Dr. Sarah Stewart-Kroeker Joins Princeton Seminary Faculty

Princeton Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Stewart-Kroeker as Associate Professor of Early Christian Theology. Stewart-Kroeker, most recently a member of the theology faculty at the University of Geneva, begins her tenure at Princeton Seminary this fall.

“I am absolutely thrilled that Dr. Sarah Stewart-Kroeker has agreed to join our faculty as Associate Professor of Early Christian Theology,” says Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs John R. Bowlin. “A tenured professor at the University of Geneva, a world-class scholar of Augustine’s theology and ethics, a beloved teacher and mentor, and a smart and thoughtful colleague, she will be a blessing to our community.”

Stewart-Kroeker holds degrees from McMaster University, Yale University, and Princeton Theological Seminary, where she earned her PhD in 2014. Her dissertation focused on the process of moral and aesthetic formation depicted in Augustine’s pilgrimage imagery. Between 2014 and 2016, she was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, where her research focused on world-weariness in Augustine’s writings on the Psalms.

Since then, Stewart-Kroeker’s work has largely focused on Augustine and Augustinianism (both historical and contemporary), virtue ethics, and aesthetics. Her other research interests include environmental theology; exemplarity, martyrology, and sacrifice; and sex, sexuality, and gender. Her work has been published in the Journal of Religion, Augustinian Studies, Journal of Religious Ethics, and more. She expects that her time at Princeton Seminary will include a deeper look into a research topic that’s been percolating among her other interests for years: Augustine’s political theology of the emotions.

“Sarah Stewart-Kroeker’s first book is one of the most illuminating studies of Augustinian theology I have ever read,” says Jeffrey Stout, Professor of Religion Emeritus at Princeton University, referring to Pilgrimage as Moral and Aesthetic Formation in Augustine’s Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). “Her essays on joy, friendship, formation, sacrifice, punishment, temporality, environmental thought, and the art of ‘monstrous men’ combine learnedness, bravery, and critical acuity to an uncommon degree. What a terrific addition to the PTS faculty!”

In addition to her significant body of research, Stewart-Kroeker brings extensive teaching experience to her role at Princeton Seminary. As the Jacques de Senarclens Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Geneva, she taught classes on emotions and affectivity, forced migrations, ecumenical methodologies, and feminist ethics and theology.

“I’m so grateful to win Dr. Stewart-Kroeker as a colleague,” says Hanna Reichel, Associate Professor of Reformed Theology. “Her deep knowledge of Christian theology paired with attention to pressing contemporary concerns, especially around gender and environmental justice, her passion for teaching, and her international and ecumenical experience will wonderfully complement our department and the school at large.”

Stewart-Kroeker hopes to develop new and exciting courses at Princeton Seminary, touching on topics like Augustine, the controversies and creeds that defined the early church, sexuality and gender, eschatology, and more. “Princeton Seminary is one of the most exciting institutions in theological education today,” Stewart-Kroeker says. “I see PTS as a leader in forming students and leaders for the shifting landscape of 21st-century Christian communities and theologies, and I’m keen to be part of charting that course.”