Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo

Dr. Gandolfo is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Earley Associate Professor of Catholic and Latin American Studies in the WFU School of Divinity. She is a constructive theologian rooted in the Catholic tradition whose teaching and research place Christian theology in conversation with human responses to vulnerability, suffering, violence, and oppression, especially in contexts of social injustice and ecological degradation. Dr. Gandolfo is the author, co-author, or co-editor of multiple articles, book chapters, and books. Her first book, The Power and Vulnerability of Love: A Theological Anthropology (Fortress, 2015), draws on women’s diverse experiences of maternity and natality to construct a feminist theology of suffering and redemption that is anchored in the reality of human vulnerability. She is also co-editor of Parenting as Spiritual Practice and Source for Theology: Mothering Matters (Palgrave, 2017), which brings together theological reflections on mothering by an intergenerational, interracial, and intercultural group of women scholars in theology, bible, and ethics. In recent years, Dr. Gandolfo has turned to decolonial studies as a critical dialogue partner for Christian theology. Her co-authored book Re-membering the Reign of God: The Decolonial Witness of El Salvador’s Church of the Poor (Lexington, 2022) therefore places the decolonial praxis of the ecclesial base communities of El Salvador in critical conversation with the continued coloniality of Roman Catholic ecclesiology and eschatology. In her most recent book, Ecomartyrdom in the Americas: Living and Dying for Our Common Home (Orbis, 2023), Dr. Gandolfo highlights the ongoing murder of land and environmental defenders, particularly in Latin America, and theologically engages their witness in light of recent developments in Catholic social thought and liberation theology. In addition to research and writing, Dr. Gandolfo finds deep fulfillment in teaching theology at Wake Forest School of Divinity, and great joy (and challenge) in the adventures of her other full-time job—raising four school-aged children.