Department of Theology
Gillian Ahlgren

Dr. Gillian Ahlgren

Professor Emerita

Dr. Gillian Ahlgren is a church historian and specialist in the Christian mystical tradition.  She is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on Teresa of Avila and has written extensively on other spiritual leaders including Francis and Clare of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, Julian of Norwich, and Hildegard of Bingen. She is the author of 10 books, including Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity, Enkindling Love: The Legacy of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, The Tenderness of God: Reclaiming Our Humanity, Courage to Care: Lessons from Assisi, and Spiritual Exercises for the 21stCentury: A Workbook. 

 

Dr. Gillian Ahlgren is a church historian and specialist in the Christian mystical tradition.  She is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on Teresa of Avila and has written extensively on other spiritual leaders including Francis and Clare of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, Julian of Norwich, and Hildegard of Bingen. She is the author of 10 books, including Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity, Enkindling Love: The Legacy of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, The Tenderness of God: Reclaiming Our Humanity, Courage to Care: Lessons from Assisi, and Spiritual Exercises for the 21stCentury: A Workbook. 

 

First Year at Xavier
1990

Expertise Medieval and Reformation church history, mysticism,monasticism, Spanish Inquisition, women in Christianity

  • Ph.D. (University of Chicago)