Andrew Louth, born in Lincolnshire and brought up in the north of England, studied Theology at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. From 1970 to 1985 he was Fellow and Chaplain of Worcester College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in Theology, teaching prinipally Patristics. In 1985 he became Reader in History at Goldsmith's College, London. He is the author of The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition (1981), Discerning the Mystery: An Essay on the Nature of Theology (1983) and Denys the Areopagite (1989). He has also edited Early Christian Writings for the Penguin Classics.