Maja is the Academic Dean at Laidlaw College; she oversees all programme development and delivery and contributes to the development and outworking of College strategy, with a focus on integrated programmes and a strong partner ecosystem. Maja is a lecturer in the School of Theology, and has served as Practical Theology Lead and with the School of Theology Leadership team. She teaches into courses on spiritual formation, reflective practice, leadership, and pastoral ministry.

Summary of key research

Maja’s research focusses on what the Christian tradition can offer to critique and inform modern cultural ideologies about human flourishing in general and the diversity of bodies in particular. She has published 3 books, 15 journal articles, and 8 book chapters. She is the author of Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation (Baylor, 2023), co-author of Speaking for the Dead: The Human Body in Biology and Medicine (Routledge, 2016), and editor of Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body (SCM, 2025).

Most recent publications

• Ed. Pursuing Perfection: Faith and the Female Body. London: SCM Press, 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, edited by Maja I. Whitaker, 111-28. London: SCM Press, 2025.
• "Beautiful Bodies: Disgust, Diverse Embodiment and Redeemed Perception in the Eschaton." In Disability Theology and Eschatology: Hope, Justice, and Flourishing, edited by Preston Hill and Aaron Davis, 95-121. Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2025.
• "Shaping Our Bodies to Our Shape Our Selves: A Theological Remedy to the Discontented Pursuit of the Body I Want to Be." Dialog  (2024): 1-9. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/dial.12862.
• Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation. Baylor University Press, 2023.

Personal Bio

Maja is an ordained pastor in the Equippers Church network and she is committed to spiritual formation and helping others understand how to follow the way of Jesus in contemporary cultural contexts. She is married to Dave and they have four daughters in primary and high school. Maja loves to spend her downtime in the garden, with a good book, or in the kitchen baking with one of her girls. She blogs on the topics of spiritual formation and pastoral theology at www.somewhitespace.blog

Research areas of specialisation and supervision

• Disability theology & neurodiversity
• Body theology
• Theological anthropology
• Spiritual formation
• Pastoral ministry

Current Thesis Students

Matt Stott, “John Wimber’s Understanding Of Divine Providence”

Joanne Abernethy, MTh, “Visions of the “good life” and Christian formation within a church community,” MTh thesis.

Wendy Smyth, “Contemporary Prophets in Aotearoa – New Zealand,” MTh thesis.

Valda Gummer, “Lewis and Neufeld: Attachment and love’s role in relationship with God,” MTh thesis.

Jennifer Bowden, “Perfect Bodies, Perfect Women: A Critical Appraisal of Diet Culture in the Protestant Christian Church in New Zealand,” Primary Supervisor, AUT PhD.

Joey Millington, “Rethinking Local Church Vision: Implementing Biblical Metaphors Within Local Church Strategy,” Primary Supervisor, AUT PhD.

Qualifications & Awards

• PhD (Theology), University of Otago, 2021.
• PostgradDip - Postgraduate Diploma (Theology) with Distinction, University of Otago, 2014.
• BSc - Bachelor of Science (Anatomy and Structural Biology), University of Otago, 2003.
• DipGrad - Graduate Diploma (Theology), University of Otago, 2010.