Jack Miles, a former Jesuit, pursued religious studies at Pontifical Gregorian College, Rome, and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and holds a doctorate in Near Eastern languages from Harvard University. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and Regents Lecturer at the University of California. A book columnist and member of the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, he freelances for The Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Harvard Theological Review, Commonweal, Tikkun, and other national publications.

He lives with his wife and daughter in southern California.