Helena Connolly’s work explores the intersection of theology, imagination, and creative practice through the lens of theopoetics and a theology of making. Her doctoral research at Dublin City University focuses on contemporary Bible journaling as a participatory and predominantly female devotional art form, examining how visual engagement with sacred texts becomes a lived, embodied practice of interpretation. Central to her work is the claim that acts of making can themselves be theological acts—spaces where human creativity and divine presence are held together.
Her research develops a process-oriented approach to theopoetics, using artistic practice as a mode of theological inquiry rather than illustration. Through this framework, she investigates how creativity, embodiment, and imagination shape faith, meaning-making, and devotional life, particularly within collective and emerging visual cultures. Her wider creative scholarship spans music, photography, and digital storytelling, seeking new public expressions of theology through the arts.
Alongside her academic work, Helena is an accomplished photographer, singer, songwriter, and recording artist. She has released two original albums, Future in the Past and The Reason Why, and is the author of Prayerful Ireland (Messenger Publications, 2018), a photographic exploration of Ireland’s lived devotional landscape.
Helena began her professional life as a secondary school music teacher and school chaplain in Edinburgh, before spending over a decade working in pastoral ministry across several Irish dioceses. Her experience spans education, pastoral accompaniment, adult faith formation, and youth ministry. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Queen’s University Belfast, a Postgraduate Certificate in Music Education from the University of Edinburgh, and an MPhil in Christian Theology from Trinity College Dublin.
HELENA CONNOLLY 