Welcome to the Theology Department
The Theology department provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary for reasoned reflection on their own values, faith, and tradition, as well as on the religious forces that shape our society and world. The department’s five primary areas of research include biblical studies, historical theology/history of christianity, comparative theology, systematic theology, and theological ethics.
News & Notes
2022 Theology PhD Recent Graduates
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Andrew Gertner Belfield
"One of the most well-attended dissertation defenses I've seen at Boston College, with both in-person and virtual participants, Drew did a great job of show-casing the important new insights his project brought to light regarding the early Franciscan Intellectual Tradition."
Professor Boyd Taylor Coolman, Dissertation Director
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Jonathan Cahill
"Jon Cahill addresses the ever-vexing question of why Christians don’t do as they claim to believe by bringing together cutting-edge science on the emotions with the role of the emotions in the theology of the great Karl Barth. This work is at the forefront of new approaches to human moral agency, linking the human sciences to Christian ethics with rare nuance, sophistication and theological insight."
Professor Lisa Sowle Cahill, Dissertation Director
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Eduardo Gonzalez
“In this work of first-class scholarship, Eduardo González has made an important contribution to the ongoing development of liberation theologies. With great nuance, sophistication, and critical balance, he examines the use of the Exodus narrative in a wide range of theologies of liberation. Applying the insights of settler-colonial analysis, González advances this scholarly conversation in a way that is both exciting and groundbreaking.”
Professor Emeritus Roberto Goizueta, Dissertation Director
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Brian J. Himes
“Brian’s provocative interpretation of Max Scheler on the core of personal value is enriched by his own phenomenological analysis and filled out in its theological and ethical implications. It is also, to my knowledge, completely original.”
Professor Frederick G. Lawrence, Dissertation Director
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Benjamin J. Hohman
"I believe this dissertation is a major theological contribution to what is perhaps the most pressing crisis of our day. His choice of a differentiated theological response to Pope Francis’s encyclical offers both an account of the problematic, and of the groundwork he is establishing for a nuanced and original approach to the issue of redeeming sub-human nature, and in the future will be turned into an extremely valuable book."
Professor Frederick G. Lawrence, Dissertation Director
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Spencer Kyle Johnson
"Kyle Johnson's dissertation introduces a new method of spiritual discernment that attends to ways that Christian images and discourses of the demonic influence modern anti-Black coloniality and ways that demonized peoples in turn refashion these traditions for the purposes of resistance. This is a tremendous achievement.."
Professor Andrew Prevot, Dissertation Director
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Jennifer Lamson-Scribner
“Jen's dissertation offers a theological approach to addiction that synthesizes interdisciplinary studies on substance use with Karl Rahner's transcendental anthropology in order to advocate for an empathic approach to prevention, harm reduction, and treatment. ”
Professor Stephen Pope, Dissertation Director
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Christopher McLaughlin
“In this rigorous and painstaking study, Christopher offers a valuable reappraisal of the overlooked fourth-century theologian Marius Victorinus. Focusing on Victorinus's Adversus Arium III, Christopher shows how the famous convert's distinctive account of the Trinity adopts and transforms the insights of earlier pneumatologies. Victorinus thereby offers modern theologians productive ways to approach the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
Brian Dunkle S.J , Dissertation Director
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Xavier M. Montecel
"Xavier's stunning dissertation offers a constructive contribution to the field of liturgy and ethics by proposing a fundamental Eucharistic ethics, articulated in the key of virtue. By building bridges between Eucharistic theology and eschatology, he offers a new theological approach to examining the relationship between worship and morality."
Professor James F. Keenan, S.J, Dissertation Director
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Elyse Raby
“Dr. Elyse Raby's dissertation offers a bold reimagination of the body of Christ metaphor as applied to the church. She demonstrates a deep and nuanced grasp of the various ecclesiological appropriations of body imagery in the tradition, while also proposing a fresh avenue for future reflection, one that engages contemporary feminist thought and phenomenology.”
Professor Richard Gaillardetz, Dissertation Director
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Michael VanZandt-Collins
“Michael VanZandt-Collins draws from classical virtue ethics as well as from contemporary cases of climate activism in Islam and Christianity to demonstrate the rich potential of Muslim-Christian comparative theology for addressing some of the challenging issues in the discourse on climate change. The dissertation represents an important contribution to comparative theological ethics.”
Professor Catherine Cornille, Dissertation Director
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Andrew Vink
“Andy Vink's dissertation clarifies how the historical soteriology of the Jesuit martyr Ignacio Ellacuría contributes important insights to current theological critiques of neoliberalism.”
Professor Andrew Prevot, Dissertation Director