About Lauren.

Lauren D. Sawyer is an ethicist and educator living in Seattle, Washington. She is affiliate faculty at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology where she teaches graduate courses in theology and develops trauma-informed curriculum for the Allender Center. Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University, and she serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Lauren is the author of Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, & the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (New York University Press, 2025). Lauren enjoys a well-brewed cup of coffee and chilly swims in Puget Sound.

Writing

Below you will find some of my most recent chapters and articles. You can read more about my book, Growing Up Pure, on the home page.

  • Spiritual Healing from Sexual Violence: An Intersectional Guide

    "A Sacred Trust: The Spiritual Community’s Duty"

    In Spiritual Healing from Sexual Violence: An Intersectional Guide. Buy it here.

  • "Purity Culture and the Limits of Queer Evangelicalism"

    Co-written with Victoria Houser for Theology & Sexuality. Read it here.

  • Responding to Spiritual Leader Misconduct: A Handbook

    Co-edited with Emily Cohen and Annie Mesaros for FaithTrust Institute. Buy it here.

  • "Sexual Practices and Relationships among Young People"

    Co-written with Kate Ott for The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality. Buy it here.

  • "No Savior at All: Updike’s Black Jesus and the White Church"

    For The Other Journal. Read it here.

Teaching

My Courses.

I teach about five courses at year at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, an interdisciplinary and interdenominational seminary. You will find a few of my course descriptions below. You can study with me by enrolling as a credited graduate student as a non-credited certificate student.

  • This course explores the interaction between the theological concepts of God, Gender, and Sexuality. The goal of this class is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various perspectives on God, gender, and sexuality from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition, with special reference to critical social theory around gender and sexual identity.

  • This course invites students to answer for themselves, is the Cross beautiful? That is, can beauty redeem suffering?Students are encouraged to think of this course as a meditation on beauty and suffering, negotiated through theological discourse on the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

  • This course prepares students to think critically about the task of doing constructive theology. The goal of this course is to survey, compare and contrast, and evaluate various contextual, constructive, and interdisciplinary perspectives on the doctrines of God, Creation, Theological Anthropology, and Pneumatology from the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition. Students will be able to articulate an understanding of what God is doing in the world, with implications for how they think, listen, live, and lead.

Awards.

2023 Faculty Recipient

La Danse Award, for exemplifying the ethos of The Seattle School

2022 Drew University Graduate Division of Religion Recipient

Helen LePage and William Hale Chamberlain Prize, for the Ph.D. dissertation singularly distinguished by creative thought and excellent prose style

2019 Drew University Graduate Division of Religion Recipient

Maxine Clarke Beach Leadership Prize, for Outstanding Student Teacher