Madeleine is Head of Research at Theos, the UK’s religion and society think tank. In this role, Madeleine’s work is focused on public theology and the role of faith in public life, with particular interests in social cohesion, attitudes towards death and dying, climate theology, motherhood, church-based social action, and spirituality.

Before working at Theos, Madeleine was the 2017-18 Henry J Cadbury Scholar at Pendle Hill, during which time she wrote an intellectual biography of the early Quaker, George Keith. More broadly, her Quaker research focuses on the intellectual and theological development of the Second Period, and especially changing understandings of the Light Within from the inception of Quakerism to the early years of the eighteenth-century – the topic of her doctorate. She holds a DPhil in theology from the University of Oxford and an MA in theology and religion from Durham University. She is the author of The Christian Quaker: George Keith and the Keithian Controversy (Brill: 2019), Quakers, Christ and the Enlightenment (OUP, 2021), and various Theos reports.

She can be contacted directly at madeleine.pennington@theosthinktank.co.uk.

Research Interests 

• Early Quakerism and Second Period Quakerism, especially its theological and wider intellectual context
• Understandings of the Light Within
• The Early Enlightenment
• Christology
• Theological anthropology
• Public theology
• Motherhood
• Death and Dying
• Social Cohesion
• Faith-based social action

Selected Publications

Madeleine Pennington, Quakers, Christ, and the Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Madeleine Ward, The Christian Quaker: George Keith and the Keithian Controversy (Brill, 2019).

Madeleine Pennington, “‘The Most Serious Dissention’: Implications of a Theological Reading of the Keithian Controversy.” Quaker Studies, 27,1 (2022), pp. 93–100.

Madeleine Ward, “Transformative Faith and the Theological Response of the Quakers to the Boston Executions.” Quaker Studies, 21,1 (2016), pp. 15–32.

Madeleine Ward, “Robert Barclay’s Christology.” Quaker Religious Thought, 131 (2018), pp. 25–32.

Madeleine Pennington, Cohesive Societies: Faith and Belief (British Academy, 2020)

Madeleine Pennington, The Church and Social Cohesion: Connecting Communities and Serving People (Theos, 2020)

Madeleine Pennington and Ian Christie (eds.), Reflections on COP26: What Does Theology Have to Offer the Conversation Around the Climate Crisis? (Theos, 2022)

Madeleine Pennington with Nathan Mladin, Love, Grief, and Hope: Emotional Responses to Death and Dying in the UK (Theos, 2023)

Madeleine Pennington and Paul Bickley, A Theology of Power (Theos, 2026)

Paul Bickley, Madeleine Pennington and George Lapshynov, A Theology of Investment (Theos, 2026)

Madeleine Pennington and Rhiannon McAleer, Motherhood, Inside Out: The Story in Numbers (Theos, 2026)

Madeleine Pennington, “Review of Rosemary Moore, George Whitehead and the Establishment of Quakerism“, in Church History, 92, 3 (2023), pp. 728–730.

Madeleine Ward, “Review of Jordan Landes, London Quakers in the Trans-Atlantic World: The Creation of an Early Modern Community”, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 67, 3 (July 2016), 666–667.

Madeleine Ward, “Review of Andrew R. Murphy, Liberty, Conscience and Toleration: The Political Thought of William Penn”, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 68, 4 (October 2017), 884–886.

Madeleine Ward, “Review of Naomi Pullin, Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650–1750″, in
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 70, 3 (July 2019), 648–650.

Madeleine Ward, “Review of Richard C. Allen and Rosemary Moore, The Quakers, 1656–1723: The Evolution of an Alternative Community”, in

Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 70, 3 (July 2019), 650–651.

Madeleine Ward, “Review of Early Quakers and their Theological Thought.” Quaker Religious Thought, 128 (2017).