Dr Abigail Maguire

Associate Supervisor

Abigail is an Associate Supervisor for postgraduate supervision at Westcott House, specialising in the following areas:

Practical Theology
Pedagogy, Educational Practice and Theological Education
Ethics and Pastoral Theology (with specialist interest in beginning and end of life)
Law and Public Theology (specifically medical law)
Christian Doctrine (especially personhood, sin and salvation)

Abigail is the Director of Learning and Student Experience at Moorlands College, Dorset having previously been the Head of Undergraduate Studies. As part of the Executive Leadership Team, she oversees the College’s academic provision and its staff. Her role involves strategic leadership of all aspects of theological education including teaching and learning, spiritual formation, pastoral care and research.

Prior to Moorlands, Abigail worked in education in a variety of contexts including mainstream university. She holds a PhD in Education and Theology, and an MA in Bioethics and Medical Law. She is passionate about everyday research and helping equip others to conduct effective research in their own contexts and settings. Much of her own research is based around her everyday role in theological education and spiritual formation.

She is also interested in the interface of theology, ethics and medicine. Specifically, the impact of Christian faith at the edges of life (both beginning and end) and its implications for law and policy.

Abigail is the Co-chair of the Practical Theology Tyndale Fellowship Study Group, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the JNC Professional Youth Work.

Outside of academic pursuits, Abigail has been involved in church leadership over many years, initially coordinating youth ministry in church settings across Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Surrey. More recently, she has been a regular part of her church’s preaching team.

Publications

‘Life, Death and Discomfort: Female Practitioners’ Strategies for Navigating the Topic of Abortion in Educational Settings’ in Cullen, F. and Whelan, M. (eds). Critical Pedagogies of Discomfort: The Ethics of Challenging Encounters in Practice and Professional Education. London: Bloomsbury Academic Forthcoming 2025.

Maguire, Abigail and Isaac McNish, ‘Sin can look like many different things’: an exploration of undergraduate evangelical theology students’ conceptualisations of sin in relation to practice, Practical Theology, 18(2), 2025, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/175607

Maguire, Abigail, Sinéad Gormally, and Mike Seal (eds.) Higher Education, Community Connection and Collaborations. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.

‘Liminal Life: A Theological Response to Preimplantation Pregnancy, Embryo Disposal and Loss’, in Karen O’Donnell and Claire Williams (eds.) Pregnancy and Birth: Critical Theological Conceptions, 2024, 280-298.

Maguire, Abigail and Helen Miller, ‘The Professional Christian or the Christian Profession? Assessing Spiritual Formation in Theological Education’, Religion and Education 51(1), 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2024.2325910

‘Supporting beginning Religious Education Teachers in approaching controversial issues in the classroom’, in Helen Sheehan (ed.) Mentoring Religious Education Teachers in the Secondary School, 2022, 217-230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003191087-19

‘An Examination into the Embryo Disposal Practices of Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority Licenced Fertility Centers in the United Kingdom’, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 30(1), 2021, pp. 161-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S096318012000064X

‘Towards a Holistic Definition of Death: The Biological, Philosophical and Social Deficiencies of Brain Stem Death Criteria’, The New Bioethics 25(2), 2019, pp. 172-184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2019.1606148