Dr. Reggie Williams Granted Tenure and Promoted to Associate Professor

10-19-2017

At its May 4-5, 2017 meeting, the McCormick Theological Seminary Board of Trustees granted Dr. Reggie Williams tenure and approved his promotion to Associate Professor of Christian Ethics.

Dr. Williams has been a part of the McCormick community since July 2012 in his role as Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics. Previously he was a full-time lecturer in the Religion Department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He has taught as Adjunct Faculty at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California and is affiliated with the American Baptist Church.

He serves on the board of directors for the Society for Christian Ethics, as well as the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society. Dr. Williams is also a member of the American Academy of Religion and Society for the Study of Black Religion.

Dr. 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 for 2015 in the field of religion. The book is an analysis of the influence of exposure to Harlem Renaissance thought 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.

Of Williams, Dr. Ted Hiebert, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic affairs, says, “McCormick has been extremely fortunate to have Dr. Williams with us as an Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics for the last five years, and we all celebrate his tenure and his promotion to Associate Professor. He has provided a crucial voice for integrity and justice in our community, and his influential study of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus has created important conversations in national and international forums. Reggie has strengthened us all and we look forward to working together in the years ahead.”