RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Our award-winning faculty are engaged in dynamic and active research projects, and their many books, translations, journal articles and poetry collections have appeared in a wide range of venues.
The Department of Humanities faculty have won major awards in scholarship, teaching, and service to the College and University, to the Catholic Church, and to Humanities education.
Theology and philosophy lead the way in our approaches to political science, literature, economics, ethics, history and architectural history.
RECENT FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
Paul Camacho discusses the “Weight of Love” in Augustine’s Confessions and Veronica Roberts Ogle considers “The Heart of the Father in Augustine’s Moral Thought” in this edited volume.
Jesse Couenhoven makes an argument for “Why Christians Should (Still) Be Compatibilists” in this 2023 volume about free will in analytic and philosophical theology.
Margaret M. Grubiak, Monumental Jesus: Landscapes of Faith & Doubt in Modern America (University of Virginia Press, 2020)
The American landscape is host to numerous works of religious architecture, sometimes questionable in taste and large, if not titanic, in scale. In her lively study of satire and religious architecture, Margaret Grubiak, PhD, challenges how we typically view such sites by shifting the focus from believers to doubters, and from producers to consumers. Dr. Grubiak considers an array of sacred architectural constructions―from "Touchdown Jesus" at the University of Notre Dame to the Wizard of Oz Mormon temple outside Washington, D.C., to the renamed "Gumby Jesus" of the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas―that show how religious doubt is made manifest in the humorous, satirical, blasphemous, and popular culture responses to religious architecture and image in modern America.
Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: Capitalism as the Religion of Modernity (Belknap Press: An imprint of Harvard University Press, 2022)
Now in paperback, this book has been described as “an extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy.” McCarraher challenges the conventional view of capitalism as a force for disenchantment. He argues that, from Puritan and evangelical valorizations of profit to the heavenly Fordist city, the mystically animated corporation, and the deification of the market, capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity, laying hold to our souls.
Anna Bonta Moreland, Muhammad Reconsidered: A Christian Perspective on Islamic Prophecy (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020)
Scholarly attempts to understand Islam in the West over the past several years have failed to take Islamic theology seriously. This book engages Islam from deep within the Christian tradition by addressing the question of the prophethood of Muhammad. Anna Bonta Moreland calls for a retrieval of Thomistic thought on prophecy to view Muhammad within a Christian theology of revelation, without either appropriating the prophet as an unwitting Christian or reducing both Christianity and Islam to a common denominator. This historical recovery leads to a more sophisticated understanding of Islam, one that honors the integrity of the Catholic tradition and, through that integrity, argues for the possibility in principle of Muhammad as a religious prophet. Muhammad Reconsidered not only is a constructive contribution to Catholic theology but also has enormous potential to help scholars reframe and comprehend Christian-Muslim relations.
Veronica Roberts Ogle, Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine's City of God (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
In this volume, Veronica Roberts Ogle offers a new reading of Augustine's political thought as it is presented in City of God. Focusing on the relationship between politics and the earthly city, she argues that a precise understanding of Augustine's vision can only be reached through a careful consideration of the work's rhetorical strategy and sacramental worldview. Ogle draws on Christian theology and political thought, moral philosophy and semiotic theory to make her argument. Laying out Augustine's understanding of the earthly city, she proceeds by tracing out his rhetorical strategy and concludes by articulating his sacramental vision and the place of politics within it. Ogle thus suggests a new way of determining the status of politics in Augustine's thought. Her study clarifies seemingly contradictory passages in his text, highlights the nuance of his position and captures the unity of his vision as presented in City of God.
Terence Sweeney writes about “Blessed and Blessing: William Desmond’s Ethics of the Beatitudes and Works of Mercy” in this 2023 study of philosopher William Desmond and the Bible.
Helena Tomko contributes a chapter on German Catholic writer Gertrud von le Fort to this 2024 introduction to twelve Catholic women novelists from the past two hundred years, presenting their fascinating lives, spiritual biographies and sacramental vision.
Michael Tomko writes about “Catholic Literature and Print Culture in English” in this third volume of the Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, which addresses the literary, intellectual and cultural expressions of Catholicism in Britain and Ireland.
FACULTY AWARDS
Anna Bonta Moreland, PhD, Principal Investigator, $223,201 grant, “Hope in Higher Education: Networking, Resource Sharing, and Building a Brighter Future,” John Templeton Foundation, 2021–24
Paul Camacho, PhD, Lilly Fellows Program Small Grant to support project to film four Augustinian Heritage sites in Italy using 3D Object Capture technology, 2024
Anna Bonta Moreland, PhD, Mackey Award for Catholic Thought, Chaminade University, Honolulu, 2023
Jahdiel Perez, DPhil (Oxon), $25,000 grant, “Between Belief and Grief: the Psychology of Theodicy,” University of Birmingham under the John Templeton Foundation, 2023–2025
Helena M. Tomko, DPhil (Oxon), Honors Program Thesis Mentor Award, ¸ĚéŮÖ±˛Ą University, 2023
Jesse Couenhoven, PhD, Principal Investigator, $3,997,872 grant, “Collaborative Inquiries in Christian Theological Anthropology,” Templeton Foundation, 2020–2023
Paul Camacho, PhD, Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2020
Jesse Couenhoven, PhD, Principal Investigator, Planning Grant, Science-Engaged Theology, Templeton Foundation, 2018–2020
Michael Tomko, PhD, Mid-Career Scholar Award, ¸ĚéŮÖ±˛Ą University, 2018
Thomas W. Smith, PhD, and Kevin Hughes, PhD, the first two chairs of the Department of Humanities, papal Cross pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, 2018
Margaret Grubiak, PhD, Catherine Bishir Prize for Best Article in Vernacular Architecture, Vernacular Architecture Forum, 2017
Michael Tomko, PhD, Book of the Year Award, The Conference on Christianity & Literature, 2016
For more on our faculty’s writing, publishing, speaking and research
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Jahdiel Perez, DPhil (Oxon), has received a $25,000 grant from the University of Birmingham, UK, under the John Templeton Foundation, to pursue his research in science-engaged theology, “Between Belief and Grief: The Psychology of Theodicy.” A postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Humanities since 2022 and assistant professor since 2024, Dr. Perez’s research draws from and informs his dynamic teaching. He teaches both the God and World Humanities Seminars, as well as electives on “C.S. Lewis and Nietzsche” and the intersection of science and religion. Dr. Perez studied philosophy at UMass Boston before earning an MDiv in Christian theology at Harvard University and receiving his doctorate (DPhil) in theology from the University of Oxford in 2023.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Christopher Cokinos, ’24 CLAS, was awarded the 2024 Karol Wojtyla Medallion for Excellence in the Humanities. The award recognized his “seemingly insatiable desire to know more about everything from architecture to ancient philosophy and a quiet leadership inside and outside the classrooms that draws others deeper into the great questions of human life.” During his years at ¸ĚéŮÖ±˛Ą University, Chris played a leadership role with ¸ĚéŮÖ±˛Ąâ€™s Mock Trial Team and was station manager of WXVU. He is now studying law at New York University.