Courses Taught

At the University of St. Thomas (Houston, TX)

Theo 6393, Special Topics in Theology: Thomism from the Leonine Revival to Vatican II

This course introduces students to a number of themes and figures in the history of Thomism during the period following on the “Leonine revival” in the late-19th century up to the time directly preceding the Second Vatican Council.  Students will directly engage with works by major authors writing during this period and will also gain a general knowledge of the history of Thomism, insofar as this is necessary for situating this period of philosophical and theological history into its broader environment.

At Holy Apostles College and Seminary

MTH 611 Fundamental Moral Theology I

This course introduces the scientific discipline of moral theology, its norms, and its history. Main topics include the moral nature of the human person, the nature of moral theology, beatitude and incorporation into Christ, outlines of philosophical and theological anthropology, the distinction and relationship between nature and grace, analysis of human acts, virtues and mystical gifts in outline, the history of casuistry in Latin theology, law.

PHE 775 Political Philosophy

This course seeks to introduce students to political philosophy by undertaking a critical historical study of the most influential works (ancient, medieval, and modern) of the Western tradition.  Students will study and analyze the fundamental issues that have shaped the debate throughout the centuries, including the nature of justice, law and liberty, power and authority, political equality, human rights, and the relation of Church and the state.  Within this context various forms of governments will be examined, such as democracy, monarchy, and socialistic, and communistic states. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

- Describe the main distinctions between political philosophies based on the common good and those that are based on the modern framework of liberalism
- Summarize the positions of important figures in the “canon” of political philosophical text
- Introduce students to the central concepts that undergird political thought: the common good, justice, law, freedom, power, authority, rights, progress, and moral conservation
- Explain the relationship between Church and State, focusing on 19th and 20th century themes concerning this topic
- Acquire the conceptual tools needed for critically appraising political philosophies in general

PhH 781 Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas

This course covers St. Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical thought in the context of his overall theological project, discussing: the structure of medieval education, the rise of universities, faith and reason, the broad lines of Aristotelian thought, Aquinas on the world and man, man as a moral agent, the meaning of life, the ultimate end of human action, difference between knowledge and faith; God. Students moreover are introduced to the general history of Thomism through the 20th century.

PHS 607 Philosophy for Theologians

This is a foundational philosophy course for the graduate student of theology. While various philosophical concepts will be presented, the majority of the course material will point toward the application of philosophy to the theology of the Catholic Church. For the student who has some philosophical background, this course remains essential for understanding the terminology used in Catholic theology (e.g., cause, effect, form, matter, substance, accident, nature, essence, existence, relation, science, wisdom). Topics include why philosophy is necessary for theology, the history of philosophy, anthropology, ethics, logic, metaphysics and social philosophy. By the end of the class, students will be able to:

- Defend the Catholic understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, with emphasis on the relationship between philosophy and theology.

- Articulate key terms of philosophy developed and utilized in Catholic theological speculation, with particular attention given to terms developed in scholastic philosophy and theology.

- Classify major figures in the history of philosophy relevant to the history of Catholic theological speculation.

- Articulate general criticisms of philosophical errors that are detrimental to the faith.

at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Seminary

Introduction to Moral Theology

Compressed summer seminary course for diaconate program, covering basic topics central to moral theology. This course is a shortened version of MT 100, discussing: the nature of moral theology, beatitude / theosis, freedom, conscience and prudence, the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, the natural law, passions, vice and sin, the nature of imperfection.

End of Life Topics

Compressed summer seminary course for diaconate program, covering topics related to moral-theological bioethical issues pertaining to end of life issues.  Attention is given to the broader points of philosophical and theological anthropology, morality, and spirituality related to death as a properly human and Christian act.  Focus primarily pastoral.

PH 100: Logic

This course aims at providing an overall view of traditional logic for seminary students.  As part of the aspirancy program, the course will primarily be based on the lecture content, with recommended readings.  By the end of the course, students should be able to:

- Provide a general description of the basic logical relations formed by the three kinds of intellectual acts in speculative reflection
- Provide examples of various kinds of definitions
- Explain forms of immediate inference through propositional inference
- Describe the various kinds of syllogistic reasoning
- Provide basic validity analysis for syllogistic reasoning
- Explain the importance of rhetoric and describe several important rhetorical devices
- Explain several applications of logic to questions of theological methodology

PH 101: Ancient Sources I

Seminary course for first year students, introducing them to basic themes of philosophy that will be of use for their theological formation.  Central topics covered are: Platonic participation, the Aristotelian metaphysics of act and potency, Aristotelian virtue ethics, and several examples of Stoic ethics.

PH 102: Ancient Sources II

Seminary course for first year students, introducing themes directly pertinent to Byzantine philosophical history and how this relates to the nature of human knowledge, theology, and faith.  Attention is given to the use of the Aristotelian Organon (and its subsequent Neo-Platonic tradition) by St. John Damascene and the history of Byzantine Aristotelianism and its implications.  Significant thematic treatment is given to the issues surrounding uncreated grace, divine simplicity, and the legitimacy of philosophy generated in the context of the debates between Barlaam of Calabria and St. Gregory Palamas.  This theme is discussed through direct work in primary sources, including Proclean texts relevant to these topics as well as those of Pseudo-Dionysius, as well as the works of St. Gregory himself.  Likewise a contrast is provided between the developed philosophical-theological thought of the Orthodox Gennadios Scholarios and the Western Thomist Thomas de Vio Cajetan.  Finally, the course deals with historical issues relevant to Churches in union with Rome regarding the ecclesial status of philosophy and Thomism.

PH 103: Ethics

This course is specifically designed for the first iteration of the aspirancy / pre-theology program at the Byzantine Seminary.  In a number of courses, students have been introduced to a number of ethical themes from the Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, and later Greek tradition.  This iteration was run as a weekly independent seminar with a single student, whose undergraduate work has given him a background in various classic texts of the western philosophical tradition.  In order to organize this course in a sufficiently thematic fashion, the professor, in coordination with the student taking the course, has designed it to consider the nature of moral reasoning and the problem of contemporary moral frameworks in the context of a culture that views various moral outlooks as chosen personal preferences or perspectives.  The texts chosen for this year are tailored to the curricular desire to avoid overlap of content while addressing an issue that has manifested itself regularly in moral-theological courses over the past years of the professor’s teaching.  Likely, however, future iterations of this course will be updated as the aspirancy program develops.

PH 106: Philosophy of Nature

This course aims at providing an overview of the philosophy of nature for seminary students.  As part of the aspirancy program, the course will primarily be based on the lecture content with a close reading of texts, with some purely lecture-based material as well.   By the end of the course, students should be able to:

- Interpret the basic stakes involved in patristic and theological texts that refer to concepts belonging to natural philosophy
- Explain the difference between, on the one hand, Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic cosmologies and, on the other, classical modern ones (emphasizing certain connections between the latter and Epicurean atomism)
- Outline the basic historical connections between western medieval natural philosophy and modern science
- Outline the basic issues involved in the following philosophical topics: the nature of facts; idealization and reality in natural concepts, especially time and motion; universal hylomorphism; the notion of “seminal reasons”; various meanings of causality applied to the analysis of reality

MT 100: Introduction to Moral Theology

Seminary course for third year students introducing the nature of moral theology as a science and as a form of wisdom.  Care is given to provide students with the ability to discuss absolute moral norms by drawing on magisterial themes from Veritatis Splendor and the tradition of Thomistic moral philosophy and theology as employed by the magisterium.  The course integrates the spiritual and monastic traditions of Eastern Christianity into discussions of the supernatural moral life. Topics covered: The nature of moral theology, beatitude / theosis, freedom, conscience and prudence, the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, the natural law, passions, vice and sin, the nature of imperfection, and monastic perfection.

MT 103 Catholic Social Teaching

Seminary course for 3rd / 4th year students.  This course examines the basic elements of Catholic social and moral teaching as well as specific themes related to Catholic social teaching in dialogue with expressions of social teaching from other Eastern Churches. The historical and theological development of the Catholic tradition will be presented along with the pastoral dimensions of Catholic social doctrine for the Church today.  Topics covered include: basics of political philosophy, the nature of the common good in common action, subsidiarity, the place of wealth in personal and social ethics, just war theory, capital punishment, and the relationship between Church and state.

MT 104 Marriage, Sexuality, and Contemporary Moral Issues

Seminary course for 3rd / 4th year students.  This course represents a combination of the previous MT 102 and MT 101 so as to focus solely on the moral issues involved with marriage, sexual ethics, and contemporary bioethical problems.  In addition to introducing student to the history of ecclesial teachings (and debates) concerning these matters, significant time is spent discussing the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of debates surrounding topics including: the nature of marriage, the nature of chastity, contemporary gender issues, contraception, abortion, fertility treatments, stem cell research, end-of-life topics.

DT 201 Documents of Vatican II, Part 1

As part of a two-course sequence, this course along with its continuation presents the main themes of the Second Vatican Council’s four Constitutions.  The primary focus of the full sequence is to undertake reflection on the meaning and identity of Eastern Catholics in light of the themes of revelation and ecclesiology articulated at the Council.  These major theological themes will be presented within their historical context, along with attendant considerations of systematic concern.  This course will primarily focus on themes arising in relation to the conciliar Constitutions Dei Verbum and Sacrosanctum Concilium.  Special focus will be given to the problems of revelation, faith and reason, and the nature of theology.  As part of the unique focus of this course, Sacrosanctum concilium will primarily be considered in light of its implications for theological speculation, as well as in preparation for ecclesiological discussions in DT 202.  Debates concerning Scripture will be related to this course’s more general concerns related to the theology of revelation and DT 202’s concern with ecclesiology, though we will touch on issues of scriptural interpretation, inerrancy, etc.

DT 202 Documents of Vatican II, Part 2

Seminary course for 4th year students.  This course, the second in this sequence, takes up matters of ecclesiology, considered in view of the events of the Second Vatican Council and its related history.  Developing at length themes concerning the nature of revelation and the sacramental nature of the Church, this semester will use the Conciliar Constitutions Lumen gentium and Gaudium et spes as anchors for then reflecting on the status of the Eastern Catholic Churches and their relations with the various Orthodox Churches, as well as other ecclesial bodies and non-Christian religions.  The main concepts covered in this course will be: the sacramental nature of the Church, relations with Orthodox churches in light of notions like “Sister Churches” and the phenomenon of “Uniatism,” the problem of salvation in relation to the life of the Church, and the relationship of the Church to the world and human history. 

DT 208 Theosis and Gregory Palamas

A seminary course elective on the topic of divinization / theosis in the writings of Gregory Palamas.  Thematically, the following are covered: the relation between nature and grace, the nature of the divine indwelling, the nature of mystical experience, matters of philosophical and theological epistemology, the divine simplicity.  The course presents students with a close reading of texts from Palamas, as well as a status questionis of historical discussions surrounding his thought.  Contrasts with certain western thinkers will be drawn, including but not limited to the traditional Thomistic school.

DT 307 Readings in 20th Century Philosophical and Theological Methodology: The Nouvelle Théologie Crisis

This course investigates the historical events, people, and texts involved in controversies surrounding the Nouvelle théologie in the period from the 1930s to 1960s in the Catholic world in order to familiarize students with the main lines of debate in theological methodology still playing out in the contemporary Catholic world. Students will read from the various parties involved in these debates, considering the implications of their ideas in relation to questions of philosophical and theological methodology. Selections will be drawn from a variety of authors involved in these debates: Jean Daniélou, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Bathasar, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Yves Congar, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Michelle Labourdette, and Marie-Joseph Nicolas. The content will be considered in light of 20th and 21st century Orthodox discussions regarding these topics, with selections being read from a variety of thinkers, including: Sergei Bulgakov, George Florovsky, John Meyendorff, Dumitru Staniloae, Alexander Schmemann, Andrew Louth, and Marcus Plested.

Courses taught at Mt. St. Mary’s University

PHIL 200 Introduction to Philosophy

General introduction for non-majors in philosophy as part of the core curriculum.  Course provides a survey of major topics in the history of philosophy, thematically presented comprehension.  Course focused on the ability to read primary texts carefully for comprehension in context. Topics covered: The nature of philosophy according to each thinker, the medieval context of faith and reason, modernity and practical philosophy, the place of philosophy in society, the world of work vs. the world of leisure

PHIL 301 Moral Philosophy

General course in moral philosophy intended for non-majors in philosophy as part of core curriculum.  Focus of course is on the systematic questions involved in evaluating moral questions, with especial focus on Aristotelian virtue ethics. Topics covered: The nature of moral philosophy and moral thought; clarifying various conceptions pertinent to moral discourse; the role of conscience in the moral life; the role of consequences in moral acts; the question of religion, the supernatural, and philosophical ethics; special thematic focus on the nature of the virtues

PHIL 310 Civic and Professional Issues

General introductions to questions of justice and the common good, intended for non-majors in philosophy as part of the core curriculum.Topics covered: The nature of society, government, and the state; civil law and the moral life; questions concerning property, work, wages, and social justice; the nature of rights; war, peace, and international relations.

8-Week Seminars Led at the Lyceum Institute

MARITAIN’S HOPE FOR AN “EXISTENTIAL EPISTEMOLOGY”

In his later writings, the French Thomist Jacques Maritain proposed the plan of articulating an “existential epistemology” which would presuppose the noetics—the cognitive operations through which human beings exercise their humanity—which are discussed in a work such as his own Degrees of Knowledge.  This seminar will be dedicated to reading this great work, the Degrees, as well as Maritain's essays concerning the “existential epistemology”, in the hopes of outlining a general program of understanding in line with Maritain's own late-life aspirations.

Ethics: The Moral Noetic of the Natural Law

Heinrich Rommen once spoke of “dd ewige Wiederkehrt des Naturrechts,” the eternal return of the natural law.  No matter how often philosophical speculation and cultural imagery casts aside the idea of "that kind of action which is fitting to the nature of human agents," it cannot help but return—sometimes with great embarrassment—to this perennial tradition of moral philosophy.  However, it has also been said, in jest, that there are as many theories of the natural law as there are booksellers.  In this seminar, we will engage with some important texts of the natural law tradition and attempt to articulate the first principles of the very epistemology of the natural law knowledge, both at the level of general philosophical insight, and in the specific nexus of thought in the Thomist Tradition.  In so doing, our goal will be to provide a solid framework which overcomes the particularities of any particular debates concerning this topic.

More than Aesthetics: Ens Artificiale and the Philosophy of Art

Human experience is filled with beings which are often considered a sort of “non-being” or, perhaps, “diminished” being by many scholastics: artifacts.  Sometimes, we are told by this tradition that a door threshold is really just an accidental conjunction of a given shape with the substance of dead wood.  However, a cursory glance around the world reveals the a host of realities which are structurally dependent upon human ingenuity and the long history of human exploration and creativity.

Exploring its topic from a broadly Aristotelian-Thomistic perspective, this course will use the work of Jacques Maritain to probe the broader set of philosophical issues involved in the “philosophy of art”: ens artificiale, the nature of practical reason, the metaphysics of art-craft, and topics pertaining to philosophical aesthetics, considered primarily from the perspective of this metaphysical consideration of the domain of ens artificiale.  Throughout our course, we will discover how questions of philosophical anthropology are in fact pivotally important for fashioning a metaphysics that is broad enough to account for the phenomenon of “being of art.”

Philosophizing in Faith: The Philosophical Thought of Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange

Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, styled by certain parties as the “Sacred Monster of Thomism,” taught at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the “Angelicum”) in Rome for a long career of over fifty years. Although he is normally understood to be a conservative Roman theologian of his period, an honest assessment of his work shows that, whilebeing integrated deeply into the Dominican schola Thomae, he was an activethinker, synthesizing, with a particular strength in pedagogy, Thomistic thought on many topics in theology and philosophy.

This seminar will primarily consider his philosophical thought, tracing his treatment of topicspertaining to the philosophy of knowledge, metaphysics, moral philosophy, politics, with a bit of logic as well; it will end with a consideration of Fr.Garrigou-Lagrange's presentation of the boundaries between faith andreason. Throughout the seminar, emphasis will be placed on his organicconnection with the Thomistic tradition as well as with the ongoing development of Thomistic thought in the many figures he influenced overthe course of years of teaching and writing.