STORY OF CHRIS MAUNDER
From 1988 until 2020 I worked as a senior lecturer in Theology & Religious Studies at York St John University, and served there as Head of Department, Head of B.A., and Head of M.A. Since completing a PhD at the University of Leeds in 1991, I have written and edited books and articles on the Virgin Mary. I was asked in the mid-1990s to edit a new volume of Henry Bettenson’s collection, Documents of the Christian Church (OUP, 1999, 2011). I am the editor of Origins of the Cult of the Virgin Mary (Continuum, 2008) and the Oxford Handbook of Mary (OUP, 2019). My single-authored books are Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in 20th-Century Catholic Europe (2016, OUP) and Mary, Founder of Christianity (Oneworld, 2022).
Whilst being a scholar of Catholic popular religion in my professional life, I am also passionate about Marian shrines, visiting them across Europe and helping to maintain the 15th-century Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag carved into the rock in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, where I lived from 1996 to 2023.
I am a believer in God but I can also be critical of religion at times and I am totally accepting of people who do not believe. I am also interested in new and alternative spiritualities. My passion is for a spirituality that is centred upon the inclusive, universal love and justice of God.
In 2010 I self published my first novel Calling. This is a novel about 21st century alternative spirituality. Visions, divine guidance, magic, pilgrimage - all of these are ancient religious themes. What happens when they break into the life of a modern, urban, non-religious young woman? Calling's main character is drawn into a magical new world of intense encounters which inspire her. However, she also has to meet challenges, which represent a rite of passage for this late twenty-something into a greater maturity and stronger sense of her place in the universe.
My second novel, Diamond Jubilee, was published on this website (under the blogs section) in November 2023. This novel is a nostalgic look at the blues and rock music of the 1960s, but I have also asked the question about the black origin of this music and how far its popularity helped the issue of race equality. Looking back from the 2020s, I wonder how far we have come on this issue. The main character dies in the Covid pandemic but finds himself transported back to the 1960s, where he sets out on the path that eluded him the first time around - that of a rock star. He then meets the mysterious and charismatic blues singer known as Diamond Jubilee, which transforms his career.
I married Natalie on the 15th August 2015, and she gave birth to our daughter Beatrice (Bea) on the 18th March 2022.