Georgia Elma Harkness

Georgia Elma Harkness was an American Methodist theologian, philosopher, minister, teacher, social reformer, and hymn writer. She earned a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1923, taught at Mount Holyoke College from 1937 to 1939, and later became the first woman to teach theology at an American seminary when she joined Garrett Biblical Institute. Locally ordained a Methodist deacon in 1926 and elder in 1938, she worked for full clergy rights for women and spoke against war, racism, and economic injustice. She published more than thirty books and also wrote the hymn Hope of the World. At Marion Norris's request, Harkness wrote two explicitly Christian stanzas for Stone's peace song while at Mount Holyoke; one of them is the concluding stanza most often printed in Christian hymnals.