Margarita Mooney Clayton
Margarita Mooney Clayton, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Research Fellow in Theology and the Arts at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University. She earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Yale University and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She taught in sociology programs at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Yale University, and Princeton University.
Her 2026 book When Mary Calls: Surprising Encounters With the Mother of God presents spiritual memoirs that illustrate how the Mother of God continues to draw seekers into deeper relationships with Christ, transforming extraordinary encounters into sustained spiritual practices. Her other published books include Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora, The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts, and The Wounds of Beauty: Seven Dialogues on Art and Education. Her research on suffering, resilience and human flourishing has been supported by more than $3 million in grants from the John Templeton Foundation. She has lectured on beauty, education, culture, family and faith at Harvard University, Columbia University, Oxford University, Duke University, the University of Notre Dame, Hillsdale College, The Consortium for Christian Studies Centers, The New York Encounter, The Acton Institute, and the Society for Catholic Liturgy. In addition to her many academic articles, her writing has appeared in Comment Magazine, Plough magazine, America magazine, Real Clear Policy, Scientific American, First Things blog, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Hedgehog Review, Public Discourse, National Catholic Register and Church Life Journal.
She has been cited by David Brooks in the New York Times about her work, and interviewed by Katie McGrady, Eric Metaxas, Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio, and Tammy Peterson. In 2016, she founded the Scala Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming culture through beauty, creativity and joy. She is a life-long Roman Catholic and is married to David Clayton, an iconographer, author and Dean of Sacred Arts at Pontifex University, an online Catholic university.
Speaker at these events:
