Karen Baker-Fletcher appointed Wendland-Cook Professor in Constructive Theology
DALLAS (SMU) – Upon the recommendation of Dean Bryan Stone, SMU Provost Rachel Davis Mersey has appointed Karen Baker-Fletcher the Wendland-Cook Professor in Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology, effective Sept. 1.
The appointment recognizes Baker-Fletcher’s distinguished scholarship in systematic and constructive theology. Her international reputation stems from her longstanding engagement with questions of justice and the life of the church.
According to Bryan Stone, Leighton K. Farrell Endowed Dean of Perkins School of Theology, “Dr. Baker-Fletcher's work intersects in so many vivid ways with the purposes of the Wendland-Cook professorship. She has spent her career enlarging the theological imagination. As one of the most important architects of womanist constructive theology, she has insisted that Black women’s lives, voices, bodies, relationship to the earth, experiences of suffering, and practices of joy and survival belong not at the margins of Christian theology but at its center. We are indebted to her for a theology that searches for the presence of God in the midst of embodied lives—for courage, creativity, relationship, healing, and what she has memorably called 'dancing with God’.”
Barbara Cook Wendland and Erroll Wendland established the Wendland-Cook Endowed Professorship in Constructive Theology to promote theological exploration among laity and clergy at the local church level. The professorship places particular emphasis on addressing inequalities of power, advancing justice and nonviolence, engaging current critical theory and bringing theological scholarship beyond the academy to clergy and laity in local churches.
Baker-Fletcher has served as Professor of Systematic Theology at Perkins since 2001. Baker-Fletcher earned a doctorate in theology and literature from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Her work engages theology with issues of race, gender, justice, spirituality, ecology and the Black religious experience, with an emphasis on the ways constructive theology can speak to the challenges facing churches and communities.
Her appointment comes during a significant period in her scholarly career. Her new book, Power, Resilience, & the Black Madonna: Mamie Till and Mary at the Foot of the Cross, is forthcoming. Baker-Fletcher will also deliver the distinguished Nathaniel W. Taylor Lecture at Yale Divinity School on March 29–31, 2027. In November, a session at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting will be devoted to Baker-Fletcher’s contributions to her field.
“I am honored to be appointed to this position,” said Baker-Fletcher. “The Wendland-Cook Professorship in Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology means a great deal to me because of its emphasis on addressing social inequalities in church and society. I believe it reflects the heart of the Beatitudes in Luke 6:20–26 and the compassion of Matthew 25:31–46. Many are grieving the loss of children and adult loved ones to unjust violence. In conversation with others, I would like to explore what compassionate action looks like in a world of crucifixion.”
Baker-Fletcher will be one of three Perkins faculty members whose endowed appointments will be celebrated this fall, joining Frederick D. Aquino and Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner. Perkins plans to recognize and formally install the three faculty members during a set of special events on September 30–October 1. Additional details will be announced as they become available.
SMU Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church. Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Ministry, Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Pastoral Music as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.