HOWARD, Evan B. 1955-

PERSONAL: Born December 20, 1955, in NJ; son of Lawrence S. and Barbara E. (Camp) Howard; married Cheri A. Deu Pree, January 1, 1978; children: Claire D., Terese M. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Whitworth College, B.A., 1978; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, M.Div., 1983; Gonzaga University, M.A., 1989; Graduate Theological Union, Ph.D., 1998. Religion: Christian.

ADDRESSES: Home—18562 Dave Wood Rd., Montrose, CO 81401. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Mesa State College, Grand Junction, CO, lecturer in religion and philosophy, 1996—. Spirituality Shoppe: Evangelical Center for the Study of Christian Spirituality, founder and director, 1995—.

MEMBER: Spiritual Directors International, American Academy of Religion, Society for Biblical Literature, Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, Evangelical Theological Society, Association of Montrose Churches.

WRITINGS:

Praying the Scriptures, Inter-Varsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1999.

Affırming the Touch of God: A Psychological and Philosophical Exploration of Christian Discernment, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2000.

Contributor to periodicals, including Radix and Catalyst.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Encountering Christian Spirituality; Call to Order(s); research on Christian spirituality.

SIDELIGHTS: Evan B. Howard told CA: "In terms of my writing career, I am interested in making original contributions to the Church's understanding of relationship with God. More specifically I am interested in articulating an account of Christian spirituality capable of comprehending the range of issues associated with the academic field of Christian spirituality in the contexts of contemporary discourse.

"I am exploring a multi-disciplinary approach to accomplish this am. Biblically, I draw from a wide range of sources and methods. Historically, I am especially influenced by the classics of Western spirituality, the fathers of the Church, the Philokalia of Eastern Christian spirituality, by the dialogues of the Reformation, by the Puritan divines, the Spanish mystics, and to a lesser extent by Celtic, Mendicant, and Anabaptist expressions. Theologically, I am seeking to draw from classical orthodoxy in Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern expressions, but also to speak intelligently to contemporary issues and questions. Philosophically, I draw especially from American (Charles S. Peirce, Josiah Royce), European (Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger), and Japanese (Kitaro Nishida, Naijime Tarabe) sources. I incorporate insights from both cognitive and social psychology. I also reflect upon informal relationships and my own personal experience intentionally.

"I generally write on topics I have already some general knowledge about. For technical books (and often for more popular works) I develop a list of resources for each proposed chapter. Then I research and write a chapter at a time. Then I rewrite the whole—again and again. For more popular topics, sometimes I just write in a fit of passion. Other times I am more systematic.

"The topics I write on tend to be issues that are important to my field or to my calling of articulating a credible account of Christian spirituality."