Research and Scholarship

Christopher B. Barnett received his Doctor of Philosophy in Theology from the University of Oxford. Broadly speaking, he is interested in modern theology and philosophy, while areas of concentration include Kierkegaard and existentialism, Christian Spirituality, theology and the arts (especially film), the philosophy of technology, and the rise of atheism in (post)modernity. In addition to several articles and book chapters, he has published three books: Kierkegaard, Pietism and Holiness (2011), From Despair to Faith: The Spirituality of Søren Kierkegaard (2014), and Theology and the Films of Terrence Malick (coedited with Clark J. Elliston, 2016). He is currently working on a number of book-length projects, including Scorsese as Theologian and Kierkegaard and the Question Concerning Technology.

Francis Caponi is interested in the perduring value of Thomistic approaches to theological themes, especially Christology, eschatology, aesthetics, and Scriptural hermeneutics. He has essays on Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of mercy and justice, and his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, upcoming in The Journal of Religion and The Journal of Theological Interpretation. His recent course offerings include “Angels and Demons,” “Mary and the Saints,” and a class on the work of C.S. Lewis. He is preparing a course on lesser known Catholic classics of the 20th century, including works by Ronald Knox, Romano Guardini, Henri de Lubac, and Hilaire Belloc.

Dr. Paul L. Danove earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics (1974), Master of Divinity (1986), Licentiate in Sacred Theology (1990), and Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Studies (1991). His published research is in the semantic study of the Greek of the Septuagint and New Testament and in the narrative and rhetorical study of the text of the Gospel of Mark.

Villanova University selects Theology and Religious Studes Professor for 2017 Outstanding Faculty Research Award

Ilia Delio, OSF, a Franciscan Sister of Washington, D.C. holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova Universe.  Her area of research is Science and Religion with interests in artificial intelligence, evolution, quantum physics and the import of these for religion and culture. She holds a doctorate in Pharmacology from Rutgers University-  Biomedical and Health Sciences and a doctorate in Historical Theology from Fordham University.  She is the author of eighteen books and numerous articles.  Her recent books include Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness and The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love, for which she won the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award.  Her latest book A Hunger for Wholeness:  Soul, Space and Transcendence will be published by Paulist Press (2018).  

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Massimo Faggioli, PhD is a leading authority on the history and administrative inner workings of the Catholic Church with specific expertise in the papacy, Vatican II, the Roman Curia, liturgical reform, new Catholic movements and on Catholicism and global politics. Frequently featured in the national and international media, Faggioli can comment on a diversity of theological, religious and Church-related issues ranging from the historical to the contemporary.

Recent works include:

Catholicism and Citizenship: Political Cultures of the Church in the Twenty-First Centrury, March 2017 (available here)

A Council for the Global Church: Receving Vatican II in History May 2015 (available here)

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Born in Washington, DC and educated by the Augustinians at Archbishop Carroll High School, Dr. Allan Fitzgerald entered the Order of Saint Augustine after his first year at Villanova University (1960). Hi studied in Rome (1964-1968) and Paris (1968-1972), writing a doctoral thesis on penance in the 4^th and 5^th centuries in the Italian church.

Dr. Allan Fitzgerald taught in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies from 1972-1997, and became the editor of Augustinian Studies in 1990, the only English language journal devoted entirely to Augustine’s thought and influence. He edited an encyclopedia of Saint Augustine (Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia), published in 1999. He taught at the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome (1997-2009) and returned to Villanova as the director of the Augustinian Institute, a position that became a full-time position in 2011.

Anthony J. Godzieba specializes in fundamental and systematic theology, especially the theology of God, Christology, theological anthropology, philosophical theology, and the intersection of theology and culture.  His is the author of Bernhard Welte’s Fundamental Theological Approach to Christology (1994) and A Theology of the Presence and Absence of God (2018), and most recently co-editor (with Brad Hinze) of Beyond Dogmatism and Innocence: Hermeneutic, Critique, and Catholic Theology (2017).  He is currently writing on embodiment at the intersection of art, music, theology, and spirituality in early modern Catholicism, as well as a "short but necessary" treatise on theological method.

Mark Graham is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics and the Director of the Undergraduate Program.  He foscus his research into Christian environmental ethics and Catholic fundamental moral theology, and is currently writing on Thomas Berry’s cosmology and its implications for Christian ethics.  

Dr. Kathleen Grimes is a solid source for discussions about Christian ethics and their bearing on issues such as racism, white supremacy, sex and gender, and the environment. She can talk about how these and other issues have been handled historically and how they are being approached currently in the Church, as well as by society at large. Dr. Grimes can also speak about liberation theology, natural law and virtue theory.

Recent works include:

Christ Devided: Antiblackness as Corporate Vice, Nov 2017 (available here)

Fugitive Saints: Catholicism and the Politics of Slavery, April 2017 (available here)

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Timothy Hanchin is assistant professor of religious and theological education. His research interests include the philosophy of education, theological pedagogy, education and hermeneutics, and Trinitarian theology. His writing addresses the mission and identity of Catholic higher education today. He regularly engages the generative work of Bernard Lonergan, S.J. Dr. Hanchin is director of the Theological Education Formation Program, an integral pedagogical component of Villanova’s doctoral program in theology. Dr. Hanchin received his PhD in theology and education from Boston College and Master of Divinity from Harvard University. 

Shams C. Inati is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, and the Department of Philosophy at Villanova University. She has authored many works and has translated and analyzed numerous Arabic philosophical texts, with an emphasis on Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and other medieval Islamic thinkers. Much of her work focuses on the problem of evil, metaphysics, and historical dilemmas in the Middle East. The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies praised her "scholarly, well researched and well analysed commentary" on Ibn Sina. Her work has also been cited or reviewed in the Middle East Journal, The Journal of Religion, the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and the Journal of Semitic Studies.

Stefanie Knauss joined Villanova University in 2013. She works at the boundary of foundational theology and the study of religions, with particular interest in the relationship between theology and culture, the role of body in religions, and the contribution of gender studies and queer theory to theological reflection. Her publications include More than a Provocation: Sexuality, Media and Theology (2014) and the co-edited (with A.-K. Höpflinger and A.D. Ornella) volume Commun(icat)ing Bodies: Body as a Medium in Religious Symbol Systems (2014). She is a member of the editorial boards of Concilium: International Journal of Theology and of the Journal for Religion, Film and Media.

Fr. Martin Laird’s research and writings focus on Early Christianity, especially St. Gregory of Nyssa.  In addition to this he publishes and speaks widely on early monastic writings, especially Evagrius Ponticus and the Philokalia, in order to establish dialogue with between ancient faith traditions and contemporary culture, especially on the topic of contemplation.

Christy Lang Hearlson is a practical theologian with an emphasis in religious and theological education. Trained at Princeton Theological Seminary, she is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and previously served The Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. Her areas of scholarly interest are holistic and experiential pedagogies, attention, memory, imagination, and wonder, the doctrine of the incarnation and its implications for teaching and learning, and spiritual formation of children and youth in both Christian communities and consumer culture. She has written church-based curriculum for several national publishers and is the co-editor of How Youth Ministry Can Change Theological Education--If We Let It (Eerdmans, 2016). She is currently working on a book about biblical literacy and a project about attention, wonder, and practical theology.

Vincent Lloyd’s research focuses on the intersection of religion, race, and politics, using the tools of critical theory. He has written on political theology, African American religious and political thought, philosophy of religion, and mass incarceration. Lloyd is currently working on research projects concerning the concepts of dignity and hope, foregrounding perspectives from marginalized communities, as well as a project on the relationship between divine and human fatherhood in African American culture. He is in the early stages of a new, collaborative project with Villanova philosophy professor Delia Popa on race and phenomenology.

Recent works include:

Religion of Feild Negro: On Black Secularism and Black Theology; November 2017

Black Natural Law; June 2016

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Fr. Loya researches and publishes in the following areas: The history of Eastern Christian (Byzantine) faith, order and church life; Christian Ecumenism; Inter-religious Dialogue. Praxically, Fr. Loya has served multiple terms on the executive boards of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, Christians Associated for Relations with Eastern Europe, Orientale Lumen Foundation, Regional Chair for Eastern Catholic Churches for the Catholic Association of Diocesan and Inter-religious Ecumenical Officers, and the “Christian World Community and the Cold War” North American Study Group. He also is the Editor for Christian Resources for the Journal of Ecumenical Studies and the Director of Villanova’s Russian Area Studies Program.

Dr. Jessica M. Murdoch is Associate Professor of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at Villanova University. She specializes in the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, metaphysics and epistemology, papal teaching, and matters concerning women, marriage and the family from a Catholic perspective. Prior to her tenure at Villanova, she was an Assistant Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She currently serves the Church on the Executive Board of the National Advisory Council of the USCCB, on the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council in Philadelphia, and as a catechist at Sacred Heart Parish in Royersford, PA.

Dr. Rachel J. D. Smith received her PhD from Harvard University in 2012. She specializes in the study of western medieval Christianity with a focus on monasticism, mysticism, hagiography, and theologies of sanctity. Her work explores the relationship between literary art and theological discourse, theory and practice, as well as questions of gender and representation in medieval texts.

Dr. Spitaler currently serves as Chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. His field of research expertize is New Testament studies. Teaching interests include the whole range of New Testament literature, New Testament ethics and spirituality, and biblical theology. Dr. Spitaler earned the Doctorate in Theology from the University of Munich, Germany. His educational background also includes two bachelor’s degrees: one in Philosophy from the Salesian University in Rome, Italy, and the other in Social Work from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany. He also has a master’s degree in Theology from the Salesian University at Benediktbeuern, Bavaria, Germany. Before he became a college professor, Dr. Spitaler worked as a resident assistant in a boarding house for young workers in Austria. He also worked for several years as a youth minister and as a pastoral assistant in parishes in Germany and in Austria. Before he moved to the United States to take up his current position at Villanova, he taught religion for seven years at a private trade school for young adults with learning disabilities.

Carey Walsh received an M.Div from Yale University and a Th.d in Old Testament from Harvard University. Her research areas include Wisdom Literature, Biblical Theology, Trauma Theory and Biblical Narrative, Iron Age Social History, the Bible and the Environment, and Spiritual Character Development in Biblical Narrative. Her publications include: Chasing Mystery: A Catholic Biblical Theology; Exquisite Desire: Religion, the Erotic, and the Song of Songs, and The Fruit of the Vine: Viticulture in Ancient Israel, in addition to numerous articles, most recently, "The Beasts of Wisdom: Ecological Hermeneutics of the Wild" (Biblical Interpretation).  She is currently working on a book on biblical grace. 

Dr. Yates is a specialist in ancient Christian thought. He researches ancient Latin Christianity and is particularly interested in how ancient North African Christianity understood and applied its sacred texts both to its developing theological outlook and to its day-to-day practice. He has published on texts/authors as diverse as the Latin martyriological acta, Tertullian, Cyprian, Pseudo-Cyrpian, and Fulgentius, but he continues to spend the majority of his time on Augustine and how he read and applied the New Testament in his sermons and in his (later) theological and polemical works.