Dr Chloë Reddaway

Chloë's work focuses on visual theology and Christian art, with a particular interest in the potential of historic works of art for contemporary theology

After reading Philosophy and Theology at Oxford, Chloë worked in the arts sector and studied Cultural Management.  She moved to KCL for an AHRC-funded PhD on the theology of 14^th/15^th century Florentine fresco cycles.  She was later Research Assistant to Professor Ben Quash in the centre for Arts and the Sacred and then a Research Associate in the Cambridge Divinity Faculty.  From 2014-2018 she was the Ahmanson Fellow/Curator in Art and Religion at the National Gallery, where she co-taught the KCL/NG MA in Christianity and the Arts.

Chloë lectures widely and has taught for Westcott House, Sarum College, and Westminster College, Cambridge.  She is a founding co-editor of the Brepols series, Arts and the Sacred, and a member of the editorial board of Art + Christianity.  

Research interests

• Visual theology, especially the recovery of historic works of art as a resource for contemporary theology
• The artistic use of strangeness as a response to the challenge of painting Christ.
• Images of the Visitation in connection to the New Creation. 
• The ecclesiastical stained glass of Tom Denny

Selected publications

• Strangeness and Recognition: Mystery and Familiarity in Renaissance Paintings of Christ (Brepols) 2019.
• Transformations in Person and Paint: Visual Theology, Historical Images, and the Modern Viewer (Brepols). January 2016.
• Visualising a Sacred City: London, Art and Religion. Eds, Ben Quash, Chloë Reddaway, Aaron Rosen (IB Tauris). 2017.
• ‘St Peter’s Church, Martley and St Edburga’s Church, Leigh’ in Glory, Azure and Gold: Twelve stained-glass windows by Thomas Denny. (London: Reed Contemporary Books) 2015. Republished in a second edition (London: Reed Contemporary Books in association with Lund Humphries) 2016.
• ‘Reading Hermeneutic Space: Pictorial and Spiritual Transformation in the Brancacci Chapel’ in James Romaine and Linda Stratford (eds), Revisioning, Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art. (Cascade: Oregon) 2014.

Teaching

Chloë teaches widely in theology and the arts. She has lectured for the KCL/National Gallery collaborative MA in Christianity and the Arts since 2011 and was the course leader for the National Gallery from 2014-2016. She teaches for Samford University in London, and has also taught for the Vancouver School of Theology, Lambeth Palace, the University of Cambridge, Westminster College Cambridge, Westcott House, and Sarum College, focussing on theological engagement with historic Christian art, contemporary ecclesiastical art, and the role of the arts in Christian ministry.

Expertise & public engagement

• Founding Co-Editor, Arts and the Sacred series, Brepols.
• Advisory Board of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts; Advisor, Art + Christianity.
• Westminster Abbey Institute Fellow.
• Trialogue Conference Committee 2017.
• Editor of the Arts and the Sacred at King’s e-bulletin.

The Audacity of Christ Art: the problem of painting Christ: seven short films for the National Gallery (author and presenter).

Art and the Bible Story: Inspired to Follow, collaborator on a web resource for churches created by St Martin in the Fields and the National Gallery.

Stations of the Cross – collaborator on the National Gallery station of this London art pilgrimage, 2016.

G. Peter Kaye Lecture, Vancouver School of Theology 2023.

Church Times Interview, 2022

Lectures and study tours: National Gallery, London; Nasher Museum, North Carolina; Wilson Gallery, Cheltenham.