Chris has been part of the Music and Worship department at LST since the inception of the Theology, Music, and Worship degree in 1997, and has been a faculty member since 2009. He has pioneered several undergraduate modules in theological aesthetics and music theology-philosophy, and teaches historical studies in church music. Having studied initially at the Purcell School of Music, Chris then trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying violin, viola, piano and composition. Later, he completed an MA in Music Education at University College London, working in secondary music education for over 20 years, directing chamber orchestras and teaching academic music, the piano and violin.

In 2017, Chris was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) scholarship through the Open University and completed his PhD in June 2021. His thesis revolved around the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, exploring the idea of musical beauty from a theological and philosophical perspective.

Chris has an abiding love for the English metaphysical poets, J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, and good jazz music. He lives in Norwich, is married to Liz, a nurse, and they have 6 children aged between 13 and 30.

Chris is a Thomist in outlook and method – firmly located in the realist tradition. His research interests lie in aesthetics, theories of beauty, and any conjunction of philosophy, theology and art, and he avidly believes in giving students the freedom to observe and inquire. Chris welcomes postgraduate supervision inquiries in any area that broadly lies within his research emphases.

Outside LST, Chris is a Research Fellow at Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge, where he is engaged in a project to promote the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain in the UK. This has recently led to two groundbreaking international conferences, in Oxford and Cambridge.

Julie McKee: Singing and the Heavenly Realm

2026, ‘Maritain, Ratzinger, and Jones on Art and Liturgy.’ New Blackfriars, vol. 107, issue 2, Cambridge University Press.

2026, ‘Contemporary Technocracy and the Christian Commitment to Sacrament: The Testimony of David Jones.’ American Maritain Association, 2026, Loyola Marymount University.

2025, ‘Maritain, Ratzinger, and Jones on Art and Liturgy.’ Thomism, Creativity and the Arts, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, 01 July 2025.

2023, ‘A Music Which Only the Intellect Can Understand.’ American Maritain Association, University of Dallas.

2022, ‘Music, Goodness and the Virtuous Aesthetic Experience.’ American Maritain Association, DeSales University.

2022, ‘Maritain and Music: Developing a Thomist Philosophy of Music.’ Postgraduate Research Seminar, Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, University of St Andrews.

2020, ‘Realist Solutions to the Problem of Music and the Ineffable.’ American Maritain Association, Franciscan University and Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius.

2019, ‘Thomist Foundations for a Theological Aesthetic of Musical Beauty.’ Theology, Creativity and the Arts, Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge.

2019, ‘Thomist Foundations for a Theological Aesthetic of Musical Beauty.’ American Maritain Association, DeSales University.

2019, ‘Understanding Tragedy Truthfully: J.S. Bach’s Zerfliesse Mein Hertze.’ Plenary at American Maritain Association, DeSales University.

2019, ‘Musical Beauty, God and the Church: Early Historical-Ecclesiological Contexts.’ Music Research Conference, The Open University, UK.

2017, ‘Events in the Life of Christ in Art: John Donne, Josef Ratzinger and a Few Painters.’ Michaelmas Public Lectures, The Parish Church of St Michael, Highgate.