Introduction
Rev. Dr Maja Whitaker oversees Laidlaw College’s programme development and College strategy. She teaches courses on spiritual formation, reflective practice, leadership, and pastoral ministry. An ordained pastor in the Equippers Church network, Maja is committed to guiding students in spiritual formation while addressing contemporary cultural questions of human flourishing and diversity.
Quote
“I’m passionate about helping students explore spiritual formation, reflective practice, and leadership, equipping them to follow the way of Jesus in contemporary cultural contexts.”
Something Personal
Maja is married to Dave and has four daughters. She enjoys gardening, reading, and baking. She blogs on spiritual formation at www.somewhitespace.blog.
Qualifications
PhD (Theology), University of Otago, 2021
PostgradDip (Theology) with Distinction, University of Otago, 2014
DipGrad (Theology), University of Otago, 2010
BSc (Anatomy & Structural Biology), University of Otago, 2003
Professional Experience
Academic Dean, Laidlaw College
Lecturer, School of Theology
Practical Theology Lead & School
Books
The Restless Contemplative: Communion with Christ When Life Won’t Let You Sit Still. Canterbury Press, 2026.
Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation. Baylor University Press, 2023.
Journal Essays
Edited Books
Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body. Edited by Maja I. Whitaker. London: SCM Press, 2025.
Book Chapters
“Healthy and holy bodies: Reimagining Christian practice and discourse to promote flourishing in diversity.” In Hope: Growing Flourishing Church Communities that Transform and Heal People, pages 27-48. Edited by Gregory J. Liston and Sarah Penwarden. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2025.
"Perfectly Able, Beautiful, and Slim: Desired Bodies in the New Creation, Shamed Bodies in the Old." In Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body, pages 111-28. Edited by Maja I. Whitaker. London: SCM Press, 2025.
"Introduction." In Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body, pages 1-6. Edited by Maja I. Whitaker. London: SCM Press, 2025.
"Conclusion." In Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body, pages 192-200. Edited by Maja I. Whitaker. London: SCM Press, 2025.
"Beautiful Bodies: Disgust, Diverse Embodiment and Redeemed Perception in the Eschaton." In Disability Theology and Eschatology: Hope, Justice, and Flourishing, pages 95-121. Edited by Preston Hill and Aaron Davis. Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2025.
Conference Presentations
“More than ‘objects of care’: Toward an anthropology of vulnerability and mutuality in the receiving of care.” International SBL / ANZATS conference. Adelaide, July 2026.
2026 “Interrogating the Allure of Power: Insights from Disability Theology.” Theology of Power Symposium. Alphacrucis University College, Sydney, November 2026.
“Healthy and holy bodies: Reimagining Christian practice and discourse to promote flourishing in diversity.” Evangelical Women in Academia. Ridley College, Melbourne, August 2025.
“Healthy and holy bodies: Reimagining Christian practice and discourse to promote flourishing in diversity.” Hope conference: Growing Flourishing Church Communities that Transform and Heal People. Laidlaw College, Auckland March 2025.
2025 “Exploring Disability Eschatology: A Constructive Conversation with Maja Whitaker.” American Academy of Religion. Boston, November 2025.
“Listening and learning, even when it hurts: the virtue of humility in reflective practice.” Association of Reflective Practice in Theological Education (ARPTE). Adelaide, November 2024.
“Adoration, disgust, and the hermeneutics of wounds: reading the wounded body of the risen Christ in light of Greco-Roman literature.” Beautification and defilement in the ancient Greek world and beyond. Siracuse, Italy, September 2024 (online presentation).
“Scars and death wounds in Homer and John: The symbolic power of the wounded body of the risen Christ.” Worlds Above and Below: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Supernatural Worlds in Classics, Judaism, and Early Christianity. Dunedin, July 2024.
“‘I felt like I was being pushed into a box I have escaped’: The Rule of Life and neurodivergence in education for spiritual formation.” ANZATS 2024 Conference. Adelaide, July 2024.
2024 “Perfectly beautiful, slim, and able?: Confounding expectations of eschatological embodiment.” American Academy of Religion. San Diego, November 2024.
2023 “‘It better be slim’: Eschatological expectations for the dis/continuity of embodied identity.” ANZATS 2023 Conference. Online, July 2023.
“‘What is ours to teach?’ Developing Character in Undergraduate Students via Reflective Practice.” ANZATFE 2022 Conference. Sydney, November 2022.
“Seeking perfection: desired bodies in the new creation; shamed bodies in the old.” BIAPT 2021 Conference – Flesh and Blood. Online, July 2022.
2022 “Salvation as eternal transformation: diverse visions of human flourishing within a dynamic eschatology.” Flourish: The Good News of Science-Engaged Theology – Carey Baptist College. Auckland, July 2022 (with Masters Student, Emma Brouwer).
2021 “Shaping our bodies to our shape our selves: contemporary body theology in practice.” ANZATS 2021 Conference. Online, July 2021
Other
Whitaker, Maja I. “Human Ontology.” In Christa McKirland (ed.) T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Theology (Anthropology/Election). T&T Clark. Forthcoming.
Garner, Stephen, and Maja I. Whitaker. "Digital New Jerusalem or Digital Babylon? Pentecostal Digital Media Engagement in Oceania." In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Supplements, edited by M. Wilkinson. Brill, 2025.
Teaching & Expertise
Spiritual formation and pastoral ministry
Disability theology & neurodiversity
Body theology and theological anthropology
Reflective practice in ministry
Leadership development
