studies there, before he was appointed associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale in 2015. He is an ordained Baptist minister and has served as interim pastor for several North Carolina churches.

In 2010, Jennings published his book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, for which he received the American Academy of Religion book award in 2011, and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion in 2015. Jennings released Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible through the Belief Bible commentary series in 2017. He is currently working on a major monograph provisionally entitled Unfolding the World: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation. He also contributes regularly on Religious Dispatches, a website run by University of Southern California that concerns on the intersection of religion, politics, and culture.

He was married to Joanne Browne on July 25, 1987 and he has two daughters, Njeri Ariel Browne Jennings and Safiya Eliana Simone Jennings.

• The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0300171365
• Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Westminster John Knox Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0664234003