Barbara Brown Taylor (born 1951) is an American Episcopal priest, academic, and author.[1][2] In 2014, Time magazine placed her in its annual Time 100 list of most influential people in the world.[3]
In 1996, she was named one of the twelve "most effective" preachers in the English-speaking world by Baylor University.[6] She was awarded the 1998 Emory Medal by the Emory Alumni Association of Emory University for her distinguished achievement in education.[7] In February 2009, Barbara Brown Taylor led the second annual Piedmont College religion conference in Athens, Georgia.[8] Taylor had been the keynote speaker at the conference in previous years.[9] In addition, Taylor gave the 2009 Annual Buechner Lecture at the Buechner Institute at King University. She has written twelve books on faith and spirituality.[1][10]
In February 2010, days before Piedmont College's religion conference, Taylor ranked in the top ten most influential living preachers in a poll conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention.[11]
Career
In the early 2000s, she chose to leave active ministry, while retaining her ordination. Her memoir of this time Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith was the first of a trilogy of books about redefining her faith followed by An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith and Learning to Walk in the Dark.
Private life
She lives on her farm in northern Georgia, with husband Edward Taylor.[3]
Bibliography
"He was alive and he was real". Christian Century. 110 (28): 967. 1993.
^Woodward, Kenneth L. (March 4, 1996). "Heard Any Good Sermons Lately?". Newsweek. Newsweek, Inc. Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2009.