Welcome.

I’m a writer, independent scholar, and maker. This is my bio in third person because life’s too short to be serious all the time. Enjoy.

It took Timothy Willard fourteen years to finish his undergraduate degree. He was busy touring the country in an indie acoustic band you've never heard of, reading George MacDonald in the back of a van. When people asked about his plans, he told them he was attending the University of the Holy Spirit, which meant he was reading Lewis, Chesterton, Eliot, and Augustine, and submitting his assignments as poems … to no one.

He eventually finished real college. He then earned a master's in Christian Thought at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he was asked frequently, “Why is a writer getting a seminary degree?” To which he would reply, “I have no idea.”

He then earned a PhD in Theology at King’s College London, studying C.S. Lewis and northern aesthetics under Alister McGrath. He moved his family, three daughters all under five, to Oxford to do so. He is completing a monograph on Lewis’s “idea of the North” for Manchester University Press. He is also self-publishing his first novel, The Tempest and The Bloom (2026, Riven Press), which editors loved but said was “too fantastical” for Christian audiences. 

He is the author of four books, including The Beauty Chasers: Recapturing the Wonder of the Divine (Zondervan Reflective, 2022) and co-author of the acclaimed Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society. He has delivered keynote addresses at the Museum of the Bible, The Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics, and the Charlotte Mason Institute National Conference, and has guest lectured at Reformed Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

He writes at The Beautiful Disruption on Substack, where a growing community gathers because they believe beauty matters, not just in the world of aesthetics, but in the world of carpools, beach trips, and club sports.

He is an oil painter, a volleyball coach, a husband, and a father who has learned more about hope, beauty, and joy from his daughters than from any library.

He lives in Waxhaw, North Carolina, with his wife and three daughters—and a goldendoodle named Cash (yes, after Johnny).

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Buy The Beauty Chasers

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “A deep and thought-provoking invitation to truly experience beauty as a way of life. The Beauty Chasers gives permission and direction to seek the beauty we long for. This book will forever change your perspective on the vital role of beauty in your everyday life, just like it did in mine.”

    -MYQUILLLYN SMITH, New York Times bestselling author of Welcome Home

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “Tim is my go-to source to learn what God calls beautiful. Not only has he studied beauty, but he writes beautifully. This book captures the imagination while guiding the reader along a journey of spiritual discovery and renewal. If you’re like me, always on the lookout for books that will inspire while also giving you time to catch my breath before God, then you will love The Beauty Chasers.”

    -ESTHER FLEECE ALLEN, bestselling author of No More Faking Fine and Your New Name

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “Tim is an expert for our times. Even before the world became more aware of its need to be awakened out of media-induced malaise, Tim was a student of beauty and its power to revive the human soul. The message in these pages is not one I can merely read but have to share: there is hope for even these days. With rich storytelling and prose, Tim gives us the guide to recapture the wonder we all need right now.”

    -SARA HAGERTY, bestselling author of Unseen, ADORE, and Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “This book is a whimsical, meandering journey into a vast and (mostly) unexplored geography: the world of beauty. What is it? Why are we drawn to it? What are the ramifications for us as a society if we misrepresent or squander it? Tim Willard, willing and eager, ushers us into this vast expanse with stories and conversations and exposition, leaving us finally with the belief that there is so much more to the world than the material things we can see—and this is good.”

    -SHAWN SMUCKER, award-winning author of The Weight of Memory

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “Tim’s book is a radiant invitation not just to learn about beauty, but to live it; to taste and be transformed by God’s loveliness in a radical and restorative way. Tim is a kind and experienced guide who offers his readers the vision they need to undergo a transformative journey, to read the signs and understand the times, but he’s also a friend who comes along, helping them step-by-step into a wide and wondrous way of living. This book is a gift.”

    -SARAH CLARKSON, author of This Beautiful Truth

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “Tim writes with rare beauty and soul, like the great ones before him. C. S. Lewis. Frederick Buechner. Eugene Peterson. His new book, The Beauty Chasers, calls us away from shallow distractions and to a deeper life.”

    -JOHN SOWERS, author of Say All the Unspoken Things

  • Praise for The Beauty Chasers

    “I’m obsessed with Tim’s way of seeing the world. It convicts me and nourishes me all at the same time. We’ve never needed a book as much as we need this book right now. I’m sitting down and I’m listening. This book is helping me ‘see when the world goes blind.’ Thank you, Tim, for nudging us a little closer home.”

    -DR. EDIE WADSWORTH, author of All the Pretty Things

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