Terrence L. Johnson has been named the next Mary Lee Hardin Willard Dean of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He will begin his five-year appointment on August 1.
Dr. Johnson comes to Emory from Harvard Divinity School, where he has been serving as director of religion and public life and the Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies. He has held appointments with Harvard’s Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, the American studies program, and the department of African and African American studies, and he is a member of the Corporation of Haverford College. In 2024, Dr. Johnson was the inaugural Steven M. Polan Fellow in Constitutional Law and History at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Earlier in his career, he was director of graduate studies for the department of theology and religious studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
As a scholar, Dr. Johnson studies the intersection of African American religions, political theory, and American history to explore questions of democracy, ethics, justice, and the role of religion in public life. He has written several books, most recently Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue (Georgetown University Press, 2022). Dr. Johnson’s next publication, Torn Asunder: Race and Religion in the Shadow of Law and Justice, will focus on African American religious thought, ethics, and political theory in relation to political pluralism and moral reasoning.
“I am excited about working with the Candler community to build on its strengths, including its location in the culturally rich context of Atlanta and the South,” said Dr. Johnson. “I believe Candler can be the perfect place to facilitate engagement around vital issues of our time, leaning into Emory’s deep expertise in religion, law and ethics to both equip our own students to ask critical questions and to lead broader conversations with people from around the world.”
A graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Dr. Johnson earned his master of divinity degree from Harvard and his Ph.D. in religious studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
