“Few souls are as synced to the world’s mysteries as Barbara Brown Taylor…. Taylor writes spiritual nonfiction that rivals the poetic power of C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner.”—Time Magazine

Guest Speaker | May 4, 2025 | 10:30 am service.

Barbara Brown Taylor is an American Episcopal priest, academic, and author. In 2014, Time magazine placed her in its annual Time 100 list of most influential people in the world. She 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. She is known for her profound and accessible explorations of faith, doubt, and the spiritual journey.

In 1996, she was named one of the twelve “most effective” preachers in the English-speaking world by Baylor University. She was awarded the 1998 Emory Medal by the Emory Alumni Association of Emory University for her distinguished achievement in education. In February 2010, Taylor ranked in the top ten most influential living preachers in a poll conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention.

After serving three congregations — two in downtown Atlanta and one in rural Habersham County, Georgia — she joined the faculty of Piedmont College as the first Butman Professor of Religion and Philosophy. 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. She has written twelve books on faith and spirituality. In 2024 she was elected to the Georgia Writer’s Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia.

Since leaving teaching in 2017, she continues to write, and she speaks at events in the U.S. and around the globe. When not speaking, she is the full-time caretaker of a farm in the foothills of the Appalachians, where she lives with her husband Ed and very many animals.

Photo: Kenny Simmons