Current and Recent Dissertations
The following students have successfully passed their candidacy exams and are working on their dissertations. Their work represents the diversity of research interests in the theology department.
Dissertation Field:
- Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
- History of Christianity
- Liturgical Studies
- Moral Theology
- Systematic Theology
Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
Allen, Mark
The Man of God, the Old Prophet and the Word of the Lord: An Exegesis of 1 Kings 13
Director: Gary Anderson
Boesenberg, Dulcinea
Moses in Luke-Acts
Director: Mary Rose D'Angelo
Bruning, Brandon
The Making of the Mishkan: The Old Greek Text of Exodus 35-40 and the Literary History of the Pentateuch
Director: Eugene Ulrich
Cho, Jaecheon
PHILOROMAIOS-Herod Agrippa II in Josephus and the Acts of Apostles
Director: Greg Sterling
Cover, Michael
Lifting the Veil: 2 Cor 3:7–4:6 in Light of Jewish Homiletic and Commentary Traditions
Director: Greg Sterling
Dru, Josephine
Interpreting Joel among the Twelve: Patristic, Rabbinic, and Modern Approaches to Unity
Director: Gary Anderson
Enemali, Mark
The Danger of Transgression against Divine Presence: the Case of the Ark Narrative (1 Samuel 4-7:1; 2 Samuel 6)
Director: Professor Gary Anderson
Ferry, Sara
The Purpose of 1 Esdras: Towards a Torah-Centered Community
Director: Eugene Ulrich
Francis, Michael
Ignorance, Intention and the Possibility of Forgiveness: A Study in the Remissibility of Sin in Second Temple and Early Christian Sources
Co-Directors: Gary Anderson and Gregory Sterling
Haley, Kevin
The Reinterpretation of the Psalms of the Individual in Judaism and Christianity
Director: Gary Anderson
Khudher, Sr.Luma
Micah 4-5 and the Message of Salvation of the Eight Century Prophet
Director: James VanderKam
Lee, Brian
"For We Know In Part": Paul's Critique of Wisdom and Askēsis in 1 Corinthians
Director: Gregory Sterling
Mukasa, Edoth
"Give me understanding and I will study your Law": A Study on Augustine's Enarratio in Psalmum 118
Director: Brian Daley
Rambau, Leonce F. (CSSP)
Paul and his co-workers: Equality, Friendship and Patronage in the Greco-Roman Social Context
Director: David Aune
Rowe, Eric
An Analysis of the Labels Used for the Jesus Movement from AD 30 to 225
Director: David Aune
Sarah Schreiber
The Use of Scripture in the Prologue and Jubilees 1
Director: James VanderKam
Vela, Horacio
The Inner Person: The Transformation of a Platonic Metaphor in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
Director: Gregory Sterling
Yoder, Joshua
Roman governors in the Apologetic of Luke-Acts
Director: Mary Rose D'Angelo
History of Christianity
Abdelsayed, John Paul
Our Great High Priest: St. Cyril of Alexandria's Approach to the Priesthood of Christ
Director: Brian Daley
Barrett, Brian
The Clothing of Divinity: the Revelatory Function of the Literal Sense in Origen's Exegesis
Director: Brian Daley
DeFrancis, James
My Beloved is Mine and I Am His: the Progress of Self-Knowledge in the Spiritual Life According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Director: Ann Astell
Emerson Hernández, Marco
The Seeds of Creation and New Creation: Thomas Aquinas on the Principles of Natural and Supernatural Generation
Director: Joseph Wawrykow
Gaetano, Stephen
Salamancan Thomism in the Defense of Tridentine Soteriology: An Historical and Theological Introduction to Domingo de Soto's De natura et gratia, with a Latin Edition and Annotated Translation of the Text
Director: Joseph Wawrykow
Hemphill Barrett, Hannah
Thomas Aquinas's Teaching on Sacrifice in the Summa Theologiae
Director: Joseph Wawrykow
Horsting, Albertus
S.Prosperi Ex Sententiis S. Augustini Epigrammatum Liber Unus. A Study of Prosper of Aquitaine’s Poetical Synthesis of Augustinian Theology Accompanied by a New Edition, Translation, and Commentary of the Liber Epigrammatum
Co-Directors: John Cavadini and Hildegund Muller
Kneip, David
The Spirit, the Bible, and the Church: Neglected Aspects of Cyril of Alexandria's Pneumatology
Director: Brian Daley
Komline, Han-luen Kantzer
From Division to Delight: Augustine and the Will
Director: Brian Daley
Lee, James K.
The Church in Transformation: The Recovery of an Augustinian Ecclesiology
Co-Directors: Brian Daley and John Cavadini
Lollar, Joshua
To See into the Life of Things: The Contemplation of Nature in the Ambigua to John of St. Maximus the Confessor
Director: Brian Daley
Mata, Sara Monica
A Study of the Relationship Between Literal and figurative Exegeses in the Words of Augustine on Genesis
Director: John Cavadini
Murphy, OSB Austin
Saint Augustine and the Inspiration of the bible
Co-Directors: John Cavadini and Brian Daley
Sanders, Aaron
The Rule of Law: The Legitimation, Use and Limitation of Authority in the Politics of St. Robert Bellarmine
Director: Randall Zachman
Sehorn, John
Commentary on Origen of Alexandria's Homilies 1-14 on Ezekiel
Director: John Cavadini
Wales, Jordan
In the Solemn Festival of His Love: Gregory the Great’s Creative Synthesis of Augustine and Cassian on the Christian Life as Sacrifice
Director: John Cavadini
Wickes, Jeffrey
Out of Books, A World: The Scriptural Poetics of Ephrem’s Hymns on Faith
Director: Joseph Amar
Liturgical Studies
Brown, Glenn
Ritual, Theory, and Methodology: A Study of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco
Director: Nathan Mitchell
Hoden, Mary Margaret
A Visible Manifestation of the Invisible: The Relationship of the Architecture of Salisbury Cathedral and the Liturgy of the Sarum Use
Director: Michael Driscoll
Klee, Richard
More Blessed to Give than To Receive: The Poor In Early Christian Worship
Directors: Maxwell Johnson and John Cavadini
Marx, Nathaniel
Via Sacra: The Latin Mass and Personal Formation in a Secular Age
Director: Nathan Mitchell
McCarthy, Sheila
Restoring All Things to Christ: The Influence of Orate Fratres and the Liturgical Movement on The Catholic Worker, Liturgy and Sociology, and the Christian Front
Director: Nathan Mitchell
Permjakovs, Vitalijs
"And Make it the Place Where Your Glory Dwells": Origins and Evolution of the Byzantine Rite of the Consecration of Churches
Director: Max Johnson
Raczka, Rev. Gary Philip
The Lectionaries of Antioch and Constantinople at the Time of John Chrysostom
Director: Max Johnson
Moral Theology
Carmona, Victor
Love and Option for the Poor: Reframing the Moral Dimension of the US Immigration Debate
Director: Todd Whitmore
Clark, Adam
The Divine Preservation of Justice in Social Life: Brunner, Bonhoeffer, O’Donovan and Wannenwetsch on the “Ultimate” Formation of “Penultimate” Reality
Director: Gerald McKenny
Elliot, David
Rethinking Happiness: the Role of Hope in Virtue Ethics
Director: Jean Porter
Hamilton-Vise, Brian
Private Property and the Rights of the Poor: The Ambiguous Legacy of St. Francis of Assisi
Director: Jean Porter
Hirschfeld, Mary
Virtuous Consumption in a Dynamic Economy: A Thomistic Engagement with Neoclassical Economics
Director: Jean Porter
Lantigua, David
Idolatry and the Rights of Infidels: The Christian Legal Theory of Religious tolerance in Bartolome de las Casas
Director: Jean Porter
Lee, Joungeun
Thomistic Virtuous Anger and Haan: Anger in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas with the Case of Haan-ridden Anger in the Korean Context
Director: Maura Ryan
Mawson, Michael
The Reality of Christ in the World: Bonhoeffer, Hegel and the Ethical Life
Advisor: Gerald McKenny
Systematic Theology
Antus, Elizabeth
The Pearl of Great Price: Articulating Christian Love of Self Through an Engagement with Augustine of Hippo, Teresa of Avila and Sarah Coakley
Director: Mary Catherine Hilkert
Battin, Steven
The Praxis of Unity: A Postcolonial Perspective on the Unity of the Church
Director: Cyril O'Regan
Daniel P. Castillo
An Ecological Theology of Liberation: Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Concept of “Integral Liberation” Reinterpreted in View of the Yahwist, the New Jerusalem, and the Human Ecology of Alf Hornborg
Director: J. Matthew Ashley
Downing, Andrew
Catholic Response to Modernity: Historical Revelation and Historicity in the Theology of J.S. Drey
Director: Cyril O’Regan
Feder, Julia
Nada te turbe: Post-traumatic Healing as a Mystical-Political Practice
Director: Mary Catherine Hilkert
Martin, Jennifer
Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Press of Speculative Russian Religious Philosophy
Director: Cyril O’Regan
McLean, Candace
“Do This In Memory of Me”: The Genealogy and Theological Appropriation of Memory in the Work of Johann Baptist Metz
Director: Matthew Ashley
Ngwoke, Rev. Emeke
Newman, Vatican II and the Challenge of Inculturation in Africa: A Study of Catholicism Among the Igbo of Nigeria
Director: Lawrence Cunningham
O'Brien, Bridget
The Doctrine of God's Fidelity: A Trinitarian View of the Relationship between Judaism and Christianity
Director: Robert Krieg
Peterson, Brandon
Being Salvation: A Reconsideration of Karl Rahner's Christ as Savior
Director: Robert Krieg
Prevot, Andrew
Thinking Prayer: Meditations on Theology, doxology, and Praxis
Director: Cyril O’Regan
Stetler, Emily
Poured Out Like an Offering: Toward an Anthropology of Kenosis
Co-directors: Lawrence Cunningham and Randall Zachman
Thiede, John
The Concept of Martyrdom in the Christology of Jon Sobrino
Director: Matthew Ashley