John Houghton

'''John Wm. Houghton, Ph.D. (born John William Houghton''') is an American professor and Episcopal reverend who specializes in religious studies, English, and Medieval subjects such as the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. He is an editorial adviser for The Journal of Tolkien Studies and the Mythopeoic Society's scholarly periodical Mythlore.

He was educated at Harvard University, the Yale Divinity School, and University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he earned his doctorate in 1994. Since the 1970's he has served on the Chairs of multilple schools in the eastern United States.

Houghton headed the making of Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey, a collection released in 2014. In 2020, he will be keynote speaker for the seventeenth "Tolkien in Vermont" conference at the University of Vermont.

He resides in Pennsylvania.

Articles & edited works

 * 2002 - "Augustine in the cottage of lost play: the Ainulindalë as asterisk cosmogony" in Jane Chance's Tolkien the Medievalist
 * 2005 - "Tolkien, King Alfred, and Boethius: Platonist Views of Evil in The Lord Of The Rings" (with Neal Keesee) in Tolkien Studies, vol. 2.
 * 2006 - Entries "Augustine of Hippo", "Bede (St. Bede the Venerable)", "Book of Lost Tales I", and "Ungoliant" in Michael D. C. Drout's The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment
 * 2014 - Compiled Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey with John D. Rateliff, Janet Brennan Croft, Nancy Martsch, and Robin Anne Reid.