Publications List & Links

Over the last decade, my academic career has given me some great opportunities to make my research available to people in both formal, academic, and informal contexts. Below is a complete list of publications with relevant links.

You can also check out some of the other posts on this page; I’m aiming to make as much of my research and writing as freely available as possible.

Monographs

• Karen O'Donnell, Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivors. (SCM Press, 2024) Forthcoming.

• Karen O'Donnell, The Dark Womb: Re-Conceiving Theology through Reproductive Loss. (SCM Press, 2022).

• Karen O’Donnell, Broken Bodies: The Eucharist, Mary, and the Body in Trauma Theology (SCM Press, 2018).

Edited Volumes

• Karen O'Donnell & Claire Williams, eds, Theologies from the Inside Out: Critical Conceptions of Pregnancy. SCM Press, 2024 (Forthcoming)

• Karen O'Donnell & Katie Cross, eds, Bearing Witness: Intersectional and Interdisciplinary Explorations of Trauma Theology. SCM Press, 2022.

• Karen O’Donnell & Katie Cross, eds, Feminist and Trauma Theologies: Body, Church and Scripture in Critical Perspective. SCM Press, 2020.

• Karen O’Donnell & Elena Shabily, eds, Emancipation Women’s Writing at the Fin de Siècle. Routledge, 2018.

• Karen O’Donnell, ed. Ruptured Voices: Trauma and Recovery. Interdisciplinary Press, 2016.

Special Issues of Journals

• Karen O’Donnell & Scott Midson, eds, “Special Edition on Human Relationships and Digital Technologies.” Theology and Sexuality, 26, no. 2-3 (October 2020).

• Karen O’Donnell, ed. “Special Edition: Theology and Childlessness.” Modern Believing. April 2019.

Journal Articles

• Karen O’Donnell. “Flesh & blood: reproductive loss as a site of theological imagination (or doing theology with blood in your knickers)." Practical Theology, 2023. 

• O'Donnell, Karen. "The Theologian as Dreamer: On Theological Imagination and Human Enhancement." Theology, 124, no. 5 (Oct 2021): 341-348.

• Cross, Katie, Wren Radford, and Karen O’Donnell. “Fragments from within the Pandemic: Theological Experiments in Silence, Speech, and Dislocated Time.” Practical Theology (January 18, 2021): 1–15.

• Scott Midson and Karen O'Donnell. "Rethinking Relationships in Cyberspace." Theology and Sexuality, 26, no. 2-3 (October 2020): 83-98.

• O’Donnell, Karen. “A Feminist Approach to the Marian Temple Type.” New Blackfriars 101, no. 1091 (2020): 29–45.

• O’Donnell, Karen. “Reproductive Loss: Toward a Theology of Bodies.” Theology & Sexuality 25, no. 1–2 (May 4, 2019): 146–59.

• O’Donnell, Karen. “Women and the Eucharist: Reflections on Private Eucharists in the Early Church.” Feminist Theology 27, no. 2 (January 2019): 164–75.

• O’Donnell, Karen. “What Does It Mean to Be Human? A Feminist and Anti-Racist Critique". Reviews in Religion & Theology 25, no. 4 (2018): 604–10.

• O’Donnell, Karen. “Performing the Imago Dei: Human Enhancement, Artificial Intelligence, and Optative Image-Bearing.” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 18, no. 1 (2018): 4–15.

• Horrell, David., Karen O’Donnell, and David Tollerton. “Religion and the Media in GCSE and A-Level Syllabuses: A Regrettable Gap and Proposals to fill it.” British Journal of Religious Education 40, no. 2 (July 2016), pp 114-123.

• Karen O’Donnell. “Help for Heroes: Warrior Recovery and the Liturgy”, Journal of Religion and Health 54, no. 6 (December 2015), pp 2389-2397.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

• “Incarnate Communions: Feminist Re-Viewings of Mary and the Eucharist” in Laura Moffat & Ben Quash (eds). Visual Communion, forthcoming 2024. 

• "Feminist Theology" in Rachel Muers and Ashley Cocksworth (eds). The Modern Theologians (new edition). Wiley Blackwell, forthcoming 2024.

• "Evoking Consent" in Stephen Burns (ed.) SCM Handbook of Feminist Theology. SCM Press, forthcoming 2024.

• "Trauma and Liturgy" in Porter Tyler (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Liturgical Theology. Wiley Blackwell, forthcoming 2024.

• "Mary the Crone" in Ashley Cocksworth & Rachel Starr (eds.) From the Shores of Silence: Conversations in Feminist Practical Theology. SCM Press, 2023.

• "Surviving Trauma at the Foot of the Cross" in Jayme Reaves, David Tombs, and Rocio Figueroa, eds. 'When Did We See You Naked?' Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse. SCM Press, 2021.

• “Digital Pedagogy and Spiritual Formation” in C. Clivaz and T. Hutchings, eds, Religion and Digital Humanities. Routledge, 2021.

• "The Voices of the Marys: Methodology in Feminist Trauma Theology" in K. O'Donnell & K. Cross, eds. Feminist Trauma Theologies. SCM Press, 2020, 3-20.

• “The Eucharist and Trauma” in M. Warner, C. Southgate, C. A. Grosch-Miller, and H. Ison, eds. Tragedies and Congregations. Routledge, 2020, pp 182-194.

• “Our Lady of E Street: The Boss’ Virgin 2002-2014” in W. Woolf, ed. Springsteen and Popular Music: Rhetoric, Memorial, and Contemporary Culture. New York: Routledge, 2017, pp 45-57.

• “The Flesh of Mary and the Body of Christ: Typological and Artistic Depictions of the Marian Priest” in E. Shabily, ed., Mater Dolorsa: The Representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Literature and the Arts. New York: Lexington Books, 2017, pp 3-24.

Selected Popular Publications & Media Appearances

OnScript. “Karen O’Donnell – The Dark Womb: Reconceiving Theology Through Reproductive Loss.”

Recovering God. “Reproductive Loss with Karen O’Donnell.”

Two Cities. “Theology & Reproductive Loss with Dr. Karen O’Donnell (Podcast).”

O’Donnell, Karen. “Surviving Trauma at the Foot of the Cross.” William Temple Foundation (blog), April 2, 2021.

"Fruit of thy Womb". Heart & Soul, BBC World Service. August 2020.