(Retired) Margaret W. Harmon Professor, Religious Studies (Emeritus)
Christianity and culture, theory of religion, and conflict in the context of religious traditions and secularism

Old Main 104

Paula Cooey served as the Margaret Weyerhaeuser Harmon Professor of Religion at Macalester College. A graduate of Harvard University (PhD), Harvard Divinity School (MTS), and the University of Georgia (BA), she taught courses in the history of Christian traditions, Christianity and Culture, and theory of religion.  These courses include “Jesus, Dissent, & Desire,” “Love & Death,” “Work & Ethics across Traditions,” “The Sacred & the Sword,” Dissent, Reform, & Expansion in the Sixteenth Century,” “Contemporary Christian Thought,” and “Approaches to the Study of Religion.” She has written several books and articles including Willing the Good: Jesus, Dissent and Desire, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006. Appointed to the Macalester faculty in 1999, her research focused on what it means to understand religion by examining religious life and practice in contexts of conflict, disruption, and assimilation, comparatively with other religious traditions and with secularism.

  • BA: University of Georgia
  • MTS: Harvard Divinity School
  • PhD: Harvard University