About me

Head shot of Chris Walton, wearing glasses, a beard, and sports coat, facing to his left

I’m Chris Walton. For twenty-five years I served Unitarian Universalist institutions as a religious educator, worship leader, preacher, and journalist.

I studied American religious history and the intellectual history of liberal Protestantism at Harvard Divinity School, where I was a Williams Fellow and earned an Master of Divinity degree. (Although I trained to be a UU minister, I did not pursue ordination.)

From 2000 to 2021 I worked as a writer and editor for UU World magazine, including fourteen years as editor and leader of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Periodicals staff group.

I continue working with authors and scholars as a freelance developmental editor, website designer, and print and digital graphic designer at Chris Walton Design.

This site revives Philocrites, the personal blog I published from 2002 to 2008. As on that site, my preoccupations are religion, liberalism, and culture – nice, broad categories for the ways human beings experience transcendence, freedom, and creativity. (Here’s my bio page on the old site.)

Happily, I once again speak only for myself and not as a representative of any group, institution, tradition, or sect.

“Philocrites” is a Greek word, cobbled together from philo – “love” – and krites – “judgment.” (Years ago, unable to think of a word to use as a Yahoo! name that someone else hadn’t already picked, I finally discovered a use for my minor in Classical Greek!) I pronounce it fi-LAH-kra-tees, but you can call me Chris.

I welcome your thoughtful comments and feedback.