Fleming Rutledge is an Episcopal priest widely recognized in North America and the UK as a preacher, lecturer, and teacher of other preachers. Her sermons have been widely praised. Ordained to the diaconate in 1975, Rutledge was one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church (January 1977). She matriculated at General Theological Seminary and received her Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1975. For fourteen years Rutledge was assistant and then Senior Associate at Grace Church in New York City. She also served as interim rector of St. John's, Salisbury, Connecticut, and has twice been a resident Fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton. She has been a resident at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto School of Theology, where she taught preaching, and also a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. In 2017 her book  The Crucifixion was named  Christianity Today's Book of the Year.

Kimlyn J. Bender is Professor of Christian Theology and Holder of the Foy Valentine Chair in Christian Theology and Ethics at Truett Seminary, Baylor University.