Mark Vernon

Mark Vernon is a British psychotherapist, writer and former Anglican priest.

Educated at Ardingly College, Vernon studied physics at Durham University, where he was a member of St John's College, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in 1989. He received a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy from the University of Warwick.

Vernon trained for ordination at St Stephen's House, Oxford, between 1990 and 1993. During this time, he also studied for a Bachelor of Theology (BTh) degree at the University of Oxford. He was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1993 and as a priest in 1994. He served his curacy at St Cuthbert's Church, Billingham, in the Diocese of Durham. His bishop, David Jenkins, was liberal and allowed his to serve as long as he kept his homosexuality "discreet". Three years after his ordination, he left the church, having been unable to live with the lie any longer; "you internalise the charge of being an abomination. You live a lie. And like any lived lie, insidious psychological damage is the price."

Vernon is the author of several books on subjects from friendship and belief, to wellbeing and love, including A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness (2019), based upon the ideas of the Oxford Inkling, Owen Barfield, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey., and most recently, Spiritual Intelligence in Seven Steps.

He is a columnist for The Idler, and has written for Aeon, Church Times and The Tablet, amongst other publications. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze, In Our Time, alongside other programmes, and also regularly podcasts and posts YouTubes, including the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake. Vernon was formerly a Church of England priest.

Vernon has a private psychotherapy practice and has also worked at the Maudsley Hospital.