*Unless otherwise noted, taught at the Dominican House of Studies (Washington DC)
Sacraments: Theology and Initiation (ST 631)
Course Description: An introduction to general sacramental theory by tracing various sacramental teachings from their biblical, patristic, medieval, and contemporary perspectives. The course will also address the scriptural, historical, and dogmatic developments of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and the implications for contemporary ecumenical discussion.
Creation and the Human Person (ST 611)
Course Description: This course has as its purpose the study of Christian doctrines concerning creation and the created order. By contrast with the anthropocentric perspectives characteristic of much recent theological anthropology, this study will focus on these doctrines in their theological, metaphysical and cosmological dimensions. The main topics to be considered are creation, divine providence and the created order, the nature, origin and destiny of the human person, the development of modern theological anthropology, evil and sin. In conjunction with recent scholarship, this course makes abundant use of the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Sacrament of the Eucharist (ST 637)
Course Description: This course will present a basic theology of mystery of the Eucharist in light of Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Topics that will be studied include: the Biblical concept of sacrifice, the Christological origins of the Eucharist, Patristic theologies of the Eucharist, the Eucharistic theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, Tridentine and Modern developments concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass, and communion ecclesiology. Theological consideration will also be given to the relation of the Eucharist to various forms of liturgical rites, and to the canonical laws of the Church.
Sacrament of Orders (ST 638)
Course Description: This course will examine the theology of the sacrament of Holy Orders, including the episcopacy and the diaconate, but focusing particularly upon the priesthood. Attention will be given to the historical origins of the three-fold hierarchy, to classical theologies of Holy Orders (particularly in the Thomist tradition), and to the spirituality of the priesthood. Modern magisterial teachings of the Church and contemporary questions and controversies will also be considered theologically. Pre-requisite: “Sacraments: Theology and Initiation” (ST 631).
Aquinas and the Masters of the Medieval University (ST 821)
Course Description: Thomas Aquinas lived and worked in the midst of an intellectual revolution resulting from the diffusion of the philosophy of Aristotle. The immediate context of this transformation was the medieval university, particularly the University of Paris. This seminar will consider selected elements of Aquinas’s thought as they emerged in debate within that setting. Topics will be selected by the professor; readings will include texts not only of Aquinas, but of other university masters as well.
Thomism in Modernity (ST 824)
Course Description: This course examines the major movements in Thomistic studies from Leo XIII to the present. Framed against the background of developments in modern thought and the Church’s response, this seminar will examine the range of responses to these challenges within Thomism, identifying developments, accomplishments, and continued challenges. Themes will include Catholic and Thomistic theology after Hegel, Kant, and Heidegger, metaphysics and modernity, and Catholic and Thomistic engagements with analytic thought.
Presence and Sacrifice: The Eucharist in Aquinas and early modern Thomism (dP3753)
*Taught at the Angelicum (Rome), Spring 2025
Course Description: This course will examine the concept of sacrifice in the Eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas, and subsequent receptions of his teaching in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although the sacrificial character of the Eucharist has been of interest to theologians throughout the Church’s history, during the early sixteenth century renewed attention was given to this subject, in part because of disputes that arose between Reformed and Catholic theologians about the relationship between the Eucharistic liturgy and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Does the Eucharistic presence itself have a sacrificial quality? Can aspects of the liturgy or dimensions of the moral life be considered a sacrifice, and if so in what way? Although itself a product of the Middle Ages, as a received text the Summa is in many ways a creature of the early modern period. This course will consider the intersection between Aquinas’s Summa and a selection of its early modern interpreters, including Cajetan, Vitoria and the Salamanca school, the early Jesuits and John of St. Thomas.