Professor Christopher Cook qualified in medicine from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London in 1981. He specialised in psychiatry and worked for over 25 years in the psychiatry of substance misuse. He has research doctorates in medicine and in theology. His academic interests are in spirituality, theology & health. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2001. He is an Honorary Minor Canon of Durham Cathedral and an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist with Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. Chris is Professor of Spirituality, Theology & Health in the Department of Theology & Religion at Durham University. He is President of the British Association for the Study of Spirituality. His book publications include: The Philokalia and the Inner Life: On Passions and Prayer (2011), Spirituality, Theology & Mental Health (ed., 2013), and Spirituality and Narrative in Psychiatric Practice (eds Cook, Powell & Sims, 2016).

The MA in Spirituality, Theology & Health at Durham University is an inter-disciplinary and inter-professional programme aimed at enabling students to develop an integrative understanding of human sickness, health and wellbeing from both theological and scientific perspectives. To our knowledge, it is the only programme of its kind internationally on which clergy and health professionals, theologians and scientists can study together at masters level on the same programme in the same classroom. It provides opportunity for inter-disciplinary conversations within which scientists and health professionals can increase their awareness of the theological questions and research pertaining to their work and, similarly, chaplains and theologians can have opportunity to engage with some of the relevant scientific issues.