Staff profile

As Vice-Principal of St Cuthbert’s Society, I work with Professor Tammi Walker, the Principal, to provide strategic and operational leadership. In collaboration with student officers and others, our aim is to foster a culture and ethos in which all may flourish, stretched and supported, both intellectually and personally.

Until 2025, I was part of the Executive Leadership Team at Durham Cathedral, with oversight of fundraising activity and key strategic partnerships, including as a member of the Board of UNESCO’s Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site. Together with Professor Simon Oliver, and others, I also launched and coordinated the work of Durham Cathedral Institute.

Originally from Northumberland, I returned to the North East in 2019 having held a portfolio of roles within the University of Oxford. Latterly, I was Acting Dean and Lecturer in Medieval Studies at Regent’s Park College, and Lecturer in Theology at St John’s College.

I have also been Associate Tutor in Church History at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a sessional tutor at Sarum College, Salisbury, and a visiting lecturer at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology (MBIT), Cambridge. Through MBIT, in association with Anglia Ruskin University, I have undertaken the supervision and assessment of postgraduate research.

Research

I work at the intersection of theology and church history, and primarily in the fields of Mariology (the branch of theology dedicated to the Virgin Mary), medieval spirituality, focusing on the Benedictine tradition, and Anselm Studies (the life and thought of the monk-theologian, Anselm of Canterbury).

More widely, arising from my work on monasticism, I have a long-held interest in the central ethical question of what makes a good life, including both medieval and contemporary responses. This has led me to explore understandings of harm and wrongdoing as Co-Investigator on a restorative justice research project (since 2014), and to nurture an interest in the work of the modern moral philosopher, Iris Murdoch.

Authored book

• Mills, M. J. (2024). Blessed Mary and the Monks of England: Benedictines and Cistercians, 1000-1215. The Catholic University of America Press
• Blyth, M. N., Mills, M. J., & Taylor, M. H. (2021). Forgiveness and Restorative Justice: Perspectives from Christian Theology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan

Book review

• Mills, M. J. (2022). David N. Bell, Handmaid of the Lord: Mary, the Cistercians, and Armand-Jean de Rancé (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2021), 400 pp. The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 11, 217-19
• Mills, M. J. (2022). Fiona J. Griffiths, Nuns' Priests' Tales: Men and Salvation in Women's Monastic Life (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), 360 pp. History, 107(374), 170-72
• Mills, M. J. (2022). Tom Angier, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 356 pp. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 19, 431-34
• Mills, M. J. (2022). Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb, The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 344 pp. Studies in Christian Ethics, 35(4), 859-61
• Mills, M. J. (2020). Charles Borromeo, Selected Orations, Homilies and Writings, ed. J. R. Cihak, trans. A. Santogrossi (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), 216 pp. Regent's Reviews, 12(1), 36-38
• Mills, M. J. (2020). Catherine Pepinster, The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017), 245 pp. Regent's Reviews, 12(1), 33-36
• Mills, M. J. (2019). James M. Houston & Jens Zimmerman, eds, Sources of the Christian Self: A Cultural History of Christian Identity (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2018), 692 pp
• Mills, M. J. (2019). Steven D. Cone, Theology from the Great Tradition (London; New York, NY: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), 726 pp

Chapter in book

• Mills, M. J. (in press). The Good Life: Iris Murdoch and Medieval Theology. In Iris Murdoch and the Western Theological Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan
• Mills, M. J. (2023). Preface. In R. J. Maidment, & M. J. Mills (Eds.), Keeper of the Word: The Virgin Mary in Anglican, Baptist and Catholic Dialogues (xvii-xxv). Oxford: Regent's Park College
• Mills, M. J. (2023). Maria, gratia plena: Vision, Convergence and Controversy. In Keeper of the Word: The Virgin Mary in Anglican, Baptist and Catholic Dialogues (133-140). Regent's Park College
• Mills, M. J. (2023). Mulierem fortem: The Marian Pattern of Christian Discipleship. In Keeper of the Word: The Virgin Mary in Anglican, Baptist and Catholic Dialogues (63-78). Regent's Park College
• Mills, M. J. (2022). Miscellaneous (285 entries). In A. Louth (Ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. (4th ed.). Oxford University Press
• Mills, M. J. (2021). Forgiving in the Presence of God. . Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75282-8_8
• Mills, M. J. (2021). Reframing the Narrative of Victimhood. . Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75282-8_3
• Mills, M. J. (2021). Just Enough to Be Satisfied. . Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75282-8_5
• Mills, M. J. (2020). Caritatis communionem: Reconciliation through an Ecumenism of Friendship. In A. Goodliff, A. Clarke, & B. Allison-Glenny (Eds.), Reconciling Rites: Essays in Honour of Myra N. Blyth (224-40). Oxford: Regent's Park College

Edited book

• Mills, M. (2023). Keeper of the Word: The Virgin Mary in Anglican, Baptist and Catholic Dialogues. Regent's Park College, Oxford

Journal Article

• Mills, M. J. (2021). A Vindication of Desire: St Anselm, with C. S. Lewis. The Downside review, 139(2), 133-44
• Mills, M. J. (2020). In the Barque of Peter: St Anselm's Ecclesiology. The Saint Anselm Journal, 15(2), 97-114
• Mills, M. J. (2015). Stephen of Sawley's Meditations on Our Lady's Joys and the Medieval History of the Rosary. Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 50(4), 424-439