Reggie Williams
Contact information
Field of Study: Christian Ethics, Harlem Renaissance
Designation: Professor of Christian Ethics
Email: rwilliams@mccormick.edu
Department: Ethics
Extension: 6269
Office: 311
Dr. Reggie Williams book Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance (Baylor University Press, 2014) was selected as a Choice Outstanding Title in 2015, in the field of religion. The book is an analysis of exposure to Harlem Renaissance intellectuals, and worship at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist on the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, during his year of post-doctoral study at Union Seminary in New York, 1930-31.
Dr. Williams’ research interests include Christological ethics, theological anthropology, Christian social ethics, the Harlem Renaissance, race, politics and black church life. His current book project includes a religious critique of whiteness in the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, he is working on a book analyzing the reception of Bonhoeffer by liberation activists in apartheid South Africa.
Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. in Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2011. He earned a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller in 2006 and a Bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from Westmont College in 1995. He is a member of the board of directors for the Society for Christian Ethics, as well as the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society. He is also a member of the American Academy of Religion and Society for the Study of Black Religion.
PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Interrogating Theological Anthropology in the Harlem Renaissance: The Figure of the Human as a Problem for Christian Ethics (in progress)
Commentary on Joshua and Judges (Westminster John Knox Press: in progress)
Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance (Baylor University Press, October 1, 2014)
Outstanding Academic Title - 2015 - Choice Current Reviews for Academic Libraries - Winner
Baptist Peacemaker, Global Christian Ethicist: Essays in Honor of Glen Harold Stassen, Co-Editor/Contributor, with David P. Gushee. Perspectives in Religious Studies 40, no. 2 (Summer 2013).
Selected Journal Essays and Book Chapters
“Seeing Whiteness: Exercises in Seeing Race” (The Christian Century. July 20, 2016)
“How the Construct of Race Deforms our Understanding of Christ” (Sojo.net June 16, 2016)
“The Language of Liberation” (Black Lives Matter Symposium in The Christian Century. February 29, 2016)
“Empathic and Incarnational: A Better Christian Ethic at Fuller”
(Fuller Magazine, Issue 4: Reconciling Race, 2015)
“Emmanuel AME as Outlaw Religion.” (Syndicate Theology symposium, “In The Shadow of Charleston” July 15, 2015)
“Developing a Theologia Crucis: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Harlem Renaissance” (Theology Today, No 1 April 2014, 71: 43-57)
“Response to Amy Laura Hall’s “No Shortcut to the Promised Land
The Fosdick Brothers and the Allure of Leadership” (Ex Auditu Spring, 2014)
“Christ-Centered Concreteness: The Christian Activism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr.” (Dialog: A Journal of Theology Vol. 53 Issue 3 fall 2014 pgs. 185-194)
“The White Christ”
(Chapter in Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, Intervarsity Press June 30, 2014)
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Christ” (Chapter in Interpreting Bonhoeffer, Fortress Press October 2013)
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Christ”
(Chapter in Bonhoeffer, Christ, and Culture. InterVarsity Press, April, 2013
“Jesus and Justice: Confronting the Viral Narratives of Race”
(Chapter in Ethics as if Jesus Mattered: Essays in Honor of Glen H. Stassen, Smith and Helwys Press, February, 2014)
“Bonhoeffer and King: Christ the Moral Arc” in Black Theology: An International Journal (Black Theology: an International Journal: vol. 9, number 3, 2011)
“A Better Unity: A Biblical Illustration of Community” in Christian Ethics Today: A Journal of Christian Ethics vol. 18, number 3 Aggregate Issue 83 Summer 2011