James Whitaker
Primary Area: History of Christianity
Biography
James Whitaker specializes in the history and development of Christian ethics, with two special focuses on early Greek asceticism and on medieval Latin virtue theory, mainly St Thomas Aquinas. His research follows Christian concepts of passions, vices, and virtues, beginning with Evagrius Ponticus and as developed in the East (Cappadocians, Nilus of Ancyra, John Climacus, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus) and in the West (Cassian, Augustine, Benedict, Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas). His other topics of interest gravitate around ecclesiology and apologetics: Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, Catholic-Protestant dialogue, and perennial issues of apologetics like the problem of evil. He has two books of translations upcoming with St Vladimir's Seminary Press' Popular Patristics Series: St Nilus of Ancyra's ascetic treatises and St Theodore the Studite's Small Catecheses.
Research Interests
History of moral theology, patristic anthropology and moral theology, asceticism and monasticism, St Nilus of Ancyra, East-West relations, St Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic anthropology and virtue theory
Education
- BA in Classics (Greek and Latin Languages), University of Virginia
- MTS (History of Christianity), University of Notre Dame