A leading American Methodist and ecumenical theologian, Georgia Harkness (1891-1974) was named Churchwoman of the Year in 1958 by the Religious Heritage Society of America.

Georgia Harkness was born April 21, 1891, the youngest of four children of Joseph Warren and Lillie (Merrill) Harkness. She grew up in Harkness, New York, a small Adirondack town named for her grandfather, and graduated from Cornell University in 1912. She had long been interested in the Methodist Church, and after teaching high school for six years she went to Boston University for graduate studies in religion, earning the Ph.D. in 1923 with a dissertation titled "The Relations between the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics in the Thought of Thomas Hill Green."

Harkness then spent 15 years teaching religion and philosophy at Elmira College for Women in Elmira, New York. She studied for brief periods during this time at Harvard University, Yale Divinity School, and Union Theological...