Barbara Brown Taylor
Dates:
Born September 21, 1951
Georgia Connections
Atlanta, Fulton County, Born in Atlanta.
Clarkesville, Habersham County
Inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2024.
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith and Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others were selected for inclusion on the lists of "Books All Georgians Should Read" in 2010 and 2019, respectively.
Notes of Interest
Barbara Brown Taylor is one of America's most acclaimed and eloquent preachers. She is also a teacher, essayist and author of a dozen books who now makes her home in rural Northeast Georgia. She was the pastor of several Episcopal churches in the state before deciding to leave the formal ministry and undertake her own spiritual journey outside the church. She described that with clear-eyed affection in her bestselling 2006 memoir, Leaving Church. In 2010, the Georgia Center for the Book chose An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith for inclusion on its list of "Books All Georgians Should Read." Barbara Brown Taylor was born September 21, 1951, in Atlanta. she received her B.A. in religion at Emory University in 1973 and her Master of Divinity degree from Yale University in 1976. She was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta in 1983 and became a priest one year later. Her insights and skills in the pulpit led Baylor University in 1996 to proclaim her one of the best preachers in the English-speaking world. Her presence substantially increased the growth of congregations at her churches before her decision to give up her ministry at Grace-Cavalry Church in Clarkesville in 2004. Since then, she has become a teacher at Piedmont College in Demorest not far from her home in Clarkesville and serves as adjunct professor of spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. The author of 12 books, her honors include the Emory Medal from Emory University in 1998, several awards of excellence from the Associated Church Press and being named Georgia Author of the Year in 2006.
In 2010, the Georgia Center for the Book chose An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith for inclusion on its list of "Books All Georgians Should Read." Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others was selected for the 2019 list. She was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2024.
Her books includeThe Preaching Life (2003); Gospel Medicine (1995); Bread of Angels (1997); God in Pain (1998); Mixed Blessings (1998); When God is Silent (1999); Home By Another Way (1999); The Luminous Web (2000); Speaking of Sin (2000); The Seeds of Heaven (2004); Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (2006); An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (2009); Learning To Walk In The Dark (2014); Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others (2018); Home by Another Way: A Christmas Story (2018); and Always A Guest: Speaking of Faith Far From Home (2020).
