Dr. Jacobs’ research focuses on gender and relationships in the context of Catholic theology. Utilizing modern scientific evidence about sexual difference, research on relationships with AI chatbots, philosophical arguments about gender as a social construction, and the development of the gender binary in Christian history, her work in theological anthropology and ecclesiology argues all bodies across sexual difference are generative.
Her current project, Perpetual Care: Labor, Love, and Feminism in Trinitarian Theology, develops a fresh, feminist theological account of kenosis—the “self-emptying” of Christ—by tracing its history, critiquing its gendered assumptions, and reconstructing it through the lens of care labor.
SELECTED PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
Journal of Marriage, Family, & Spirituality
This sacramental account of bodies provides a framework for affirming the love and meaning beyond the normative and patriarchal Theology of the Body that has caused harm to so many Catholics.
This book is not simply well researched,
Journal of Moral Theology
impeccably argued, beautifully written, and spiritually rooted, though it is all those things. Jacobs’s Holy Body has the potential to make a generational impact. This book should be read by every theologian.
