Dr. Kenneth J. Howell
is the President and Director of Academic Research for the Eucharist Project, an international movement promoting the supreme sacrament of the Church. Dr. Howell taught in higher education for almost thirty years, most recently for over a decade as Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). At the same time he served as the Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought of the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center located at the same university.
Dr. Howell was a Presbyterian minister for eighteen years and a theological professor for seven years in a Reformed seminary where he taught Hebrew, Greek, and Latin as well as biblical interpretation and the history of Christianity. During his ministry and teaching, Dr. Howell’s own reading on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist started him on a six-year journey that eventually led him to Catholicism. In 2000, he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from John Paul II in recognition of his service to the Church (the lay equivalent of the title Monsignor).
Kenneth Howell has been married to Sharon Canfield for forty-two years and they have three children and eight grandchildren.