Elaine Heath | Co-Founder

Dr. Elaine Heath's scholarly work is interdisciplinary, integrating pastoral, biblical, and spiritual theology in ways that bridge the gap between academy, church, and world. Her current research interests focus on community as a means of healing trauma, emergent forms of Christianity, and alternative forms of theological education for the church in rapidly changing contexts. 

Heath is the author of numerous books and articles, the most recent of which is Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors (2019), a republication with updates of a previous volume: We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse (2011). Her other publications include Five Means of Grace: Experience God's Love the Wesleyan Way (2017), The Mystic Way of Evangelism, Revised and Updated 2nd Edition (2017),  God Unbound: Wisdom from Galatians for the Anxious Church (2016), Missional.Monastic.Mainline (co-authored with Larry Duggins, 2014), Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Communities (co-authored with Scott Kisker, 2010, and Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer (2009). 

Heath’s vocational journey includes having served as Dean of the Divinity School at Duke University, and the McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is a pioneer in new forms of theological education. In that capacity Heath is co-founded the Missional Wisdom Foundation, and more recently she co-founded Neighborhood Seminary, a contextualized model of missional theological education for laity.

Elaine is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and served in pastoral ministry prior to her academic ministry.  She lives with her husband at Spring Forest, an intentional Christian Community and farm in rural North Carolina where she serves as Abbess.