Your browser is no longer supported

To get the best experience, we suggest using a newer version of Internet Explorer/Edge, or using another supported browser such as Google Chrome.

Emmanuel College

Director of Contextual Education
Associate Professor of Contextual Education and Theology 

  • BA Art History and Religious Studies, McMaster University (2002) 
  • MDiv Yale Divinity School (2005) 
  • MA Theological Studies, Vanderbilt University (2010)
  • PhD Theological Studies, Vanderbilt University (2011)

Contact

Natalie Wigg-Stevenson joined the theology department at Emmanuel College in 2011 to direct the Contextual Education Program. She is the author of Ethnographic Theology: An Inquiry into the Production of Theological Knowledge (Palgrave, 2013) and Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art (SCM, 2021). Wigg-Stevenson’s interdisciplinary research deploys ethnography, historical and contemporary Christian traditions, performance art and creative nonfiction to generate experimental approaches to theological knowledge. She is a leader in conversations related to ethnographic theology, having co-founded the Ecclesial Practices group at the American Academy of Religion and serving on multiple boards related to research and publishing in the discipline.

Wigg-Stevenson teaches basic degree courses at Emmanuel in Contextual Education, Ministry Integration, Context/Power/Coloniality, Queer Theory and Theology and Embodiment, as well as advanced degree courses in Ethnographic Approaches to Theology and Cultural Theories of Practice. She also teaches in the Vic One “Gooch Stream” at Victoria College. She is always seeking new ways to decolonize pedagogy through neuro-affirming, mutual, experiential and spiritually grounded teaching practices.

During the upcoming academic year, Wigg-Stevenson’s primary service to the Emmanuel community will be as director of the Contextual Education (CXE) Program. One key goal will be implementing various activities from the “Nurturing Ministry” project through enhanced community partnerships and by integrating more spiritual practices into CXE-required courses. She will continue supporting her faculty colleagues as an officer for the Victoria chapter of the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) and serving on the Faculty Executive during the winter term. She will also continue working with incoming students around the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and will serve on the Indigenous Advisory Circle at Victoria University.

As a public theologian, Wigg-Stevenson is committed to reimagining public theology beyond its purely political connotations to include artistic expressions as well. She is a frequent contributor to Sojourners Magazine (her 2023 “Living the Word” monthly guest columnist spot is relevant again for this year’s lectionary cycle), a frequent guest on podcasts related to theology and culture and her short story “with apologies to Vanessa” was shortlisted for the BC Federation of Writers creative nonfiction prize in 2021. Her website, www.transgressivedevotional.com, is an open-access devotional resource for individual and communal use.

She is currently working on a creative nonfiction manuscript that braids narratives of infertility, walking the Camino de Santiago, pregnancy and birthing to explore how memory operates in “thin spaces.” She is also developing (auto)ethnographic research on the use of psychedelic medicines for mental health and spiritual practice.

When not engaged with all things academically theological, she enjoys hiking, doing yoga, reading lots of non-academic material and spending time with her spouse, Tyler, and their three wild and wonderful daughters: Georgia, Heloise and Evensong.

Publications

Books
  • Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art (London: SCM Press, 2021). (R)
  • Ethnographic Theology: An Inquiry Into the Production of Theological Knowledge (New York: Palgrave Press, 2014). (R)
Edited books
  • Guest editor for Ecclesial Practices (peer-reviewed journal), special issue, Summer 2016.
  • With Pamela Couture, Robert Mager and Pamela R. McCarroll, Complex Identities in a Shifting World: Practical Theological Perspectives (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2015).
Podcasts
Articles in academic journals
  • “‘Otherwise Possibilities’ for Interreligious Worship,” in Festschrift for Elaine Graham (Brill, forthcoming). (R)
  • “Ethnographic Interventions into Systematic Theology,” solicited chapter written for Harvard Theological Review, forthcoming. (R)
  • “Dismantling the Supercrip Prof: Theological Education and Faculty Accessibility,” in Journal of Disability and Religion, vol. 27(4), October 2023, pp. 520-536. (R)
  • With Kristy Nabhan-Warren, “Situating the ‘Crisis of Representation’ in Ethnographic Approaches to Theology and Working Toward Community-Centred, Dialogic Approaches,” in Ecclesial Practices, vol. 8(2), December 2021, pp. 123-128. (R)
  • “Comment” piece on Nadya Pohran’s “Belief-Inclusive Research” for Current Anthropology.
  • “Imitating Christ Elsewhere?” in “Roundtable Review of Todd Whitmore’s Imitating Christ in Magwi,” review symposium in Practical Theology, 13:3 (2020), pp. 319-336.
  • “Checking and Folding: Refusing the Impatience of Theodicy,” in Toronto Journal of Theology, 33(2), pp. 241-246 (Fall 2018). (R)
  • “What’s Really Going On: Ethnographic Theology and the Production of Theological Knowledge,” in Cultural Studies<>Critical Methodologies (November 2017). (R)
  • “You Don’t Look Like a Baptist Minister: An Autoethnographic Retrieval of ‘Women’s Experience’ as an Analytic Category for Feminist Theology,” in Feminist Theology (January 2017). (R)
  • “An Intriguing Third Way: Mapping Contextual Education for Curricular Integration,” in Teaching Theology and Religion (January 2016). (R)
  • “From Proclamation to Conversation: Ethnographic Disruptions to Theological Normativity,” in Palgrave Communications: Radical Theologies Collection (October 2015). (R)
  • “Reflexive Theology: A Preliminary Proposal,” in Practical Matters (Spring 2013). (R)
Chapters in multi-author volumes
  • “Inductive Theology as Performance Art,” solicited chapter written for Handbook on Inductive Theology (Brill, forthcoming).
  • “Rest, Release, Repeat: The Use of Embodied Prayer Practice for Integrative Contextual Education,” in Experience: Spiritual Formation in Theological Field Education, Dawn Davis and Mathew Flodings, eds., Rowman & Littlefield, 2025.
  • “Luring the Divine: Affect, Esthetics, and Future Directions for Ethnographic Theology’s Contribution to the Christian Traditions,” in Wiley Blackwell Companion to Qualitative Research (Wiley Blackwell, 2022).
  • “Just Don’t Call It Ethnography: A Critical Ethnographic Pedagogy for Transformative Theological Education,” in Qualitative Research in Theological Education: Pedagogy in Practice (SCM Press, 2018). (R)
  • “Trying to Tell the Truth About A Life: The Issue of Representation for Ethnographic Theology,” book chapter in What Really Matters: A Nordic Perspective on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, eds. (Pickwick, 2018). (R)
  • “To Walk in Ways That Might Make Us Feel Lost,” book chapter in What Really Matters: A Nordic Perspective on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, eds. (Pickwick, 2018). (R)
Other publications
  • “Goin’ Up to the Spirit in the Sky,” Sojourners Magazine, May 2023, vol. 52(4), p. 48.
  • “God Births Creation,” Sojourners Magazine, June 2023, vol. 52(5), pp. 48-49.
  • “Tending the Shoots of Redemption,” Sojourners Magazine, July 2023, vol. 52(6), pp. 48-49.
  • “Attempting the Impossible,” Sojourners Magazine, August 2023, vol. 52(7), pp. 48-49.
  • “When We Feel ‘Angry Enough to Die,’” Sojourners Magazine, September 2023, vol. 52(8), pp. 48-49.
  • “Reading with the Ancestors,” Sojourners Magazine, October 2023, online.
  • “Everybody Knows It’s Coming Apart,” Sojourners Magazine, November 2023, vol. 52(9), pp. 48-49.
  • “A Season of Promiscuous Promise,” Sojourners Magazine, December 2023, vol. 52(10), pp. 48-49.
  • Syndicate roundtable responses for Transgressive Devotion: https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/transgressive-devotion/
  • “I Want to Believe,” Sojourners Magazine, vol. 52, no. 3 (2023), pp. 48-49.
  • “The Complexities of Wisdom,” Sojourners Magazine, vol. 52, no. 2 (2023), pp. 46-47.
  • “The Risks of Incarnation,” Sojourners Magazine, vol. 52, no. 2 (2023), pp. 48-49.
  • “Blessing Our Comings and Goings,” Sojourners Magazine, vol. 52, no. 1 (2023), p. 48.
  • “When a Trusted Spiritual Leader Turns Out to Be a Predator,” feature article in Sojourners (June 2020).
  • “Editorial Introduction,” in Ecclesial Practices (Fall 2016).
  • “Reconciliatory Hope: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Passing,” in Postcolonial Networks (Postcolonial Body Performance Narratives), March 8, 2011.
  • “White, Privileged, Fragile,” feature article in Sojourners (September-October 2016).
  • “The Agony and Ecstasy of Baptism,” cover article in Sojourners (March 2016).
Current doctoral supervision
Students
  • Laura Gallagher-Doucette (incoming)
  • Jemma Myma Suwa (incoming)
  • Marc Colbourne
  • Allison Moore (co-supervisor)
  • Eliot Chandler Burns
Dissertations in progress
  • Robbie Walker, “Epistemic Injustice and the Possibility of a Queer Pentecostal Imaginary.”
  • Mike MacKenzie, “Meaning Disrupted: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into the Relationship Between Doubt and Everyday Theologies.”
  • Kristen Blair, “Choosing Otherwise: Agency, Devotion, and Epistemic Legitimacy: An Ethnographic Study With Latter-day Saint Women in Toronto, Canada.”
Dissertations completed
  • Ben Menghini, “Tragic Orthodoxy: Cultivating a Theological Disposition Beyond Method.”
  • Robert Timmins (co-supervisor), “A Que(e)ry Concerning Memory, Mourning and Christian Praxis.”

Professional Designations

2020-present  Member of Editorial Board, Brill Handbook on Empirical and Qualitative Methods in Systematic Theological Research
2016-present  Member of Editorial Board, Ecclesial Practices journal
  Member of Editorial Board, T&T Clarke Series in Ethics, Ethnography and Theology
2014-2020 Co-chair, “Ecclesial Practices” Group, American Academy of Religion
2013-present  Founding member of Steering Committee, “Ecclesial Practices” Group, American Academy of Religion
2010-present  Ordained to word and table, Baptist
  Licensure to preach, Baptist
                                
  • Courses Taught:
  • Context and Ministry
  • Contextual Education
  • Ministry Integration Seminar
  • Theology 1
  • Theology 2
  • Theologies of Embodiment
  • Queer Christian Theologies