Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D.

The Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., was the 11th President of Chicago Theological Seminary. She has been a Professor of Theology at CTS for 20 years, director of the Ph.D. Center for five years; has a Ph.D., from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity (Summa Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School and a B.A. from Smith College.

An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible. Thistlethwaite works in the area of contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation. Her works include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock (Fortress, 1996) and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (Oxford University Press, 1995). Her newest work is Adam, Eve and the Genome: Theology in Dialogue with the Human Genome Project (Fortress Press, 2003).

Since the September 11, 2001, Thistlethwaite has been working diligently to promote peace. She has had two appearances on ABC News NIGHTLINE, February 28, 2003 and March 4, 2003, and has written more than a dozen newspaper editorials that have appeared in The Chicago Tribune; the Chicago Sun-Times, and in the Dallas Morning News on March 8, 2003. Thistlethwaite has also been interviewed and quoted on various radio shows in the United States and in the Middle East, particularly in Iran. She also presented a speech to the United States Institute of Peace, which appears in their Special Report. She is a weekly contributor to the WashingtonPost/Newsweek online "On Faith" blog.

In 1999, Orbis Press published the tenth anniversary edition of Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside, a work Thistlethwaite edited with Mary Potter Engel. This is one of the most widely used textbooks in the U.S. to teach theology.

In 1998, Pilgrim Press published Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, an edited work by Glen Harold Stassen, in which Thistlethwaite contributed the first chapter. In 2002, Westminister John Knox Press released a revised edition entitled Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace.

In 2002, Chalice Press released Strike Terror No More: Theology, Ethics, and the New War, an edited collection by Jon L. Berquist with a chapter by Thistlethwaite entitled "New Wars, Old Wineskins."

In 2003, Fortress Press published Adam, Eve, and the Genome: The Human Genome Project and Theology, which was edited by Thistlethwaite, and in which she wrote the introduction and two chapters.