Leah R. Thomas, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care; Director of Contextual Education
About Leah
Leah Thomas, PhD, blends an academic focus on pastoral care and Christian social ethics with professional experience in hospital chaplaincy, pastoring and nonprofit management. Her ministry and theological commitments inform her teaching and research, which carefully attends to and incorporates voices excluded by the dominant culture, asking how these voices inform and shift caregiving. Leah鈥檚 research interests include anti-racist and intercultural pastoral care, trauma, culture, and the role of embodiment in caregiving and Christian spiritual practices. Her desire to teach at bg真人 is rooted in a commitment to peace, justice and anti-racism in a world that is reeling from disparity, injustice and divisiveness.
How does the Bible shape your vocation as a professor?
The sacred stories of the Bible speak to us about the ways our ancestors in the faith made meaning of their experience of a transcendent creator God who chose to come close enough to walk with them. We bring many lenses to biblical texts, and those whom we accompany as pastoral caregivers also bring their own history, lenses and interpretations.
As a caregiver, it鈥檚 important to be able to recognize and converse with our own readings of the texts so that we can better appreciate how the Bible functions in the lives of those seeking care. At times, our reading of certain texts may reveal God as knowable and intimate. At other times, awareness of scholarly theological perspectives, culture and context informs and challenges our understanding. Many times we may be holding both of these!
It is important to inquire about how our context shapes our readings of texts, and to put this into dialogue with the ways that the context of the care seeker/community informs their reading of texts. This practice enables us to offer care that integrates sensitive, culturally-informed perspectives on the Bible, while also recognizing Bible鈥檚 power to transform lives and communities toward peace and justice.
What can students expect in your classroom?
In the classroom, I value the rich and varied experiences of students鈥� lives. I encourage students to bring their own wisdom into the room to create a mutual, intersubjective learning environment in which we are all contributing to something 鈥渓arger than ourselves.鈥� The text (or other resource) becomes the thing around which we gather, each bringing his/her/their experience and unique history to enable the community to engage with this resource in new and complex ways.
I draw on practical techniques such as roleplays, verbatims and embodied exercises, coupled with critical thinking and theological reflection, to help us approach caregiving from a holistic perspective.
Why is it important for you to integrate diverse voices into your teaching?
The field of pastoral care in particular has historically failed to address systemic racism and white privilege, which morally restricts and damages caregivers, care seekers and communities in numerous ways. As such, it is necessary to draw on the voices of more recent pastoral care scholars from a variety of social locations who are committed to undoing oppression. These resources enable students to explore the impact of intersections of culture, gender, race, sexuality, ability and class on both the individual pastoral encounter and pastoral care within the wider community.
My approach to pastoral care also explores the structures, institutions and processes that surround an encounter and the ways they affect the situation. This approach invites us to recognize, however, that information about culture can never be a substitute for the uniqueness and sacredness of a particular encounter.
My goal for students
- My goal for students is to develop an approach to caregiving as a practice that honors both the full humanity of the individual person and the complexity and intricacy of the community of which that person is a part. I also want them to experience caregiving as integrally connected with larger systemic realities.
- I want students to leave bg真人 with the ability to practice caregiving that inhabits and contributes to peace, anti-racism and intercultural awareness.
- I want students to be the kind of people who are attentive to the promptings of the Spirit as they embody the inclusive welcome of Christ for all people, accompanying individuals and communities through the joys, struggles and crises of their lives.
Publications
- 鈥淭he case for just care: How Christian social ethics enhances pastoral theology,鈥� , 3rd edition (Pandora, 2022), co-edited by Leah D. Bueckert and Daniel S. Schipani
- “Job and Disability Theology: A Lens for Examining Communal Blame.鈥澛�Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology聽25.2 (Fall 2024): 56-63.”
- Just Care: Ethical Anti-Racist Pastoral Care with Women with Mental Illness (Lexington/Fortress, 2020)
- 鈥溾�� Spotlight on Teaching, March 9, 2021, 23鈥�28.
- 鈥淓thical, anti-racist pastoral care with women with mental illness: A research note on Just Care.鈥� Vision 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 80鈥�91.
- Review of The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide, Pamela Cooper White. Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology (Oct 2024).
Awards
- 2017, The Reverend Robert W. Edgar Dissertation Prize for Social Justice, Drew University
- 2013, Faculty Award for Most Outstanding Teaching Assistant, Drew University
- 2012, Bishop Edmund Award for Excellence in Coursework, Drew University
Invite bg真人
Invite bg真人 is a unique opportunity to invite the faculty and staff of bg真人 to come directly to you to address a certain topic.Possible topics include:
- Anti-Racist and Intercultural Pastoral Care
- Embodiment in Christian Spiritual Practices and Pastoral Care
- Pastoral Care
- Trauma and Trauma-Informed Caregiving
- Somatic聽Practices聽for Addressing Trauma