Lisa Coutras Terris, PhD, MTh

Program Coordinator
Adjunct Faculty

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry

Classification:

Admin

• PhD, King's College London, 2016
• MTh, University of Oxford, 2010

PEER-REVIEWED BOOK

Coutras, Lisa. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth (Palgrave MacMillan: New York 2016).

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLE

Bailey BC, Cox S, Terris L, van Oppen D, Howsare J, Berry JH, Winstanley EL. “Rural health care worker wellness during COVID-19: Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction & utilization of wellness resources.” PLoS One. 2023 Dec 8;18(12):e0295020. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295020. PMID: 38064476; PMCID: PMC10707602.

SCHOLARLY BOOK CHAPTERS

Coutras, Lisa. “Tolkien and Balthasar: Theological Aesthetics in the Writings of Tolkien,” in Tolkien Among the Theologians (Walking Tree Publishers), 2025.

Coutras, Lisa. “The Marian Valkyrie: Tolkien’s Theology of the Heroic Feminine,” in Theology and Tolkien (Lexington Books: Fortress Academic), 2024.

ARTICLES

Coutras, Lisa. “Heroic Love and the Marian Valkyrie: Tolkien’s Theology of the Feminine,” St. Austin Review 20:4 (Jul/Aug 2020).

Coutras, Lisa. “Arwen’s Choice: The Interplay of Love and Wisdom,” St. Austin Review 18:1 (Jan/Feb 2018).

Chairman’s Commonwealth Award, 2023

Department of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry, West Virginia University

Presented to a faculty, resident, or staff member whose commitment to the department has benefited others and whose efforts have made a significant contribution across many domains to the well-being of the department.

Shortlisted for the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, 2017, 2018, 2019

The Mythopoeic Society

Given to books on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and/or Charles Williams that make significant contributions to Inklings scholarship.

Dr. Lisa Coutras Terris is a theologian and scholar specializing in the intersection of theology, philosophy, and literature. She holds a Ph.D. in Theology and Religious Studies from King's College London, where she conducted groundbreaking research on the theological aesthetics of J.R.R. Tolkien, published as Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016). She currently serves as adjunct faculty at West Virginia University in the Department of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry, contributing to interdisciplinary research on the intersection of addiction psychiatry and literature.