Dr Jenny Leith

Lecturer in Christian Ethics
Tel: 01223 272961
Email: j.leith@westcott.cam.ac.uk

Jenny is Lecturer in Christian Ethics, teaching on the Durham and Cambridge programmes. Her taught modules include TMM2171 Christian Faith and Ethical Living, TMM3181 Christian Faith and Ethical Living, TMM41420 Themes in Moral Theology and BTh44 Christian Ethics. She also has pastoral responsibility for a tutor group.

Jenny is Chair of the Grove Doctrine series editorial group and Reviews Editor for Crucible, the Journal of Christian Social Ethics. A political theologian and ethicist, with a particular interest in Christian formation, Jenny began her graduate studies with an MA in Systematic Theology at King’s College London and completed her PhD in Theology at Durham University. This research grew out of several years spent working as a parliamentary researcher and in social policy.

After a postdoctoral research fellowship with the University of Roehampton, she served as Director of Studies at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, and has taught at the Lindisfarne College of Theology, the College of the Resurrection (Mirfield), King’s College London, and Sarum College.

Jenny’s research interests bring together negative theology, political theory, and ecclesiology. She has a particular interest in the question of how Christian ethical and political formation can and should take place, especially with how this happens in the context of the Church of England. She has a little-used undergraduate degree in Russian, which she is trying to weave back into her theological research!

Publications

Political Formation: Being formed by the Spirit in church and world (London: SCM). In press, forthcoming 2023.

‘Radical Democratic Discipleship: Encountering the Spirit in civic life’, Political Theology, December 2020 (DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2020.1863037)

‘The Place of Civic Belonging: The dangers and possibilities of Anglican polity’, Special issue: ‘Who may belong? Nationalism, conservative religion, and identity in German, Dutch, and Anglo-American politics’, Religion, State, and Society (Forthcoming).

‘How to be Political: Smith’s Primer for Pilgrim Citizens’ in Studies in Christian Ethics (October 2018). Smith, James K.A.  Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017.

Review in Studies in Christian Ethics (May 2020). Fea, John. Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Trump. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018.

Review in Crucible (July 2019). Ed. Spencer, Stephen. Theology Reforming Society: Revisiting Anglican Social Theology. London: SCM Press, 2017.