Systematic Theology
Cyril O’Regan gives a lecture on faith and reason in a secular age at Newman University Church in Dublin, Ireland.
As “faith seeking understanding,” systematic theology explores the meaning, interrelatedness, and claims to truth of the Christian tradition's basic expressions of faith. The systematics faculty offers a series of seminars which focus on theological method, philosophical theology, and comparative theology, as well as the theological topics of trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, theological anthropology, eschatology, and Christian spirituality. Courses investigate the historical development of major doctrinal and theological themes and their contemporary interpretation from plural theological perspectives.
The program is designed to provide a broad background in the Christian tradition, with particular emphasis on the Catholic theological heritage. Through course work, focused in-depth study in preparation for candidacy examinations, and dissertation research, students develop the hermeneutical and theological skills required for a critical and creative appropriation of the tradition.
Students are encouraged to develop either a minor in one of the other areas of the department or an area of concentration which draws from the resources of several areas of the department and/or University.
Faculty
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J. Matthew Ashley
Professor
Systematic Theology |Ignatian spirituality and discernment of spirits; ecotheology and ecospirituality. |Matthew Ashley is Professor of Systematic Theology. He came to Notre Dame in 1993 after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1993 and an M.T.S. from the (then) Weston Jesuit School of Theology, in Cambridge, Mass. Besides his teaching and research, he has served as a graduate program director for ten years (including seven years as Ph.D. program director) and department chair for seven years. He has written on the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz, and translated and edited four books of Metz’s work. He has also written on Latin American liberation theology, focusing in particular on El Salvador, with articles and book chapters on Saint Óscar Romero, Jon Sobrino, and Ignacio Ellacuría. Two other interests have come to the fore in the last two decades: the relationship between science and religion, and the history of Christian spirituality, Ignatian spirituality in particular. His most recent book, Renewing Theology (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), considers how an understanding of Ignatian spirituality influenced the writings and work of three Jesuits: Karl Rahner, Ignacio Ellacuría, and Pope Francis. His love of nature, especially of the mountains of Colorado where he grew up, has led him to respond to Pope Francis’s call for an integral ecology with writing and teaching that focuses on areas of overlap and resonance between traditions of Christian mysticism and important voices in conservation and writing about nature in the U.S.
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Steven Battin
Assistant Professor
Systematic Theology | His present research contributes to the ongoing development of liberation theologies by way of placing Catholic theology in conversation with decolonial, indigenous, and African-American-based post-capitalist movements. | Steven Battin specializes in contemporary systematic and constructive theology. He is particularly committed to the exploration of ecclesiology, christology, and soteriology from non-dominant perspectives.
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John Betz
Associate Professor
Systematic Theology | Christian Metaphysics | With a background in philosophy, theology, and German literature, John Betz’s work is broadly engaged with German philosophy and theology from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Within this period his research has focused on the Protestant Counter-Enlightenment as exemplified in the work of the Lutheran philologist and man of letters, Johann Georg Hamann (1730-88), and on twentieth-century Catholic metaphysics and ontology as exemplified in the work of the Jesuit philosopher and theologian Erich Przywara (1889-1972). In addition to resourcing and translating historically important, but neglected figures and texts, his work seeks to recover the relevance of Christian metaphysics to theology, the life of the Church, and the intellectus fidei today. To this end he is currently working on a monograph on Przywara and on a collection of essays on the topic of analogical metaphysics
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Terrence Ehrman, CSC
Assistant Teaching Professor
Systematic Theology |Theology of Creation |Fr. Terrence P. Ehrman, C.S.C. investigates the relationship between theology and science, particularly the life sciences of ecology and evolution. His interests include understanding who God is as Creator, who we are as creatures, and what our relationship is to God, ourselves, and the natural world. He teaches courses in the theology department entitled Science, Theology, and Creation and Theology and Ecology. From 2016-19, Fr. Ehrman was the assistant director of the Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing at Notre Dame. He has a B.S. in biology and M.Div. from Notre Dame, M.S. in aquatic ecology from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Catholic University of America. He is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and was ordained a Holy Cross priest in 2000.
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Daniel Groody, CSC
Associate Professor
Systematic Theology | Theologies of Migration, Spirituality of Immigrants, the Heart’s Desire and Social Change |Father Dan Groody, associate professor of theology and global affairs, is the Vice President and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. His major responsibilities include advancing undergraduate teaching, research, and outreach as well as overseeing Academic Services for Student-Athletes, the Center for University Advising, the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, the Moreau First Year Experience course, and the work of the Core Curriculum Committee. He also provides leadership for the student accommodations process and chairs the Advisory Committee on the Academic Code and Policy (ACACP), the University Committee on the Honor Code (UCHC), and the Valedictorian and Salutatorian Selection Committee. In addition to his role in the provost’s office, Father Groody serves as a Fellow and Trustee of the University and is the adviser for discernment and discovery for Notre Dame’s Inspired Leadership Initiative. An internationally recognized expert on migration and refugee issues whose papers and books have been translated into seven languages, he is the author of Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice: Navigating the Path to Peace and Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit. He has edited or co-edited four books on poverty, justice, and migration. Father Groody’s expertise in and passion for refugee and migration issues has also been applied as executive producer of several acclaimed films and documentaries, including One Border, One Body: Immigration and the Eucharist and Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey. Father Groody has worked with the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, and the United Nations on issues of theology, globalization, migration, and refugees. In 2007-08 he was a visiting research fellow at Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre. A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 2000, Father Groody is a faculty fellow of the University’s Kellogg Institute, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Institute for Educational Initiatives, Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion. Father Groody earned his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame, a master of divinity degree and a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology, and his doctorate in theology from the Graduate Theological Union.
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Kevin G. Grove, CSC
Assistant Professor
Systematic Theology | His research includes memory, Christology, St. Augustine, and the theological writings of Basil Moreau. | Born and raised in Montana, Kevin Grove was ordained a Holy Cross priest at Notre Dame in 2010. After doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge and before joining the faculty at Notre Dame, Grove was a post-doctoral researcher at L’Institut Catholique in Paris, France and a fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to his research and teaching, Grove serves pastorally at Notre Dame as an assistant faculty chaplain, chaplain to the Master of Divinity program, and as a pastoral resident for undergraduates in Dunne Hall.
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Kristi Haas
Assistant Teaching Professor
Systematic Theology |The theology of Louis Bouyer (1913-2004), the development of Catholic ecological theology, charisms and holiness in ecclesial life |Kristi Haas grew up in Davenport, Iowa, and received her B.A. (magna cum laude, Glynn Family Honors Program) and M.A. (Echo Program) from the University of Notre Dame. She completed further theological studies through the M.T.S. at Boston College and worked at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture before returning to pursue the Ph.D. in the Department of Theology. Her research focuses on twentieth-century Catholic systematic theology, especially the thought of Louis Bouyer (1913-2004) and the development of Catholic ecological theology. Haas serves as Associate Director of the M.A. Program and teaches courses such as Foundations of Theology, the Church, and Theology of Prayer.
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Mary Catherine Hilkert
Professor
Systematic Theology | Theology Anthropology, Feminist and Intercultural Theologies, the Interrelationship of Theology, Preaching, and Spirituality | Professor Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P., specializes in contemporary systematic theology with particular focus on theological anthropology, fundamental theology, Christology, and feminist theologies and spirituality. Her current research project is a book titled Words of Spirit and Life: Theology, Preaching and Spirituality. A former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America (2005-2006), Dr. Hilkert holds three honorary doctorates and has been the recipient of Washington Theological Union’s Sophia Award for Theological Excellence in Service of Ministry, Barry University's Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence, and the Ann O’Hara Graff Award for her contributions to the integration of academic and pastoral theology with particular attention to the voices of women. A member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Sr. Hilkert has lectured and preached in Catholic and ecumenical contexts in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
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Bradley Malkovsky
Associate Professor
World Religions and World Church, Systematic Theology | Christianity and Other Religions: Comparative Spirituality, Comparative Eschatology, Comparative Doctrines of the Divine. | Malkovsky's area of interest is the doctrinal and spiritual relation of Christianity to Other Religions. His area of specialization is the Hindu-Christian Encounter. He was the editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies from 2002-17.
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Jay Martin
Assistant Teaching Professor
Systematic Theology |Systematic Theology, Trinity, Psychoanalytic theory, Marxist thought, German Idealism, French phenomenology and postmodernism |Jay Martin writes and researches at the intersection of Catholic systematic theology, psychoanalysis, French and German philosophical thought, and emancipatory political theory, as well on issues in science and religion, comparative theology, and culture.
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Jennifer Newsome Martin
Associate Professor
Systematic Theology |19th and 20th century Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox thought, Theological Aesthetics, Trinitarian Theology, Religion and Literature, Ressourcement Theology, French Feminisms |Jennifer Newsome Martin is a Catholic systematic theologian with particular expertise in the thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Her first book, Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Critical Appropriation of Russian Religious Thought, was one of 10 winners internationally of the 2017 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. She serves on the editorial board of Religion & Literature and the University of Notre Dame Press and has a history of leadership positions with the Hans Urs von Balthasar Consultation of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the steering committees for the Christian Systematic Theology Unit and the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit in the American Academy of Religion. She has a joint appointment in the Program of Liberal Studies.
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Francesca Murphy
Professor
Systematic Theology | Aesthetics of Ressourcement | Francesca Aran Murphy is the author of numerous books, including Christ the Form of Beauty (T & T Clark), God is Not a Story (OUP) and a theological commentary on I Samuel (Brazos). She is currently editing a series for Bloomsbury Academic called Illuminating Modernity.
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Kenneth Oakes
Assistant Professor
Systematic Theology | Contemporary systematic theology, Modern Protestant thought, the theology of Karl Barth, theologies of creative retrieval | Originally from Southern California, Kenneth Oakes completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of John Webster at the University of Aberdeen before taking up postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Tübingen and Notre Dame.
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Cyril O'Regan
Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology
Systematic Theology, History of Christianity | I am currently finishing up my volumes on the relationship between Hans Urs von Balthasar and Martin Heidegger. | Born in Ireland where I received my BA and MA in Philosophy. My Ph. D is from Yale where I taught in the Department of Religious Studies before I came to the Department of Theology at Notre Dame in 1999. My work spans a number of areas, systematic theology, historical theology, and continental philosophy, and I am especially active at the intersection of theology and continental philosophy. I have done considerable work in 19th-century theology and philosophy, postmodern thought, mysticism, apocalyptic, Gnosticism, religion and literature, major Catholic figures such as Newman, de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Benedict XVI, and on the doctrines of the Trinity and "last things." I will shortly complete two volumes dealing with the relationship between the Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Martin Heidegger. I will then turn to complete my Gnosticism in Modernity project. I intend to write in order a volume on Gnosticism and German Idealism and subsequently a volume on Gnosticism and German and English Romanticism. I teach a wide array of courses on all levels and am very active in directing doctoral students.
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Todd Walatka
Director of Master of Divinity
Associate Teaching ProfessorSystematic Theology |Hans Urs von Balthasar; Latin American theology; the ecclesiology of Vatican II; Theology and Racism; Reception of Jewish thought in Catholic systematic theology |Todd Walatka grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dayton. After an M.T.S. and Ph.D. from Notre Dame, he took up his current position as the Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies in Theology in 2011. Specializing in contemporary Catholic systematic theology, his research includes work on Hans Urs von Balthasar, Latin American liberation theology, Archbishop Oscar Romero, and the interpretation and reception of Vatican II. He also works in the field of pedagogy and pedagogical formation, both in his role as Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies and in his research. His most recent courses taught include: Foundations of Theology; Introduction to Vatican II; Christian Traditions II; Mercy and Liberation; Fundamentals of Systematic Theology; Theology en español, Ecclesiology; Eschatology; and Teaching Theology. His two ongoing book projects explore 1) the history of Vatican II and 2) the theological witness of Archbishop Oscar Romero.