A condensed version of this story ran in the print edition of the magazine.
Jane Shaw, Stanford’s dean for religious life, grew up in a setting that makes MemChu look like new construction. Her childhood home was on the grounds of England’s Great Hospital in Norwich, where the ill and aged have convalesced since 1249; her father served as master of the institution.
It was a place of resplendent beauty. Her family lived in a 15th-century house complete with a minstrel gallery and a bathroom overlooking the chapel and cloisters—though no central heating. “I grew up learning to put on three sweaters if you needed to be warm,” she says. (And also to cook for 150, her responsibility on Saturdays.)
Although Shaw was surrounded by history, she was hardly bound by it. At age 16, she was an eager member of a group pushing to end centuries of male-only priesthood in the Church of England. “A little nerdy, I know,” she says.
A historian of modern Christianity, Shaw, 51, arrives at Stanford as both dean and religious studies professor. Previously, she spent 16 years at Oxford, followed by four years as dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. Her partner, lexicographer and linguist Sarah Ogilvie, also will teach at Stanford.
Q.When did you first realize you wanted to be a priest?
I can date it to when I was 16 playing Mozart on the piano. I just had this overwhelming sense that maybe that was what I was called to do. It was in the air. Women had just been ordained priests in America—and the “Movement for the Ordination of Women” was founded that year and I was a sort of a founder member as a 16-year-old. Very keen.
So I always had a bit of a sense of it, but I didn’t do anything about it until I was 32. I kind of resisted it a bit. You have to represent the institutional church, which we all have questions about from time to time.
Q. How did you finally realize your calling?
In 1994, I went back to Oxford to teach, and I suppose it became increasingly obvious. People were always asking me to preach and I was pretty involved in my church. In fact, a few friends said, “Look, we all think you should be ordained, you need to get your vocation tested.”
I went to a high school reunion recently and they were like, “Oh, you did what you said you might do when you were 16.”
Q. At Grace Cathedral and at Oxford, you led programs far afield from what might be considered religious: Hosting forums with politicians, activists and authors; bringing in atheists and believers; and commissioning artists-in-residence to create plays and installations. What’s your guiding light?
I don’t think I am a very churchy person, if that makes sense. I have always been interested in how you engage people in discussing questions of ultimate meaning, really—values, ethics, spirituality, all that stuff.
If you want to ask some serious questions, then it’s about constantly engaging different constituencies. More church doesn’t engage different constituencies, it engages your little club of church people.
Q. But do you also value the “churchy” side of faith?
Ritual and liturgy? I love it. I am very keen on saying regardless of what you believe, it’s good to show up at ritual and liturgy. We all need it. Repetition of that is what brings us to a kind of space of understanding that is rather different from our purely intellectual understanding.
Q. Grace Cathedral was a major perch. Why leave?
I loved being dean of Grace Cathedral. It was fantastic and I think we did a huge amount in four years, which I feel very proud of—becoming financially healthy through a lot of fund raising, tripling the number of arts and education events, and growing Sunday attendance by 15 percent.
But you know, along came Stanford and said “Might you be interested?” and these jobs don’t come around very often. It was a point where I thought, “OK, this isn’t a terrible time to leave [Grace Cathedral].”
I decided [coming to Stanford] would fulfill both my priestly vocation and my scholarly vocation. It’s heaven for me to be on campus in the middle of this academic community. I also think life is an adventure.
Q. What new directions will you bring to Stanford?
I never go into an institution presuming what I am going to do. I think you have to listen to people, listen to what they want. But of course leadership also requires you give shape to that and focus it.
It is certainly my desire to make sure that Memorial Church is a place for extremely lively intellectual engagement, a place where possibly difficult issues can be discussed, a place where ethical and spiritual issues can be discussed. I am hoping we’ll have different sorts of people preaching here as guest preachers, not just clergy.
Q. You are the first woman to hold this position. What does that mean to you?
Every job I have had, I have been the first woman. At Regent’s Park College at Oxford, I was the first female fellow. When I went to New College, my second college at Oxford, I was the first female dean of divinity. Then I went to Grace Cathedral where I was the first female dean.
I have been very fortunate. How extraordinary that this is the moment in history when I get to do these extraordinary, interesting, wonderful jobs in these amazing communities. The religious word would be “blessed.”
Q. You are also the first openly gay person to hold the title. How will the distinction be part of your outreach?
I hope I am a living example of what someone who is both female and openly gay can do, and I hope that is inspiring for some people, but I always hope I can support lots of different people.
Q. Your predecessor was a self-proclaimed radical atheist hippy before he embraced religion. What’s the furthest you ever ventured from belief?
I did have a sort of questioning of faith when I was at Harvard Divinity School [earning a masters]. Often divinity school does intellectually undo your faith and I think that’s a really good thing. Asking questions is an important part of faith. Extreme certainty seems to me to be a certain kind of arrogance. But I think I have always had some sense of the divine or transcendent all my life.
Q. From growing up in a medieval hospital to being an Oxford fellow to serving as dean of a cathedral, you have a pretty lofty pedigree. Do you have any pop-culture vices?
(Laughs) I love reading mystery novels. When I have time, I love going to the movies. It’s true I don’t watch television much, but I watch Sherlock, which is excellent. I am not so keen on this Dr. Who, but I do sometimes watch Dr. Who.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
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