Hello, I’m Timothy Willard

(but you can call me Tim)

I’m helping you live like beauty matters and inspiring you to live with passion and purpose in an aimless world. Join our community of counter-culturalists, beauty chasers, and artisan thinkers.

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Several years ago, I stepped out of the publishing industry, fresh on the heels of my latest book release. I was thriving as a ghostwriter and freelance creative collaborator.

Some told me stepping away was career suicide. Why leave the country to study for a Ph.D. when you can keep climbing the success later? But the decision to move to Oxford, England, and to sell our home, cars, and many of our belongings proved to be a revelation.

We discovered the joy of simplicity and how the beauty of a slower pace can radically change your life. I still collaborate, offer content coaching, and consult with clients and organizations.

But I’m also starting something new—a movement of beauty chasers. For my Ph.D. research, I studied beauty in the works of C.S. Lewis. Lewis considered himself a “hunter of beauty.” Beauty wooed Lewis from his ardent atheism to the Christian faith. It changed him.

Beauty can change you if you let it. That’s what the path of life has taught me so far. Beauty changed me. It still does.

This idea of chasing beauty is about pursuing a lifestyle that goes against the cultural grain of busyness, loudness, and naked ambition—you know, the kind of ambition we’re told we must have in order to find success in this cutthroat world.

My relatively short life has taught me that Beauty Chasers are thinkers and listeners.

They see when the world goes blind.

They embody quietness when all the world wants to do is scream.

They promote the good of others when the world says to promote yourself.

They give life to others when the world seems hell-bent on killing.

Beauty Chasers live their lives to a different cadence. They walk the path less traveled. If you’re interested in these things and you’re willing to risk change, then welcome, my friend.

Join us.

If you need my author bio …

About Me

Timothy Willard is a writer, theologian, artist, creative consultant, and independent scholar. He has authored four books, including the critically acclaimed Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society.

His new book, The Beauty Chasers: Recapturing the Wonder of the Divine, is available wherever books are sold.

Timothy received his master’s from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where his studies focused on theology, Christian thought, and church history. His master’s thesis was titled A Theology of Personhood.

With a passion to disciple the minds of the emerging generation in faith and culture and to help people live like beauty matters, Timothy moved his family to Oxford, England, for two years, where he earned his Ph.D. at King’s College London and studied theological aesthetics, focusing on the topic of beauty in the works of C.S. Lewis for his doctoral thesis under the supervision of renowned theologian Alister McGrath.

Through several viral blog posts, millions have read Timothy’s inspirational writing, which has been featured in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Patheos, Acculturated, The Huffington Post, FaithIt, Duke Divinity’s Faith & Leadership, ThinQ Media: Essays, Catalyst Magazine, Outreach Magazine, Relevant Magazine, and The Edges Collective.

Timothy has been a featured speaker at ThinQ Cultural Summit, Catalyst Conference, Allume Conference, OCCA, The Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics, The Charlotte Mason Institute National Conference (coming in 2024), and various churches, including Carmel Baptist in Charlotte, North Carolina, Embrace Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and St. Aldates Church: Oxford, England.

As a creative consultant and publishing collaborator, Timothy has worked on thirty books with clients ranging from Chick-fil-A, Sonic, ThinQ Media, International Mission Board, The Museum of the Bible, and Coca-Cola Consolidated to NYT bestselling authors, multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning artists, former NFL MVPs, to writers, pastors, home educators, and entrepreneurs.

He lives in the woods of Waxhaw, North Carolina, with his wife, Christine, and three daughters, Lyric, Brielle, and Zion, and a goofy Goldendoodle named Cash—yes, after Johnny.

Thanks for reading!


Speaking Inquiries: If you want to invite me to speak at your event, click here.

Work With Me: If you want to collaborate with me on a project, receive author/writer coaching, or creative consulting, email me at tim@timothywillard.com

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Helping you live like beauty matters and inspiring you to live with passion and purpose in an aimless world. Join our community of counter-culturalists, beauty chasers, and artisan thinkers.