[3] He studied history at Yale University, writing his senior thesis under the supervision of the Christian historian Jaroslav Pelikan, and graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1982.
[3] In December 1986, McIntosh was ordained in the Episcopal Church (United States) as a priest by Frank T. Griswold for the Diocese of Chicago.
Looking at the works of Balthasar or Bonaventure, C. S. Lewis or Maximus the Confessor, McIntosh provided in his publications a study of many great theologians in order to reveal the underlying ideas, and adding to them with original and masterful thought.
Drawing on themes that begin with the pre-Christian thinkers Plato and Plotinus, McIntosh threaded together the mystical, philosophical, and epistemological traditions of centuries of Christian thought,[2] assembling an impressive corpus of new interpretations as well as his own theological contributions.
Latterly, he taught and researched for projects involving the Divine Ideas, or exemplar forms – their relatively unrecognized but crucial place in Christian theology.