The Rev. Dr. Sarah Coakley is one of the most original and consequential theologians in the world. An Anglican priest and philosopher of religion, she was the first woman elected the Norris-Hulse professor of divinity at Cambridge, a chair she held until 2018, and before that she was the Mallinckrodt professor of divinity at Harvard. She is the author of eight books, including “God, Sexuality and the Self,” the first volume of her projected four-part systematic theology.
I spoke to Dr. Coakley about why she decided, at a young age, that she wanted to be a theologian; the times she has wanted to disbelieve in God but never quite could; and her attempt to reunite academic theology with the life of the church and the practice of prayer. Contemplative prayer, Dr. Coakley said, is a “crucible of purification.”
My editor, Aaron Retica, joined me for the conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity. It is the eighth in a series of interviews I am doing that explores the world of Christian faith.
Sarah Coakley: "I’m trying to overcome a chasm that has opened up in theological training and thinking, especially in the post-World War II period. Academic theology in university settings and seminary settings has become more and more esoteric. This is partly the influence of postmodern speak, which has done a very great disservice to the church and to theology. If most high-level theology is written incomprehensibly to the person in the pew, then a real disjunction has opened up between a set of conversations that are happening in the university for the purposes of the egos of the people taking part versus the people who are actually holding the faith." https://t.co/iKCsxpJcRm
— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) October 18, 2026
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