Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history and religion from Gustavus Adolphus College, a master’s degree in theology and the arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and a Ph.D. in historical theology from Luther Seminary. She is the author of Beauty’s Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2016), and Friars, Scribes, and Corpses: A Marian Confraternal Reading of the Speculum humanae salvationis (Peeters, 2010), as well as co-editor of two books on theology and the arts. She has written numerous articles and chapters that treat the theological dimension of social realist art and photography. She served as an assistant and associate editor of ARTS for sixteen years before becoming the journal’s senior editor in 2013.