Jeffrey W. Barbeau, Ph.D.

Biography

Jeffrey W. Barbeau (Ph.D., Marquette University) is Professor of Theology and Literature 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

“Inquiring Spirit: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Bible, and English Literature,” in The Bible and Western Christian Literature: Books and The Book. Vol. 3: Enlightenment to Romanticism, 2024

“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

“Waiting on Wonder,” in God and Wonder: Theology, Imagination, and the Arts, 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

“The Consolation of Friendship,” The Coleridge Bulletin, 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, 2016

"D.T. Niles, the Church, and the Fellowship of the Spirit." Methodist Review: A Journal of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies, 2016

"Sara Coleridge on Love and Romance." The Wordsworth Circle, 2015

“Enthusiasts, Rationalists, and Pentecost: The Holy Spirit in Eighteenth-Century Methodism.” Spirit of God: Christian Renewal in the Community of Faith, 2015

“Who is the Holy Spirit?” Theology Questions our Students Ask: A Conversation between Students and Teachers, 2014

“John Wesley and Christian Antiquity: History, the Spirit, and the Early Church.” Evangelicals and the Early Church: Recovery, Reform, Renewal, 2012

“Coleridge, Christology, and the Language of Redemption.” Anglican Theological Review, 2011

“Suffering Servant: Grief and Consolation in Sara Coleridge’s Poems.” The Coleridge Bulletin, 2009

“John R. Mott and the Leadership of the Church in a Global Society.” Catalyst, 2009

“Sara Coleridge the Victorian Theologian: Between Newman’s Tractarianism and Wesley’s Methodism.” The Coleridge Bulletin, 2006

“Science and the Depersonalization of the Divine: Pantheism, Unitarianism, and the Limits of Natural Theology,” in Coleridge’s Assertion of Religion, 2006

“The Quest for Truth: An Introduction to Coleridge’s Lifelong Dream,” in Coleridge’s Assertion of Religion, 2006

“Coleridge and the ‘Master-Key’ of Biblical Interpretation.” Heythrop Journal, 2004

“Newman and the Interpretation of Inspired Scripture.” Theological Studies, 2002

“Scripture and Tradition at the Council of Trent: Reapplying the ‘Conciliar Hermeneutic.’” Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 2001

“The Development of Coleridge’s Notion of Human Freedom: The Translation and Re-Formation of German Idealism in England.” Journal of Religion, 2000

Selected Courses

• Imagination and the Good Life
• Christianity in Romantic England
• Women Writing Theology
• John Wesley and Methodism
• Theology through C. S. Lewis
• Theology and the Liberal Arts
• Spiritual Autobiography
• Christian Thought
• Historical Theology
• World Christianity

Professional Affiliations

• Conference on Christianity and Literature
• Friends of Coleridge (Officer, Editor)
• Historical Society of the United Methodist Church
• New York C. S. Lewis Society 
• North American Society for the Study of Romanticism 
• VII: Journal of The Marion E. Wade Center (Advisory Board)
• Wordsworth-Coleridge Association 

Areas of Expertise

• Modern Theology
• Christianity in Britain
• British Romanticism & S. T. Coleridge
• John Wesley and Methodism 
• Religion and Literature 
• Autobiography/Memoirs 
• C. S. Lewis & His Times
• Pentecostalism & Global Christianity
• Christianity in North America

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