Isabelle is Principal of Ridley Hall, a role that combines her passion for Christian formation for the whole people of God, her love of Scripture and commitment to nurturing Christian community.

Isabelle leads the College in collaboration with a fantastic team of tutors, chaplains, support staff and trustees, with a vision for lay and ordained ministry for the challenges of the 21^st century.

Isabelle’s first love is Scripture, and the Old Testament in particular. She has written extensively about the book of Judges, and around questions of justice, violence and otherness. She is now writing a commentary on the book of Ruth.

Her other strand of work has been around theological anthropology, what it means to be human, and she has focused in particular on questions of spirituality, scripture and mental health.

As well as academic work, she loves writing to make Scripture accessible and inspiring in everyday life, and writes regularly for BRF, LICC and Church House Publishing.

Isabelle isa regular public speaker at various events, and a contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and the Daily Service.

Personal background

Isabelle grew up in deep central France, in between forests and vineyards, in a place where Christians were few. She came to faith in her teens thanks to a schoolfriend, and has never looked back! She came to England on a European scholarship, met her husband and never left.

She has worked in a variety of secular and Christian settings – as a Probation Officer, a university chaplain, a theology tutor, a parish priest, as chaplain to theArchbishop of Canterbury and as theological adviser to the House of Bishops. She has loved every job, and brings her love of the church and her love forGod’s world with her in her leadership at Ridley.

Roles outside Ridley

Ambassador for Sanctuary Mental Health UK - Sanctuary Ministries -Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries: Isabelle has been associated with the work of Sanctuary Mental Health for several years. It is a charity that offers training for whole churches to learn to be hospitable places when anyone struggles with their mental health, as well as support and train leaders.

Anglican representative to the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission Faith and Order Commission | World Council of Churches (oikoumene.org): one of Isabelle’s commitments is to work with diverse communities of Christians. The World Council of Churches gathers representatives from most Christian denominations across the world to discuss areas of interest and act together as the people of God. On the Faith and Order Commission, Isabelle works as part of a study group on justice, peace and violence.

Research interests

The books of Judges, Ruth and Job; narrative in the Hebrew Scriptures; trauma, in particular collective trauma; how Scripture works in the life of the church; otherness, identity and violence; mental health; justice.

‍

Books

Hamley, I., (2021), Embracing Justice. The Archbishop ofCanterbury’s Lent Book 2022, London: SPCK.

Hamley, I., (2021), God of Justice and Mercy: A Theological Commentary on the Book of Judges, London: SCM.

Hamley, I. (2019), UnspeakableThings Unspoken: Otherness, Gender and Victimisation in Judges 19-21,Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Edited Books

Strawbridge, J., Adams, N. & Hamley, I., eds, (2024),Deliver us from Evil: Church, Theology and Deliverance, London: SCM.

Cook, C. C., Hamley, I. & Swinton, J. (2023), Struggling with God, London: SPCK.

Cook, C. C. H. and Hamley, I., eds, (2020), Scripture andMental Health: Towards a Biblical Theology of Mental Health and Wellbeing, SCM.

Papers in Edited Books

Hamley, I. (2020), ‘Patient Job, Angry Job: Speaking Faithin the midst of Trauma’, in I. Hamley, and C. C. H. Cook, eds, Scripture andMental Health: Towards a Biblical Theology of Mental Health and Wellbeing, SCM.

Hamley, I., (2022), ‘Marriage, Violence, and Yahweh’sLament’, in Firth, D. (ed), The Book of the Twelve, Lexham Press.

Hamley, I. (2022), ‘Judges and Esther’, in D. Firth and B.Melton (eds), Reading Esther Intertextually, T&T Clark.

Hamley, I. (2020), ‘A Response to Esther Mombo’s “Pray, Pray, Pray: Women and the Spirituality of Persistence and Resistance”’, in M.Swamy and S. Spencer (eds), Praying Together (Conference Papers from theMission Theology in the Anglican Communion Symposium in Limuru), London: SPCK and ACO.

Hamley, I. (2019), ‘A Response to Joanildo Burity’s “Church witness and evangelism and the politics of identity:  entitlement and exclusion”’, in M. Swamy andS. Spencer, Witnessing Together: Global Anglican Perspectives on Witness andEvangelism, London: SPCK and ACO.

Hamley, I. (2017) ‘Messy Teamwork: The Impact of MessyChurch on Helpers’, in Paul. I. (ed). BeingMessy, Being Church. London: BRF.

Journal Articles

Hamley, I. (2018), Dis(re)membered and Unaccounted for:Concubines in the Hebrew Bible, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, vol. 42.4, 415-434.

Hamley, I. (2015). What’s the Matter with ‘Playing theHarlot’? The Meaning of זנה in Judges 19.2, Tyndale Bulletin 66.1, 41-61.