About - Maryvale Institute
Academic staff profiles
Academic staff profiles
(Click on staff member's name for biography and email contact form.)
I am the Director of the new Research Centre for Pastoral Theology at Maryvale, in which role I develop Maryvale outreach to Catholic academic community and individual Catholic scholars. The Centre organises conferences, aims to publish academic titles and serves as a think tank on all matters relating to the Church. In addition, I supervise PhD research students and am a member of Maryvale's Research Committee, and the Programme Director for the BA (Hons) Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition course and teach Church History on the B.Divinity Programme.
I obtained my PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2007, and have taught there and at the University of Glasgow. My PhD focussed on the religious and cultural exchanges between England and the Continent at the end of the Middle Ages.
Most of my research is multi-disciplinary, incorporating history, history of art, literature, theology and anthropology. I am particularly interested in structures, cultural transmission and encounters and in the narratives that flow from these.
My fields of research are as follows:
I have just completed a book on the role of the Catholic Duchesses of Perth in the Jacobite period and am currently working on the life of St Elizabeth Hesselblad, who re-invigorated the Bridgettine Order.
Books
Articles
Professional Memberships
Dr Jack Bull's research is primarily focused on early Christian literature, particularly the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch. The first monograph seeks to reassess the Ignatian question and assert that the short recension of the three letters attests the oldest extant witness to the Ignatian epistles. He is currently working on a new translation of these epistles into English, along with a transcription of the original Syriac. It is also his aim to translate the Syriac into Greek so that it might be more readily compared to the middle recension. He has also been collaborating with a small team working on the Marcionite New Testament. The team has published several works, both individually and collaboratively, in an attempt to understand the role that Marcion played in the second century.
As a side hobby, Jack has also been researching the life and works of William Cureton. Cureton was an Orientalist working on early Christian texts in the 19th century and published many significant works. Jack was asked by Studia Patristica to write a book on Cureton which he hopes to finish by the end of the year. He is proficient in Greek, Latin and Syriac.
Dr Keith Chappell is Pathway Leader for Apologetics on the MA Programme as well as being the academic tutor for the modules Catholic Social Thought (on the Faith and Culture pathway) and Catholicism and Contemporary Currents of Spirituality (on the pathway in Spirituality). Dr Chappell has taught for many years on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Maryvale, and supervises and examines doctoral work.
He holds undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees and doctorates in both theology and biology. From 2013-2015 he was Teaching Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading; from 2015-2017 he was a researcher for the Learning About Science and Religion Project at the same university, and since March 2015 has been a Research Fellow in Science and Religion at Canterbury Christchurch University.
Recent relevant publications include:
Fr Michael Cullinan is the Director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences (HIRS) at Maryvale and Director of the B.Div. Programme. He has been part of the Maryvale academic staff since 1995 and full-time since 2009, when he became Director of the B.A. (Div.) Programme. He has been Director of the B.Div. Programme since November 2013, before which he was its Academic Director from its inception in 2011.
Fr Michael is a priest of the Diocese of Westminster, ordained in 1995. He gained an external STB from Leuven in 1994 summa cum laude. After serving in the parishes of Holy Trinity, Brook Green and St James’s Spanish Place he went to Rome for further studies in 2000, living at the Pontifical Portuguese College. He gained an STL in moral theology from the Angelicum in Rome in 2002 and defended his Doctorate at the Alfonsianum in 2005 summa cum laude. His dissertation was selected for publication by the Alfonsianum in its series Tesi Accademia Alfonsiana.
As a moral theologian specialising in the ethical teaching of St Paul, Fr Michael has spoken at the Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, at the Catholic Theological Association, at the 2016 Sacra Liturgia Conference and lectured at the International Theological Institute in Austria. He is also a member of the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology.
His publications include:
His lectures and knowledge dissemination include:
Fr Michael comes from Torquay in Devon, where he grew up and went to school. His first career was as a mathematician, reading mathematics at Balliol College, Oxford from 1975 to 1978, and then going to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he did a Ph.D. in numerical analysis. He held academic posts at the University of Salford and Dublin City University before entered Allen Hall Seminary in 1988. His interest in mathematics remains and in 2017 he gave an invited paper at the Conference on Approximation and Optimization: Algorithms, Complexity, and Applications in Athens.
Bishop David was Course Director for the BA (Hons) Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition programme between 2014 and 2020. Since becomeing Auxiliary Bishop, serving the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Bishop David continues his association with Maryvale as a consultant and lecturer on the Philosophy Course, in addition to being a member of the Higher Institute of Religous Sciences Council permanent faculty. Within the archdiocese, he is also a member of the Metropolitan Chapter and of the Metropolitan Tribunal.
After studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he was awarded a PhL summa cum laude, he served as a curate at St Mary’s the Mount, Walsall, when he was also chaplain to St Thomas More RC Comprehensive School. He became curate at St Aloysius, Oxford, two years later, before becoming lecturer in philosophy at Oscott College, the diocesan seminary. In the eighteen years he was there, he assisted at the weekends at St John Fisher, West Heath, Birmingham. He was dean of studies and vice rector. He co-ordinated the Oscott-Queen’s Joint Course on the Eucharist. He became secretary to the Bishops’ Conference Committee for Faith and Culture.
In 2001, Canon Evans was appointed parish priest of St Austin’s, Stafford. While there he became a member of English ARC From 2001-2006, he was episcopal vicar for Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Coventry. He has more lately been parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Rednal. He undertook postgraduate research at Liverpool Hope University for a thesis entitled Wonder, Encounter and Wisdom. Laying the Foundations of Pastoral Philosophy. He served as parish priest of St Teresa’s, Charlbury and is a Member of Council at Newman University. He was appointed chair of the Diocesan Committee for the Year of Faith. His research interests are in metaphysics and epistemology, the history of philosophy, and the authors Ludwig Wittgenstein, Maurice Blondel and Edith Stein. He continues to be concerned with ecumenical dialogue, the dialogue with culture and with atheism, and with the philosophical aspects of preaching the gospel.
Rev Dr Robert Ignatius Letellier was educated in Grahamstown, Cambridge, Salzburg, Rome (the Gregorian University, the Biblical Institute) and Jerusalem (the Ecole Biblique). He is a member of Trinity College (Cambridge), the Salzburg Centre for Research in the Early English Novel (University of Salzburg), the Maryvale Institute (Birmingham), and the teaching panel of the Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley Hall (Cambridge).
From 1993 he has been a lecturer in Sacred Scripture at the Maryvale Institiute. In 2010, with Maryvale accredited Pontifical status (an Ecclesiastical Institute of Religious Sciences), he was appointed to the Scripture Faculty. Apart from introducing the Old and New Testaments, his lectures there have included courses on the Bible and music, art and the historico-geographical contexts of the Holy Land. He also teaches for the Institute of Continuing Education in Cambridge. He began lecturing at Madingley Hall in 2004, since when he has presented some 30 courses in music, literature and cultural history.
His publications number over 100 items, including 10 books on the Bible (Creation, Abraham, the Bible as Revelatory Word, the Bible as Oracular Word, the Bible and Art, the Bible and Music, the Bible and Covenant, Sunday and Festal Sermons). He has also produced books and articles on the English novel (particularly the Gothic Novel and Sir Walter Scott), and European culture. Here he has specialized in the Romantic opera, especially the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer (an English edition of his diaries, studies of his operas), Daniel-François-Esprit Auber and the opéra-comique, and Ludwig Minkus and the Romantic Ballet.
Dr Agata Mleczko earned her first doctorate in the humanities in 2008, with research focused on identity formation among second-generation Chinese immigrants in Italy. She previously completed a BA in Early Education with Therapy and an MA in Comparative Education. She has worked with several academic and research institutions, including the University of Nottingham and the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research (IPRS) in Rome, and collaborated on EU-funded projects such as Lifelong Learning 2010, which examined adult learners’ needs across fourteen European countries.
After leaving academia, Dr Mleczko worked as a journalist and published two books on the philosophy of travel. In 2017, she moved to Australia, where she served as a Legal Officer at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland. In recent years, she has worked as a translator of theological and spiritual content, translating over 80 videos for Word on Fire. She completed a Bachelor of Divinity at the Maryvale Institute in 2025 and joined the Maryvale staff as Further Education Coordinator in January 2026. Alongside this, she also serves as a student advisor and DT marker.
Fr Martin has been a lecturer, tutor, and examiner to the Ecclesiastical Bachelor of Divinity students at Maryvale Institute since 2013. In 2014, with the approval of Faculté Nôtre-Dame, Paris, who oversees Maryvale’s Pontifical status, he was appointed to the dogmatic theology faculty of the Institute as one of the HIRS (Higher Institute of Religious Studies) Council permanent faculty. He lectures mainly in Mariology, Ecclesiology, Creation, Fall, and Redemption while assisting in other areas of theology.
He holds a doctorate (2013) and a Licence (2008) in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, with dissertations on the Writings of Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), both of which were awarded Summa cum laude. He also holds, from the Pontifical Urbanian University Rome, a Bachelor of Theology (Magna cum laude, 2001), Bachelor of Philosophy (Summa cum laude, 1996), and a Diploma in Latin (1989). In 1999, he obtained a Higher National Diploma in Mass Communication from Enugu State University of Science & Technology.
He has had prior teaching experience in the seminary and equally had six years of experience working as assistant registrar and undergraduate and graduate assistant to the academic Deans of philosophy and theology faculties. Aided by his studies in Mass Communication and interest in Evangelization, he was the founding editor of a Catholic magazine in Nigeria and served as its editor-in-chief twice. While in Nigeria (where he was ordained, after training for the priesthood at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu), he co-headed the Apostolic Union of the clergy in his home diocese of Ahiara, coordinating retreats, seminars, and on-going formation for priests. He has also given lectures, talks, and retreats to universities and colleges and the clergy, religious, and laity in Nigeria, Italy, Germany, and England.
His work history includes serving as a parish priest, associate pastor, supply priest, and school governor in Nigeria, Italy, the USA, and the United Kingdom. He has recently moved from Holy Angels’ parish in Hale Barns, where he served as Parochial administrator and chaplain of St Ambrose college, to Stockport, where he is looking after the parishes of Our Lady and the Apostles, St Ambrose, and St Vincent, and supporting Aquinas College and St James High School.
Theological Interests:
Publications: