Edward Howells

Bio:

Eddie teaches Christian Spirituality at a number of colleges, including Cuddesdon and St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. He is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton. He is interested in bringing academic study together with the life of faith, retrieving the spiritual writings of the Christian tradition for growth in faith and understanding today, especially on questions of experience and personal transformation.

He was Senior Lecturer in Christian Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London (2001-18), and then at the University of Roehampton (2018-19). He studied theology at the University of Bristol as an undergraduate, followed by a Master of Studies at Oxford in Medieval Scholastic Theology, and a PhD at the University of Chicago, where he specialised in the history of Christianity and mystical theology. 

He has written and researched in the field of mystical theology, on the Spanish mystics, Augustine, Meister Eckhart, Pierre de Bérulle and others, most recently as co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology (2020), and of John of the Cross: Carmel, Desire and Transformation (2024).

His PhD dissertation was published as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2002).

He is a trained spiritual director, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality.