Rachel Wheeler, PhD
Professor Rachel Wheeler teaches courses on the Bible, Christian spirituality, ecospirituality, and spirituality and the arts. Before coming to the University of Portland in 2016, she completed graduate work in monastic studies and Christian spirituality at Saint John's School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She also holds undergraduate degrees in English and Music from Linfield College [now University] and Humboldt State University [now Polytechnic], graduate degrees in English and Theology, and a PhD in Christian Spirituality. She is Secretary of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and a member of the American Academy of Religion.
Her books include Desert Daughters, Desert Sons: Rethinking the Christian Desert Tradition (Liturgical Press, 2020) and Ecospirituality: An Introduction (Fortress Press, 2022). Her research and teaching interests include desert spirituality, interfaith ascetic practices, ecospiritual practices, and the use of the arts in spiritual formation.
