Barry R. Pearlman was born in South Wales but moved to Texas as a child. He attended the University of Houston, where he studied mathematics, social psychology, and literature. Upon graduation, he returned to Wales where he met his wife, Anne, and eventually moved to Australia. There, Pearlman obtained a Ph.D. in social psychology from Monash University and a B.Th. from Melbourne College of Divinity, where he majored in theology and exegesis. Formerly a lecturer in methodology and statistics in the social sciences, he is now retired and has turned to religious writing. He is a convert to Catholicism and currently lives in Wales.