Katie Cannon

Katie Geneva Cannon (January 3, 1950 – August 8, 2018) was an American Christian theologian and ethicist associated with womanist theology and black theology.^[3][4] In 1974 she became the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).^[5][6]

The Reverend Doctor Katie Cannon
Born	Katie Geneva Cannon (1950-01-03)January 3, 1950 Kannapolis, North Carolina, US
Died	August 8, 2018(2018-08-08) (aged 68) Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity
Church	United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Presbyterian Church (USA)
Ordained	1974
Congregations served	1974 Ascension Presbyterian Church in New York, New York
Academic background
Alma mater	Barber–Scotia College Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary Union Theological Seminary
Thesis	Resources for a Constructive Ethic for Black Women with Special Attention to the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston (1983)
Influences	Roger L. Shinn[1] Beverly Wildung Harrison[1]
Academic work
Discipline	Theology
Sub-discipline	Christian ethics
School or tradition	Black theology womanist theology
Institutions	Episcopal Divinity School Temple University Union Presbyterian Seminary
Doctoral students	Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas
Influenced	Ada María Isasi-Díaz[2]

Early life

Born on January 3, 1950, Cannon spent her childhood in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a racially segregated community where she could not use local facilities such as the YMCA, swimming pool or library.^[7][8] She was the daughter of the late Esau Cannon and Emanuelette Corine Lytle Cannon, the first woman to work at the Cannon Mills in Kannapolis. Both her parents were elders in the Presbyterian Church, but she was enrolled in kindergarten at a Lutheran church, the only early childhood education available to her in Kannapolis as a black girl.^[9] Cannon had six brothers and sisters.^[10]

Education and career

Cannon graduated from George Washington Carver High School in 1967 as her class's salutatorian.^[11] Cannon graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Barber–Scotia College, followed by a Master of Divinity from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and both a Master's and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York.^[8][9]

Cannon was ordained on April 24, 1974, in Shelby, North Carolina, by the Catawba Presbytery, in the Synod of Catawba. This made her the first African-American woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).^[8] Cannon worked at Ascension Presbyterian Church in East Harlem, New York.

Cannon began teaching at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond in 2001. She held the position of the Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Social Ethics. Prior to joining the faculty at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Cannon was on the faculties of Temple University, Episcopal Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School.^[12] She was also the Lilly Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion at Davidson College and the Sterling Brown Visiting Professor in Religion and African American Studies at Williams College.^[8]

In addition to her breaking ground as an African American woman scholar of religion, Cannon collaborated with African women scholars of religion, including Mercy Amba Oduyoye. Cannon was one of few African American women present at the founding meeting of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, Cannon began serving as executive director of the Squaring the Womanist Circle Project at Union Presbyterian Seminary.^[13] Following from the research results produced by the project, Cannon worked with the administration of Union Presbyterian Seminary and several foundations to establish The Center For Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary.^[10] The center is the first of its kind at any theological academic institution in the United States. From 2004 to 2008, she served as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion.^[14]

Katie Geneva Cannon

Cannon received the distinguished professor award from Spelman College, the Lucy Craft Laney Award at the Black Presbyterian Bicentennial Celebration, and was a professor-scholar honoree at the National Black Church Summit at Emory University. She received the Beautiful Are The Feet Award from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.^[8] The American Academy of Religion honored Cannon with its 2011 Excellence in Teaching Award.^[7][15] In 2018, Cannon was honored at the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s General Assembly, receiving the Excellence in Theological Education Award.^[8][10]

As her last living will and testament, Cannon founded and organized the Center for Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary in April 2018, which was later endowed and renamed The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership.^[16] Cannon died on August 8, 2018, from leukemia.^[17][9]

Influence on womanist theology and ethics

Cannon is widely regarded as one of the founders of womanist theology and ethics.^[10] In reflecting on her legacy, scholar Traci C. West notes Cannon's emphasis on using black women's embodied knowledge as a source for ethical reflection:

In her analytical approach, one finds a sharp conceptualization of both the strength and vulnerability of black women especially evident in their collisions with white supremacy. Katie Cannon's scholarship reveals the ugliness of white racism and how it preys on black women's human vulnerabilities. To reveal the ugliness demands courage because it is so painful. The reflective process of unravelling the impact of racist patterns, as well as the commitment to remaining focused on them and inviting others to do so too, requires scholarly and spiritual stamina. Katie Cannon's work provides us with historically rooted, geopolitically situated, and intimate examples of black women's epistemological strength. She depicts black women's embodied knowledge as a creative force. The task of the womanist ethicist, she insisted, is to uncover and comprehend it.^[18]

Cannon's first full-length book, Black Womanist Ethics, published in 1988, was a groundbreaking text, and is considered to have launched the field of womanist ethics.^[19]

Publications

• God's Fierce Whimsy: The Implications of Feminism for Theological Education. Pilgrim Press, 1985^[20]
• Inheriting Our Mothers' Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective. Letty M. Russell, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Kwok Pui-lan, and Katie Geneva Cannon, editors. Westminster John Knox Press, 1988. ISBN 9780664250195.
• Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community. Continuum, 1998. ISBN 978-0826410344.
  • Published in 1998 by the Continuum International Publishing Group,^[21] Cannon argues the importance of womanism from a religious, literary and political perspective. Through a series of essays, Cannon continually reviews the role that gender, race and class have held in the formation of black feminist consciousness. Through looking at the intersection between African American women's lived experience of oppression, and faith, Cannon explains how African American women how found themselves in a position of moral guides not just in the African American tradition but also America.^[22]
• Black Womanist Ethics, Oxford University Press, 1988^[23]
• Teaching Preaching: Isaac Rufus Clark and Black Sacred Rhetoric. Continuum, 2007. ISBN 978-0826428974.
• Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader. Katie Geneva Cannon, Emilie M. Townes, and Angela D. Sims, editors. Westminster John Knox Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0664235376.
• The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology, Oxford University Press, 2014^[24]
• Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community, 25th Anniversary Revised and Expanded Edition. Fortress, 2021. ISBN 9781506471297.

Death

Cannon died from acute leukemia in Richmond, Virginia on August 8, 2018. She was 68.^[9]

References

1. Dorrien, Gary (2009). Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 586. ISBN 978-1-405-18687-2.
2. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María (1994). "The Task of Hispanic Women's Liberation Theology – Mujeristas: Who We Are and What We Are About". In King, Ursula (ed.). Feminist Theology from the Third World: A Reader. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock (published 2015). p. 405. ISBN 978-1-4982-1997-6.
3. Copeland, M. Shawn (2007). "Cannon, Katie Geneva". An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies. Liturgical Press. p. 190. ISBN 9780814658567.
4. "Katie Geneva Cannon". Union Presbyterian Seminary. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
5. "Katie Geneva Cannon | Union Presbyterian Seminary". Union Presbyterian Seminary. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
6. "Dr. Katie Cannon, first black woman ordained in PC (USA), dies at 68 | National Black Presbyterian Caucus (NBPC)". Nationalnbpc.org. August 11, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
7. Tina Pippin (2011). "Katie Geneva Cannon to Receive Excellence in Teaching Award". Religious Studies News. American Academy of Religion. Archived from the original on December 31, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
8. "Professor Katie Cannon, first black woman ordained in PC(USA), dies at 68". The Presbyterian Outlook. August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
9. Genzlinger, Neil (August 14, 2018). "Katie Cannon, 68, Dies; Lifted Black Women's Perspective in Theology". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
10. "Katie Geneva Cannon, groundbreaking womanist ethicist and theologian, dies at age 68". The Christian Century. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
11. Nielsen, Euell A. (September 18, 2018). "Katie Geneva Cannon (1950-2018) •". BlackPast. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
12. "Dr. Katie Cannon Obituary (1950 - 2018) Salisbury Post". Legacy.com.
13. "Katie Cannon, Doug Oldenburg to be honored at PC(USA) General Assembly". Presbyterian Mission Agency. February 27, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
14. "The Crisis". The Crisis. Vol. 111. NAACP. 2004. p. 9.
15. "AAR Award for Excellence in Teaching". Archived from the original on January 7, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
16. "Home". centerforwomanistleadership.org.
17. "StackPath". upsem.edu. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
18. West (2019). "Magnanimous and Brilliant Sister Dr. Katie". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 35 (2): 147–149. doi:10.2979/jfemistudreli.35.2.24. JSTOR 10.2979/jfemistudreli.35.2.24. S2CID 203458518.
19. Gushee, David P. (December 11, 2019). "Katie Cannon's Enduring Contribution to Christian Ethics". Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology. 74 (1): 23–30. doi:10.1177/0020964319876578. ISSN 0020-9643. S2CID 214117590.
20. Cannon, Katie G.; Mud Flower Collective (1985). God's fierce whimsy : Christian feminism and theological education. Internet Archive. New York : Pilgrim Press. ISBN 9780829805468.
21. Bloomsbury.com. "Bloomsbury - Search". www.bloomsbury.com. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
22. Bollinger, Laurel (1997). "Review of Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community; The Rising Song of African American Women". Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 16 (2): 373–376. doi:10.2307/464367. ISSN 0732-7730. JSTOR 464367.
23. Cannon, Katie G. (1988). Black Womanist Ethics. AAR Academy Series. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-55540-216-7.
24. Cannon, Katie G.; Pinn, Anthony B., eds. (August 21, 2014). The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975565-3.