Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | |
---|---|
Born | 1948 (age 75–76) |
Academic background | |
Education | Smith College (BA) Duke University (MDiv) |
Alma mater | Duke University (PhD) |
Thesis | H. Shelton Smith, Critic of the Theological Perspective of Progressive Religious Education, 1934-1950 (1980) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theology |
Institutions | Chicago Theological Seminary |
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite (born 1948)[1] is an author, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, a syndicated columnist, ordained minister, activist, theologian, and translator of the Bible.[2][3][4] She is currently an emeritus faculty member at Chicago Theological Seminary.[5] She also spent some of her time serving as a trustee for different organizations.[5]
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite attended Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. She, then continued her studies at Duke Divinity School, earning a Master of Divinity and graduating Summa cum Laude.[5] She was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ in 1974.[5] She ministered for several years as an associate minister in North Carolina and Massachusetts,[6] before earning a PhD from Duke University. During her time in North Carolina, she worked with women who had experienced domestic violence.[7]
She taught women's studies and theology in various schools from 1975 to 1984. She served on a task force of the National Council of Churches that produced an inclusive language lectionary, while she was teaching theology at Boston University in the early 1980s.[8][9] In 1984, she joined the faculty at Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), a seminary affiliated with the United Church of Christ. In 1998, she became the president of the seminary, the first woman to lead the institution since its founding in 1855.[10] She served two five year terms, stepping down from the post in 2008. Alice Hunt succeeded her as president of CTS.
Thistlethwaite became a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2008, while also teaching full-time. She continued to be a public theologian, writing and speaking on matters relating to religion and public life. She wrote a column in The Washington Post for six years. She's contributed to articles for Theology Today,[11] the Journal for Religious Education,[12] and the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion.[13]