Biography:
I was a senior lecturer in Christian Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London (2001-2018), then at the University of Roehampton (2018-19), and now am associate tutor in Christian Spirituality at Ripon College Cuddesdon. I teach the history of Christian spirituality and its contribution to the understanding and practice of faith today.
Research area:
History of Christianity, Patristics, Historical and Systematic Theology
Research Interests:
My research is on mystical theology, especially the late medieval period. My PhD was on the theological anthropology of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. I have recently co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology (2020). I have also written on the mystical theology of Augustine, Meister Eckhart, and Pierre de Bérulle. My interest is in questions of experience and personal transformation in the life of faith, in historical perspective.
Publications & Research Outputs:
Edward Howells, ‘Mystical Theology and Human Experience’, in Edward Howells and Mark McIntosh (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology (Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 45-64.
Edward Howells and Mark McIntosh (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Edward Howells, ‘Suffering and the Desire for God in John of the Cross’, in Karen Kilby and Rachel Davies (ed.), Suffering and the Christian Life (London: T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2020), pp. 87-94.
Edward Howells, ‘From human desire to divine desire in John of the Cross’, Religious Studies 55 (2019), pp. 405-417.
Edward Howells, ‘Understanding the Experience of God with St Augustine’, The Way 58 (2019), pp. 33-42.
Edward Howells, ‘Teresa of Avila’s theological reading of history: from her second conversion to the foundation of St. Joseph’s, Ávila’, in Terence O’Reilly, Colin Thompson and Lesley Twomey (ed.), St Teresa of Avila: Her Writings and Life (Cambridge: Legenda, 2018), pp. 32-41.
Edward Howells, ‘”O Guiding Night!’ The Psychology of Hope in John of the Cross’ Dark Night’, in Mary Frohlich (ed.), Wisdom and Prophetic Hope (Washington D.C.: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2018), pp. 204-219.
Peter Tyler and Edward Howells, ed., Teresa of Avila: Mystical Theology and Spirituality in the Carmelite Tradition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), vii +153 pages; including a co-authored ‘Introduction’, pp. 1-6.
Edward Howells, ‘Teresa of Avila: Negative Theologian?’ in Peter Tyler and Edward Howells, ed., Teresa of Avila: Mystical Theology and Spirituality in the Carmelite Tradition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), pp. 51-64.
Edward Howells, ‘Is Darkness a Psychological or a Theological Category in the Thought of John of the Cross?,’ in Bernard McGinn, ed., The Renewal of Mystical Theology: Essays in Memory of John N. Jones (1964-2012) (New York: Crossroad-Herder, 2017), pp. 140-161.
Edward Howells, ‘From Late Medieval to Early Modern: Assessing the Mystical Theology of Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629)’, in Mysticism in the French Tradition: Eruptions from France, ed. Louise Nelstrop and Bradley B. Onishi (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), pp. 169-184.
Edward Howells, ‘Personal Experience and Critical Distance in the Interpretation of Spiritual Texts’, The Way 53:4 (October 2014), pp. 7-16.
Edward Howells, ‘Early Modern Reformations’, in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 114-134.
Edward Howells, ‘Appropriating the Divine Presence: Re-reading Augustine’s On the Trinity as a Transformative Text’, Spiritus 11 (2011), pp. 200-223.
Edward Howells and Peter Tyler, ed., Sources of Transformation: Revitalizing Christian Spirituality (London: Continuum, 2010), xv+203 pages.
Edward Howells, ‘Relationality and Difference in the Mysticism of Pierre de Bérulle’, Harvard Theological Review 102:2 (2009): 225-243.
Edward Howells, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2002).
