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Biography
Jeffrey W. Barbeau (Ph.D., Marquette University) is professor of theology at Wheaton College, Editor of The Coleridge Bulletin, and a writer on British Romanticism, religion and literature, and the history of Christian thought.
Early in his education, Barbeau wondered how religion and literature might provide mutually enriching resources for theological reflection. This intuition led him to graduate studies in both theology and English literature, where the life and writings of the philosophical theologian and poet S. T. Coleridge provided a crucial dialogue partner for his work. At Wheaton, he teaches courses in historical and systematic theology and researches the historical and religious context of British literature.
His books include monographs, anthologies, and edited books, including The Last Romantic: C. S. Lewis, English Literature, and Modern Theology (2025), The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism and Religion (2021), The Spirit of Methodism: From the Wesleys to a Global Communion (2019), Religion in Romantic England (2018), and Sara Coleridge: Her Life and Thought (2014), which was praised in the Times Literary Supplement: "Sara Coleridge emerges from these pages as an intellectually formidable, powerfully compassionate and rigorously scholarly figure who bore the many difficulties of her life with profound nobility."
His articles and reviews have appeared in publications such as the Journal of Religion, Methodist Review: A Journal of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, Anglican Theological Review, Heythrop Journal, European Romantic Review, Journal of Church and State, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and The Wordsworth Circle.
For more information, including scholarly publications, see his website.
Books
Select Articles/Essays
“Coleridge’s American Disciple,” The Coleridge Bulletin, 2022
“Dropping the Albatross: Teaching Theology and Literature in a Postsecular Age,” Theology and Literature, 2022
“Religious Coleridge,” in The New Cambridge Companion to Coleridge, 2022
“A Theology of Imagination,” in God and Wonder: Theology, Imagination, and the Arts, 2022
“The Mirror of Faith: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Figural Interpretation,” in All Thy Lights Combine: Figural Reading in the Anglican Tradition, 2021
“Sermons and Lectures,” in The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism and Religion, 2021
“The Poetic Forms of Life: Coleridge, Bushnell, and the Nature of Religious Language,” The Coleridge Bulletin, 2020
"Romantic Religion, Life Writing, and Conversion Narratives." The Wordsworth Circle
"D.T. Niles, the Church, and the Fellowship of the Spirit." Methodist Review: A Journal of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies
"Sara Coleridge on Love and Romance." The Wordsworth Circle
“Enthusiasts, Rationalists, and Pentecost: The Holy Spirit in Eighteenth-Century Methodism.” Spirit of God: Christian Renewal in the Community of Faith
“Who is the Holy Spirit?” Theology Questions our Students Ask: A Conversation between Students and Teachers
Ed. Gary Burge and David Lauber, 2014
“John Wesley and Christian Antiquity: History, the Spirit, and the Early Church.” Evangelicals and the Early Church: Recovery, Reform, Renewal
Ed. George Kalantzis and Andrew Tooley, 2012
Selected Courses
- Spiritual Autobiography
- Christianity in Romantic England
- Women Writing Theology
- John Wesley and Methodism
- Theology through C. S. Lewis
- Theology and the Liberal Arts
- Christian Thought
- Historical Theology
- World Christianity
Professional Affiliations
- Conference on Christianity and Literature
- Friends of Coleridge
- Historical Society of the United Methodist Church
- International Conference on Romanticism
- North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
- Wesleyan Theological Society
- Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Areas of Expertise
- American Christianity
- Autobiography/Memoirs
- British Romanticism
- Global Christianity
- Methodism
- Pentecostalism
- Protestantism
- Religion and Literature
- C. S. Lewis
- Modern Theology
Videos
Jeffrey Barbeau - Wonders of the Wade #5: C.S. Lewis's Copy of William Wordsworth's Poems
Jeffrey Barbeau - Seeing through Literature
Jeffrey Barbeau - Wheaton Theology Conference, April 2021