Staff profile
Dr Sam Hole
College Chaplain and Solway Fellow
| Affiliation |
|---|
| College Chaplain and Solway Fellow of University College |
| Solway Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion |
| Chaplain and Solway Fellow in the Chaplains |
Biography
After first studying History at Cambridge I completed a PGCE and was a History teacher and then Head of History in two London secondary schools. After completing an MA in Systematic Theology at King’s College London, I then in 2012 returned to Cambridge for doctoral study and to train for ordination. My PhD, AHRC-funded, was supervised by Sarah Coakley. This was published by Oxford University Press in 2020 as John of the Cross: Desire, Transformation and Selfhood; it is a study of the central role of desire in the poetry and prose writings of this sixteenth-century Discalced Carmelite friar.
Before arriving in Durham I served for eight years as an ordained priest in the Church of England – first in Borough in south London, and subsequently in Chelsea in west London. In the latter role I was Associate Vicar in a busy and prominent two-church parish with 500 members; in addition to the work of Sunday services, baptisms, weddings, and funerals, I oversaw the Foodbank, parish communications, the church’s ministry to children (over 100 attended church each week), launched a new children’s choir, and oversaw academic achievement and pastoral care in a local secondary school in my role as a Governor there. I also taught theology at nearby St Augustine’s Theological College at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. From 2022-2025 I was a Trinity Leadership Fellow with Trinity Church Wall Street, in New York City.
My role at Durham combines responsibilities as a chaplain and researcher. I am the Chaplain at University College, leading worship in the college chapels there alongside work in Student Support more broadly. Within the Department of Theology and Religion, I am a University Liaison Officer for two external institutions as part of the Common Awards programme, and chair the DThM Programme Board. I have led the MA module on Anglican Theology, and in 2025-26 will lead an undergraduate research module on medieval mystical theology.
I maintain my research interests, developed through my doctoral work, in spiritual and mystical theology. I am currently under contract for two books in slightly different subject areas. The first, Nourishing Prayer, is an introduction to the rites for Holy Communion in the Church of England from a devotional perspective, a significant development of a video I made on the subject which has received 10,000 views. The second, Power and Privilege, is an edited volume with contributions from many members of the Department, which originated as a sermon series at University College evensong. Each chapter explores how a specific biblical figure handled the responsibilities of power, and the implications of the story for the Church today.
Research interests
- Spiritual and Mystical Theology
- Theologies of Desire, Experience and Emotion
- Anglican Theology