Gabrielle Thomas

Gabrielle Thomas joined the faculty in 2019 following a position at Durham University, U.K. She is a priest in the Church of England, having served most recently as a Minor Canon in Durham Cathedral. She is a historical theologian working on questions relating to theological anthropology, evil and suffering. Her teaching interests include Early Christianity, Evil, Suffering, and Anglican Studies. She has won awards for her teaching in the U.K. and is a 2020 recipient of the Inspire Yale award.

The Rev’d Dr Thomas’s first book, The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus (CUP, 2019) explores the breadth of Nazianzen’s account of what it means for a human person to be created according to the image of God, and how this differs from modern concerns, such as, how are humans different from other animals. Following this, she edited The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church: Explorations in Theology and Practice (Cascade, 2020), a volume of essays which analyse questions relating to women and ordination in the Orthodox Church and includes contributions by Met. Kallistos Ware, Fr. Andrew Louth and Fr. John Behr. Her next monograph For the Good of the Church (SCM Press, 2021) analyses the possibilities for Christian unity through practicing receptive ecumenism amongst groups of women, who work in churches. Her current research explores the themes of suffering and evil in Early Christian thought, focusing particularly on the role of the devil and demons, and asks how the texts might be interpreted in conversation with questions arising in contemporary Christian theology.