Kristen Blair

Kristen Blair

I am a Ph.D. student in theology at the University of Toronto. I specialize in practical theology, with additional expertise in theopoetics, environmental theologies, and theologies of atonement and kenosis.

Theology Scholarship

"Free Forever to Act for Themselves": Howard Thurman and Latter-day Saint Agency

Published in Dialogue, 2023

There is in every person an inward sea, and in that sea there is an island and on that island there is an altar and standing guard before that altar is the "angel with the flaming sword." Nothing can get by that angel to be placed upon that altar unless it has the mark of your inner authority. Nothing passes "the angel with the flaming sword" to be placed upon your altar unless it be a part of "the fluid area of your consent." This is your crucial link with the Eternal.

Recommended citation: Blair, Kristen. 2023. "Free Forever to Act for Themselves": Howard Thurman and Latter-day Saint Agency; Dialogue. https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/free-forever-to-act-for-themselveshoward-thurman-and-latter-day-saint-agency/

Human Agency and the Inner Sea

Published in Exponent II, 2022

Human agency is a core tenet of faith for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, the concept of agency reigns as the supreme theological actor in the Latter-day Saint story, from the reconceived creation narrative through the understanding of the human condition, theodicy, and eschatology.

Recommended citation: Blair, Kristen. 2022. Human Agency and the Inner Sea, Exponent II. https://exponentii.org/2022/05/10/human-agency-and-the-inner-sea-by-kristen-blair/

Disconnection and the Healing Practice of Imagination for Mormon Environmental Ethics

Published in Religions, 2021

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints possesses a subversive and fecund interpretation of the Christian creation narrative. This interpretation bespeaks a particular attention to and care for the living earth. However, Latter-day Saint praxis is wounded by a searing disconnect between the theopoetics of its conceptual creation and its lived practice.

Recommended citation: Blair, Kristen. 2021. "Disconnection and the Healing Practice of Imagination for Mormon Environmental Ethics" Religions 12, no. 11: 948. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110948 http://kblair-phd.github.io/files/Religion_2021.pdf