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Emmanuel College
About Emmanuel / Emmanuel Faculty / HyeRan Kim-Cragg

Professor HyeRan Kim-Cragg

Principal
Professor of Preaching

MDiv Hanshin Graduate School of Theology, Hanshin University 
ThD Emmanuel College, University of Toronto 

Contact

As a leading postcolonial scholar in homiletics, HyeRan Kim-Cragg is committed to an interdisciplinary approach to homiletics in practical theology. Her teaching and research address topics related to biblical interpretation, postcolonial theories, feminist homiletics and liturgy, migration and decolonizing practices. Her current research focuses on connecting the ecological crisis with preaching, and she is also working on a manuscript.

Before she returned to Emmanuel College, her alma mater, to be appointed the inaugural Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Professor of Preaching in 2019, she held the Lydia Gruchy Professorship at St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon, for more than 10 years. Kim-Cragg began her teaching career at Hanshin University, Korea, in 2005, a few months after submitting her doctoral dissertation. She taught there from 2005 to 2008 as an overseas mission personnel of the United Church of Canada.

Kim-Cragg was appointed the 14th principal of Emmanuel College in 2022. She is the first racialized person to lead the institution as principal and to be promoted to full professor in its nearly 100-year history. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020 for her notable contributions to intercultural ministry, antiracism and postcolonial scholarship.

She has served the United Church of Canada for more than 25 years. A recipient of numerous scholarships, including the McGeachy Senior, Emma Kaufman and Rowntree scholarships, Kim-Cragg is an active researcher and prolific writer. She has published 15 books and written more than 50 articles. Her groundbreaking monographs include Interdependence (2018) and Postcolonial Preaching (2021). Her most recent publication, Moments in Time (2024), is considered the first of its kind in United Church preaching.


Selected Publications

Books

  • Moments in Time: Sermons from The United Church of Canada: 1910-2020 (United Church Publishing House: 2024, co-authored with Don Schweitzer) 
  • Conversations about Divine Mystery: In Honor of Gail Ramshaw (Fortress: 2023, co-edited with Stephen Burns) 
  • Practical Theology Amid Environmental Crises (2022, co-edited with Pam McCarroll) 
  • Postcolonial Preaching: Creating a Ripple Effect (Lexington, 2021) 
  • Interdependence:  A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology (Pickwick, 2018) 
  • Story and Song: A Postcolonial Interplay between Christian Education (Peter Lang, 2012) 
  • Mission and Migration: The Changing Mission Goals of The United Church of Canada and the Mission of Koreans Within It (Daeganggan, 2019) (co-authored with Don Schweitzer) 
  • Religion and Migration: Negotiating Hospitality, Vulnerability and Agency (EVA, 2019) (co-edited with Andrea Bieler, Isolde Karle and Ilona Nord) 
  • Reading In Between (Pickwick, 2019) (co-edited with Néstor Medina and Alison Hari-Singh) 
  • What Does the Bible Say?  In Conversation with Popular Culture (Cascade, 2017) (co-authored with Mary Ann Beavis) 
  • 2 Thessalonians: Wisdom Commentary (Liturgical Press 2016) (co-authored with Mary Ann Beavis) 
  • The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture in The United Church of Canada (Daeganggan, 2016) (co-authored with Don Schweitzer) 
  • Hebrews:  Wisdom Commentary (Liturgical Press, 2015) (co-authored with Mary Ann Beavis): A book award by the Catholic Press Association 2016 
  • Introduction to The United Church of Canada. (Daeganggan, 2014) 
  • The Encounters: Retelling the Bible from Migration and Intercultural Perspectives (Daeganggan, 2013) (co-authored with EunYoung Choi) 

 

Selected Peer-reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Feminist Preaching.” In Feminist Theologies: A Companion, Kerrie Handasyde, Katharine Massam, Stephen Burns, eds. (London: SCM, 2024).
  • “Earth Bound Preaching: Engaging Scripture, Context, and Indigenous Wisdom.” Religions 15:3 (2024), Homiletical Theory and Praxis Special Issue.
  • “2 Thessalonians.” The Westminster Study Bible: NRSV Updated Edition and Deuterocanonical and Apocryphal Books. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2024.
  • “Body Politics.” In Christs love (re) moves boarders. Geneva: WCC, 2024.
  • “Preaching Addressing Environmental Crises through the Use of Scripture: An Exploration of a Practical Theological Methodology.” Religions: Practical Theology Amid Environmental Crises, Special Edition.
  • “Preaching Addressing Environmental Crises through the Use of Scripture: An Exploration of a Practical Theological Methodology.” Religions: Practical Theology Amid Environmental Crises, Special Edition (2022).
  • “Holy Scripture / Hermeneutical Practice / Oral Literature.” In International Handbook of Practical Theology: A Transcultural and Transreligious Approach, Birgit Weyel, Wilhelm Gräb, Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Cas Wepener, eds., 495–507. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022.
  • “Liberating Power of Unmasking Whiteness in Preaching.” In Unmasking White Preaching: Racial Hegemony, Resistance, and Possibilities in Homiletics, Lis Valle and Andrew Wymer, eds., 127–140. Lanham: Lexington, 2022.
  • “Invisibility of Whiteness in Homiletics.” The Homiletic 46:1 (2021): 28–39.
  • “Stings like a Sunburn: A Sermon for Emmanuel College during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability Vol. 1 (2021): 73–77.
  • “Preaching in a Post-Truth Era: Its Critical Task.” International Journal for Homiletics 4 (2020): 88–102.
  • “Unfinished and Unfolding Tasks of Preaching: Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, and Interreligious Approaches in the Postcolonial Context of Migration.” Homiletic: The Journal of the Academy of Homiletics 44:2 (2019): 4–17.
  • “Home, Hospitality, and Preaching: A Need for the Homiletical Engagement of Migration.” In Migration and Religion: Negotiating Sites of Hospitality, Resistance, and Vulnerability, Andrea Bieler, Isolde Karle, HyeRan Kim-Cragg and Ilona Nord, eds., 233–245. Leipzig: Eva, 2019.

 

Selected Courses

  • EMP 1301 Introduction to Homiletics
  • EMP 5307 Critical Issues in Preaching: Postmodern and Postcolonial Approaches
  • EMP 3353/6353 Anti-Racist Preaching and Community Engagement
  • EMP 1431 Introduction to Faith Formation and Christian Education


Ecclesial Affiliations

She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) and has served in pastoral, teaching, and intercultural leadership capacities with the United Church of Canada for the past twenty years.


Memberships and Academic Services

  • North American Academy of Homiletics
  • Executive Member of the Academy of Homiletics
  • Editorial Board of the Homiletic  
  • Societas Homiletica
  • Editorial Board of the International Journal of Homiletics (IJH)
  • International Academy of Practical Theology

Other Information

  • Former Dean of Global Institute of Theology, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC)
  • Advisor to Women in Leadership of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS)
  • Advisor to Diversity in the Association of Theological Schools (ATS)