Barbara Brown Taylor is the New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World, Learning to Walk in the Dark, and Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. Her first memoir, Leaving Church, made her a Georgia Author of the Year in 2006. After serving three congregations--two in downtown Atlanta and one in rural Habersham County, Georgia--she taught at Piedmont University for twenty years before becoming a full-time writer, speaker, and farmhand at her place in the foothills of the Appalachians. She was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2024 and her new book, Coming Down to Earth, is forthcoming from Convergent Books in 2027.
Credit Melissa Golden
Books
Always A Guest, Westminster John Knox, 2020
Holy Envy, HarperOne, 2019
Learning to Walk in the Dark, HarperOne, 2014
An Altar in the World, HarperOne, 2009
Leaving Church, HarperSanFrancisco, 2006
The Seeds of Heaven, Westminster John Knox, 2004
Speaking of Sin, Cowley, 2000
The Luminous Web, Cowley, 2000
Home By Another Way, Cowley, 1999
When God is Silent, Cowley, 1998
Mixed Blessings, Cowley, 1998
God in Pain, Abingdon, 1998
Bread of Angels, Cowley, 1997
Gospel Medicine, Cowley, 1995
The Preaching Life, Cowley, 1993
Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degrees
Christian Theological Seminary, 2020
Franklin College, 2016
Wake Forest University, 2006
The University of the South, 2005
Hastings University, 2005
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, 2002
Colgate University, 2001
Virginia Theological Seminary, 2001
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, 1997
Piedmont College, 1995
Past and Present Memberships and Honors
Mercer University Board of Trustees
President's Medal 2016, The Chautauqua Institution
Georgia Woman of the Year 2015
TIME 100 list of Most Influential People, 2014
100 Most Influential Georgians, 2012
Board of Advisors, Yale Divinity School
National Board of Advisors, The Buechner Institute
The Emory Medal, Emory University, 1998