In spite of the fact that Black women make up to 75-95% of Black church congregations, to date there have been few theologically informed practical resources that help women who are Black and Christian develop their faith or respond effectively to the various crises and issues they must face on behalf of themselves and their families and communities. The works that have been developed are useful but limited in their monolithic perspective. Therefore, more diverse womanist approaches to liberating theologies of the Bible are needed for Black women.

“What Manner of Woman is This?: Returning to the Source of Womanist Theological Wisdom” seeks to consult, celebrate, and construct a new era in making womanist thought relevant and accessible to the larger community of Black Christian women. This project is a three-tiered initiative consisting of three stages: five city-wide consultations with womanist scholars and preachers, a New York gala that celebrates the birthplace and the living legends of womanist thought and practice, and a conference with these pioneering scholars and clergy alongside aspiring scholars, activists and clergy who are interested in pursuing womanist vocations of their own. This project, which intends to make Christian womanism accessible to Black churchwomen while incorporating diverse women’s experiences and voices into the process is a new phase of the Black Religious Scholars Group (BRSG), which is the outreach component of Vanderbilt University Divinity School’s Kelly Smith Institute of Black Church Studies. The goal of this project is to develop a new model for exploring Christian womanist witness that brings together the genius of womanist theology with the lived faith of Black Christian women.