AQUINAS CENTER FOR THEOLOGICAL RENEWAL

Fellows of the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal are senior scholars whose work in Thomistic theology has distinguished itself. Fellows serve the Aquinas Center and the Patrick F. Taylor Graduate Programs in Theology by delivering lectures, leading colloquia, collaborating with faculty, and advising the graduate students in theology at Ave Maria University. Fellows thus aid the Patrick F. Taylor Graduate Programs in Theology and the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal in appreciating the richness of the Thomistic patrimony and its relevance for contemporary Catholic Theology. They thereby enhance and bolster the education that the Patrick F. Taylor Graduate Programs in Theology provide through its  regular faculty and course offerings.

JOHN BOYLE

AQUINAS CENTER FELLOW

John Boyle is Professor of Catholic Studies and Theology and the Director of the Master of Arts in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He holds a A.B. in Religion and History from Oberlin College, a M.A. in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, a Licentiate in Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, and a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.

He is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas, Associate Editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, a member of the editorial board of the Thomas Aquinas in Translation series for the Catholic University of America Press, and a member of the editorial board for the Theology and Law Series for the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Publications.

He has published in Recherches de Théologie ancienne et medieval, Pro Ecclesia, The Thomist, Anuario Filosofico, Nova et Vetera, and Moreana. He is also the editor with L. E. Boyle of the Lectura romana, the critical Latin edition of Thomas Aquinas’ recently discovered second commentary on Book I of Peter Lombard’s Liber sententiarum.

He is also the 1995 University of St. Thomas Distinguished Educator of the Year and the 2013 Aquinas Medalist from the University of Dallas.

FR. ROMANUS CESSARIO, O.P.

AQUINAS CENTER FELLOW

Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P. is Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, MA and Visiting Professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. and Melbourne, Australia. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at St. John’s, Fr. Cessario serves as an Associate Editor of The Thomist, Rédacteur of Pierre d’angle, General Editor of the Catholic Moral Thought Series of the Catholic University of America Press, and Senior Editor of Magnificat. Fr. Cesssario holds a B.A. and a M.A. from Saint Stephen’s College, an S.T.B. and S.T.L from the Dominican House of Studies, a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and an honorary doctorate from The Institute for the Psychological Sciences.

Fr. Cessario has previously held academic positions at Providence College, the University of Fribourg, and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (Dominican House of Studies). He is currently a member of the board of the Academy of Catholic Theology and since 1999 has been an Ordinary Academician of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Fr. Cessario has published over fifteen books, numerous translations, and more than one-hundred articles, essays and chapters in books. His books include: Christian Satisfaction in Aquinas; The Godly Image: Christ and Salvation in Catholic Thought from Anselm to Aquinas; The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics; Le Virtù; Perpetual Angelus. As the Saints Pray the Rosary; Christian Faith and the Theological Life; Jean Capreolus en son temps (1380-1444); Le thomisme et les thomistes; Introduction to Moral Theology; and A short History of Thomism.

REINHARD HÜTTER

AQUINAS CENTER FELLOW

Professor Hütter has a Th.M. from Duke University and a Dr. theol. and Dr. theol. habil. from the University of Erlangen. He teaches systematic and philosophical theology at Duke Divinity School. In his most recent work he has turned to theological anthropology — the human being created in the image of God — and to the closely related topics of nature and grace, divine and human freedom, faith and reason, theology and metaphysics. He has developed a special interest in the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The author of four scholarly books and numerous articles, reviews, and translations, he has also co-edited six books. His most recent books include Reason and the Reasons of Faith (ed. with Paul J. Griffiths), Ressourcement Thomism: Sacred Doctrine, the Sacraments, and the Moral Life (ed. with Matthew Levering), and Dust Bound for Heaven: Explorations in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas. He was the editor of Pro Ecclesia: a Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology and served on the editorial board of Theology Today. He is presently co-editor of the academic series Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy and Renewal Within Tradition: Nova & Vetera Books, and is co-editor of Nova et Vetera: The English Edition of the International Theological Journal.

He was awarded the Henry Luce III Fellowship, was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Religion of the University of Chicago, a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, served as visiting professor at the University of Jena, Germany, was elected for membership in the American Theological Society, served as president of the Academy of Catholic Theology, held the Robert J. Randall Distinguished Chair of Christianity and Culture at Providence College, is a Distinguished Fellow of The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and an Ordinary Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

DR. JOSHUA H. LIM, PH.D.

2019 RECIPIENT

The winner of the 2019 Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal Dissertation Prize winner is Dr. Joshua H. Lim for his dissertation, Vidimus Eum Plenum Gratiae Et Veritatis: Thomas Aquinas on the Co-Assumed Perfections: Christ’s Grace and Knowledge, written for the University of Notre Dame under the direction of Dr. Joseph P. Wawrykow.

‍

FR. EMMANUEL PERRIER, OP

2018 RECIPIENT

Fr. Emmanuel Perrier, OP has been awarded the 2018 St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize for his dissertation, “L’attrait Divin: La doctrine de l’opération et le gouvernement des creatures chez saint Thomas d’Aquin,” written for l’Université de Fribourg (Suisse) under the direction of Fr. Gilles Emery, OP.

‍

FR. JOHN EMERY, OP

2017 RECIPIENT

Fr. John Emery, OP has been awarded the 2017 St. Thomas Aquinas Dissertation Prize for his dissertation “A Christology of Communication: Christ’s Charity according to Thomas Aquinas.”

‍

FR. AQUINAS GUILBEAU, OP

2016 RECIPIENT

A native of Louisiana, Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2005. After several years of pastoral work in New York City, Fr. Guilbeau began doctoral studies in moral theology at the University of Fribourg, where he completed a dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the common good. In addition to his teaching, Fr. Guilbeau serves as senior editor of Aleteia.org (English edition). He is also the current prior of the Dominican House of Studies.

‍

HIEROMONK GREGORY HRYNKIW, ASTH

2014 RECIPIENT

Hieromonk Gregory Hrynkiw, ASTH, has been a Byzantine-Catholic monk since 1989. While serving as Protohegumenos of the Basilian Order in Ukraine from February 2004 to July 2007, he fought on the front lines against systemic corruption. After suffering threats to his life, he was ordered to return to Rome, and in 2010 made his solemn profession of monastic vows into the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs. The Hermitage is a form of consecrated life, which follows the “middle path” of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, uniting both the contemplative (theoria) and active (praxis) aspects of monastic life. In 2014, hieromonk Gregory completed his doctoral dissertation on Cajetan on Sacred Doctrine (In ST, I, q. 1): An Original Contribution towards a Theology of “Light from Light” by a Renaissance Cardinal and Theologian in via Thomae under the direction of Mons. Charles Morerod, O.P. at the Angelicum in Rome. At present, he is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, preaching and teaching. He is also the publisher of The Asketerion, which is the journal of the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs.

‍

FR. DOMINIC M. LANGEVIN, O.P.

2013 RECIPIENT

Fr. Dominic M. Langevin, O.P., is an instructor in systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. (Humanities) at Yale University in 1998, the same year that he entered the Dominican Order. He earned the M.Div., S.T.B., and S.T.L. degrees at the Dominican House of Studies. He has served as a parish priest and chaplain at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Under the direction of Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole, O.P., for whom he served as university assistant, Fr. Langevin defended in 2013 his doctoral dissertation entitled “From Passion to Paschal Mystery: A Recent Magisterial Development Concerning the Christological Foundation of the Sacraments.” His courses fall within the discipline of sacramental theology, which is his primary research interest.

‍

FR. BERNHARD BLANKENHORN, O.P.

2012 RECIPIENT

Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn is professor of theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. He earned a B.A. majoring in political science from the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona in 1997.  He also has an M.A. in philosophy and an M.A. and M.Div. in theology. He completed his doctorate in theology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 2012, under the direction of Fr. Gilles Emery, O.P. His dissertation is “Dionysian Mysticism in the Early Albertus Magnus and in Thomas Aquinas.”

‍

DR. JÖRGEN VIJEN

2011 RECIPIENT

DR. JÖRGEN VIJGEN holds academic appointments in Medieval and Thomistic Philosophy at several institutions in the Netherlands.

His dissertation, “The status of Eucharistic accidents ‘sine subiecto’: An Historical Trajectory up to Thomas Aquinas and selected reactions,” was written under the direction of Fr. Walter Senner, O.P. at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, Italy.  The dissertation consists of an historical examination of the philosophical principles and arguments used by Thomas Aquinas, his predecessors and a selected number of his contemporaries to defend the philosophical possibility of Eucharistic accidents inhering ‘sine subiecto’ after transubstantiation and the mode in which these Eucharistic accidents subsist.

‍

FR. JOHN BAPTIST KU, OP

2010 RECIPIENT

Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., was born in Manhattan (1965) and grew up in Fairfax, Virginia. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked at AT&T for five years before entering the Dominican Order in 1992. After serving for three years in St. Pius Parish in Providence, R.I., he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg in 2009. He now teaches at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. In his dissertation, “God the Father in the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas,” Fr. Ku explores Aquinas’ understanding of the properties by which the person of the Father is known to us, as well as Aquinas’ account of the Father’s action in creation and grace.  Working under the guidance of his director, Fr. Gilles Emery, O.P., Fr. Ku argues that it is impossible to separate Thomas’ theology of the Father from his theology of the whole Trinity. Thus, although Aquinas only dedicates one question in the Summa theologiae to the Father (Prima pars, q. 33),  Fr. Ku interprets this question in light of the entire Treatise on the Trinity, focusing especially on how Thomas’ whole Trinitarian theology coheres intensely around the concept of interpersonal relations.

‍

DR. EDGARDO COLÓN-EMERIC

2008 RECIPIENT

Edgardo Colón-Emeric is Assistant Research Professor of Theology and Hispanic Studies and director of the Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School.

He is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church where he serves as associate pastor of Reconciliation UMC, a bilingual, multicultural congregation.

Perfection in Dialogue: An Ecumenical Encounter between Wesley and Acquinas. Directed by Professor Reinhard Huetter.

Methodists and Catholics have enjoyed almost forty years of ecumenical dialogue. From the beginning of these conversations, both sides were pleased to discover a certain spiritual kinship: sanctification lay at the heart of both their soteriologies. However, in spite of this harmony of wills with respect to the goal of the Christian life, the doctrine of Christian perfection or “perfect love”, as Wesley preferred to call it, has not been the subject of sustained ecumenical inquiry. In light of the continuing need for ecumenical rapprochement, this dissertation studies the doctrine of perfection as taught by John Wesley and Thomas Aquinas. A close reading of the chief texts by these two theologians, in critical conversation with their respective interpretive traditions, yields important ecumenical insights. First, this dissertation underscores the centrality of the concept of perfection for both Aquinas’s and Wesley’s theologies. Perfection is the organizational principle of the Summa Theologiae and Wesley’s missiological imperative. Moreover in their exposition of this doctrine, both Wesley and Aquinas emphasize some of the same common elements: the importance of beatitude, the centrality of love, the universality of the call to perfection, the importance of the life of the virtues and the social character of holiness. Second, in light of these convergences, this dissertation proposes that the respective theological approaches of Aquinas and Wesley are largely complementary. Aquinas offers Methodists the speculative theological principles that Wesley considered to fall outside “practical divinity” and hence never developed. Wesley offers Catholics another practitioner of perfection next to the likes of St. John of the Cross who applies the speculatively practical theology of Thomas Aquinas in a practically practical way, a way leading not up Mount Carmel to a life of contemplation but down the plain to a life of action. Finally, perhaps the most important conclusion of this dissertation is the claim that a generous reception of the teaching of Aquinas and Wesley on perfection offers the Church catholic a grammar of holiness which empowers the practice of a “kneeling ecumenism” that both affirms and recognizes the ecclesial significance of sanctity.

‍

DR. AARON M. CANTY

2007 RECIPIENT

Dr. Canty teaches courses in historical theology and church history at Saint Xavier University. His current research focuses on the development of medieval Christology, eschatology, and scriptural exegesis. He completed his doctoral dissertation on “The Transfiguration of Christ among the Early Franciscans and Dominicans” in 2006. His most recent publication is “Bonventurian Resonances in Benedict XVI’s Theology of Revelation” in Nova et Vetera, a journal aimed at enhancing and promoting Catholic theology.

The Transfiguration of Christ among the Early Franciscans and Dominicans.

Directed by the eminent Thomistic scholar Joseph P. Wawrykow at the University of Notre Dame, The Transfiguration of Christ among the Early Dominicans covers the period between 1230 and 1275 and includes analysis of the works of seven theologians: Alexander of Hales, OFM, Hugh of St. Cher, OP, Guerric of St. Quentin, OP, John of La Rochelle, OFM, Albert the Great, OP, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, OFM, and Thomas Aquinas, OP. These theologians found in the transfiguration of Christ an occasion to address such central theological topics as the role of the triune God in salvation history, the relationship between Christ’s divinity and humanity, the Church, and the end-times. In their writings on Christ’s transfiguration, these theologians employed several varieties of scholastic discourse, including the sermon and biblical commentary, as well as the summa, the commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, and the disputed question. Professor Canty’s historical study constitutes a significant contribution to the theology of Christ and salvation.

‍

DR. ROGER W. NUTT

2006 RECIPIENT

Associate professor of theology. He has previously taught at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. His publications and research cover various areas of theological interest including christology, sacramental and liturgical theology, the theology of Charles Cardinal Journet, and the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

His publications have appeared in Nova et Vetera, English Edition, Louvain Studies, Communio, Gregorianum, The Josephinum Journal of Theology, and Angelicum.

Dr. Nutt is a member of the Editorial Board of the quarterly journal Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, which is a publication of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. He holds the degrees of B.E.S. from St. Cloud State University, M.A. in Theology and Christian Ministry from Franciscan University, and S.T.B., S.T.L., and S.T.D. from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

Christus Sacerdos et Mediator: Thomistic Christology and Vatican II’s Call for Theological Renewal.

This study contributes to the discipline of theology by establishing deeper points of contact between Aquinas’s sacra doctrina and the integrated vision of theology articulated by the Council, and it does so by more fully developing the intricacies and implications of Aquinas’s theology of Christ as priest and mediator, and the conclusions that follow from this understanding. In the first chapter the nature of the renewal in the teaching of theology called for by the Second Vatican Council is examined. Once the teaching of the Council is established, the relation between this vision and the integrated nature of Aquinas’s theology is presented. The second chapter fully treats Aquinas’s theology of Christ’s priesthood and mediation. This consideration moves from a brief discussion of historical issues and the question of satisfaction theory to a presentation of the nature and effects of Christ’s priesthood, priestly sacrifice, and mediation according to Aquinas. The third chapter builds upon the general foundation laid in the second to explain the importance that Christ’s mediation has relative to the New Law and the life of supernatural grace. This chapter demonstrates how Aquinas’s understanding of Christ’s priesthood and mediation, which he wrought in his human nature, is the foundation of the Christian moral life, and is continued through the sacramental nature of the Church and the seven sacraments of the New Law. The fourth and final chapter of this work takes a few of the basic principles of Aquinas’s understanding of Christ as priest and mediator and places them in dialogue with the use of these terms in Fr. Jacques Dupuis’s theology of religious pluralism.

BRIAN KOLODIEJCHUK, M.C.

2013 RECIPIENT

Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C. (Ex Corde Ecclesiae Medal) is the postulator of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and director of the Mother Teresa Center. He edited and wrote the commentary for the book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto, a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Manitoba, a M.Div. in Theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Saybrook Institute.

‍

MRS. PHYLLIS M. TAYLOR

2012 RECIPIENT

Mrs. Phyllis M. Taylor was valedictorian of her high school class in Abbeville, LA. She is a graduate of Tulane University School of Law, and the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Mrs. Taylor served as law clerk for the Supreme Court of Louisiana and Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

Her career in the oil and gas industry began in 1972 when she became in-house counsel for John W. Mecom, Sr. Since the 1979 founding of Taylor Energy Company LLC, she has served as Executive Vice President and as a Board Member. She became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Taylor Energy upon the death of her husband Patrick F. Taylor in 2004.

Mrs. Taylor serves as Chairman and President of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, a philanthropic organization that she started with her husband in 1985.  The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation is best known for its work in education through the promotion of the Taylor Plan/TOPS, but also supports law enforcement, military, humanitarian efforts, and Catholic causes.

For her generous support of the Graduate Programs in Theology at Ave Maria University, which now enjoy the name, The Patrick F. Taylor Graduate Programs in Theology, the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to honor Mrs.  Phyllis M. Taylor with the 2012 Ex Corde Ecclesiae Medal.

‍

DR. WILLIAM RIORDAN

2011 RECIPIENT

Is professor of theology and director of the undergraduate theology program. He previously taught philosophy at the University of San Francisco and theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and Ave Maria College, both in Michigan. Dr. Riordan wrote his dissertation on divinization in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite. He has expanded it into a fuller study which has been published under the title Divine Light: The Theology of Denys the Areopagite.

He is working on a new facing-page translation of the Mystical Theology by the same author (with introduction and commentary). His specialties include the areas of metaphysics, the doctrine of participation, and Trinitarian theology.

He holds the degrees of B.A. from St. Mary’s University of California, M.A. from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and S.T.L. and S.T.D. from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome

‍

FR. MATTHEW LAMB

2008 RECIPIENT

Matthew L. Lamb entered the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia just before his fifteenth birthday. He plans on returning to a contemplative monastery after teaching. He received a Licentiate in theology (S.T.L.) “Magna cum laude” from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, Italy. His Doctorate in Theology (Dr. Theol.) “Summa cum laude” was done at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität, Münster, Germany in 1974. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and belongs to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received an honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2002; and was honored with a Festschrift co-edited by Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering, Wisdom and Holiness, Science and Scholarship. He was named to the Cardinal Maida Chair at Ave Maria University in 2011.

He has taught in the Theology Department at Marquette University, and Boston College. He was a visiting associate professor at the Divinity School, the University of Chicago, and a Walsh–Price Fellow at the School of Theology, Maryknoll, New York. At present he is Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department of Theology at Ave Maria University, Naples, Florida. He assisted in the newly formed M.A. and Ph.D. programs in theology at this university.

He has lectured at universities in Europe and North and Central America including the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, the University of Louvain, the University of Hannover, the Catholic University of Eichstatt, the North American College, Rome, Concordia University, Montreal, the University of Toronto, York University, Universidad Iberoamericana of Mexico City, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Catholic University of America, Loyola Universities in New Orleans and Chicago, University of Dallas, Conception College, Franciscan University, University of Notre Dame, etc.

His books include Eternity, Time and the Life of Wisdom; Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Ephesians. History, Method and Theology: W. Dilthey’s Critique of Historical Reason and B. Lonergan’s Methodology which received the University Excellence Award from the University of Münster. Solidarity with Victims: Towards a Theology of Social Transformation a translation of which was published in Japan in 1988. He edited Creativity and Method: Essays in Honor of Bernard Lonergan. Most recently he co-Authored Pan Para Todos: Aportes A Una Teologia Por El Pobre; and co-edited Vatican II: Renewal Within Tradition;.

He has published over a hundred and forty-five articles dealing with St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, theological method, religion and society, political theology, Catholic theological traditions, modernism and postmodernism, communication theory. Essays have appeared in such journals as Theologisches Revue; Concilium: An International Journal of Theology; Communio: International Catholic Review; Religious Studies Review; Horizons; The Ecumenist; Method; The Lonergan Workshop Journal; Review for Religious; American Behavioral Scientist; Philosophy of Science; Commonweal; America; Crisis: Politics, Culture & the Church; Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly; Fides Quaerens Intellectum: A Journal of Theology, Philosophy & History; Nova et Vetera.

He has contributed chapters to many books including Paradigm Change in Theology, Faith That Transforms, Kommunikation und Solidarität, The Desires of the Human Heart, Mystik und Politik, Theology and Discovery, Sociology and Human Destiny, Civil Religion and Political Theology, Cities of Gods: Faith, Politics and Pluralism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Habermas und die Theologie; La Pratique de la théologie politique; A Handbook of Christian Theologians; Habermas, Modernity and Public Theology; Dictionary of Catholic Theology; Dictionary of Catholic Social Thought; Dictionaire de Théologie; Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Anerkennung der Anderen; Theological Education in the Catholic Tradition; Continuity and Plurality in Catholic Theology; Jesus Crucified and Risen; Judgment Day at the White House; Gladly to Learn & Gladly to Teach: Essays in Honor of Ernest Fortin. Divine Creation in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Thought: Essays in Honor of Dr Robert D. Crouse; Aquinas on Doctrine: A Critical Introduction; Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas: Theological Exegesis and Speculative Theology; Aquinas the Augustinian; Philosophy & Theology in the Long Middle Ages, etc.

‍

DR. THOMAS LOOME

2007 RECIPIENT

Dr. Thomas M. Loome founded Loome Theological Booksellers with his wife, Karen, in 1981. Located in Stillwater, Minnesota, Loome Theological  Booksellers quickly became the central hub of theological bookselling in the United States. For over 25 years, graduate students and professors have benefited from Dr. Loome’s tireless pursuit of the best books in theology, philosophy, and biblical scholarship.

For almost a decade now, Dr. Loome has had a special relationship with the undergraduate, and more recently graduate, programs of Ave Maria University. With energy and dedication, he has assembled a broad and deep collection for the University that will serve generations of students well. In the past couple years, recalling his own distinguished mentor Max Seckler, Dr. Loome has put his resources behind ensuring that Ave Maria University will be able to provide continued support for graduate study in theology.

For his work on the library and his support of the students in the Graduate Program in Theology, the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to honor Thomas M. Loome with the 2007 Ex Corde Ecclesiae Medal.

‍

CARLOS FIGUEROA

2006 RECIPIENT

Mr. Carlos Figueroa has extensive experience both in private business and in governmental service. He has worked for Shay Financial Services since January 1993. He previously worked for Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (1973-1976), Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (1977-1978), Prudential Bache (1983-1985), and Kidder Peabody& Co. (1988-1990). Aside from experience in the securities industry, Mr. Figueroa has extensive experience in Latin America, specifically in the institutional and project finance area.

In public service for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Mr. Figueroa has served as Executive Vice President of Government Development Bank (GDB), Chairman of the Board of Banco Cooperativo de Puerto Rico, and Chairman of the Board of AFICA (Industrial Revenue Bond Issuing Agency).

Carlos Figueroa has been married to Amelia for 35 years, and is the proud father of 5 children and grandfather of 9.

He has carried over his experience and initiative to the work of foundingThe Apostles Foundation. As he put it in a letter announcing the founding of this crucial apostolate:

“We face a challenge that will define the legacy of our moral values for future generations, and how those values will be characterized as different from those of our generation. It is my sincere and humble belief we can make a difference bythe promulgation of faith through education centered in the study of theology.Pope John Paul said it best… ‘promote dialogue between faith and reason …and bear harmonious witness to the unity of all truth’.

“With this mission in mind, we have incorporated The Apostles Foundation, Inc….Our intent is to join the efforts started at Ave Maria University in Naples, Fl. in bringing Theology to the forefront of this academic initiative. We have made a presumption in selecting Ave Maria University since we believe their program reflects best our Catholic values, and their fresh initiative is most deserving of our support.”

REINHARD HÜTTER

2019 RECIPIENT

Reinhard Hütter has a Th.M. from Duke University and a Dr. theol. and Dr. theol. habil. from the University of Erlangen. He is Ordinary Professor of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at The Catholic University of America. His teaching and research focuses on fundamental theological questions of the relationship between faith and reason, nature and grace, revelation and faith, theology and philosophy, dogma and history, on questions of theological anthropology (grace and freedom), and the theology and epistemology of faith. He has an abiding interest in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and has, in more recent years, developed also an intense interest in the thought of John Henry Newman.
Dr. Hütter has been awarded the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize in 2012 and is now the 2019 recipient for two of his books, both published in 2019: Aquinas on Transubstantiation: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Thomistic Ressourcement Series) and Bound for Beatitude: A Thomistic Study in Eschatology and Ethics (Thomistic Ressourcement Series).

‍

FR. REGINALD LYNCH, OP

2018 RECIPIENT

Fr. Reginald Lynch, OP is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph (USA), who has written on a variety of topics in sacramental and systematic theology. Fr. Lynch has been awarded the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize for his book The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition (Thomistic Ressourcement Series).

‍

FR. THOMAS JOSEPH WHITE, OP

2017 RECIPIENT

Fr. White is the Director of the Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum. He did his doctoral studies at Oxford University, and has research interests in metaphysics, Christology, Trinitarian theology, and the theology of grace. His books include The Incarnate Lord, A Thomistic Study in Christology (2015) and The Light of Christ: An Introduction to Catholicism (2017). He is co-editor of the academic journal Nova et Vetera and in 2011 was appointed an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

‍

FR. STEVE BROCK

2015 RECIPIENT

Stephen L. Brock is professor of medieval philosophy at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome.

‍

THOMAS OSBORN

2014 RECIPIENT

Dr. Thomas M. Osborne has been awarded the Charles Cardinal Journet Prize for his book Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham (CUA Press, 2014). Dr. Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas (Houston).  He is the author of Love of Self and Love of God in Thirteenth-Century Ethics (2005) as well as many articles in medieval and late-scholastic ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, and the philosophy of action.  Two recent articles are “Continuity and Innovation in Dominic Banez’s Understanding of Esse:  Banez’s relationship to John Capreolus, Paul Soncinas, and Thomas de Vio Cajetan.” The Thomist 77 (2013): 367-394 and “Giles of Rome, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines on Whether to See God Is to Love Him.”   Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 80 (2013): 57-76. In 2009-2010, he received an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers for research at the Thomas-Institut University of Cologne, and in 2001-2002 he received a Gilson Fellowship for study at the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies.

‍

REINHARD HÜTTER

2012 RECIPIENT

Professor Hütter has a Th.M. from Duke University and a Dr. theol. and Dr. theol. habil. from the University of Erlangen. He teaches systematic and philosophical theology at Duke Divinity School. In his most recent work he has turned to theological anthropology — the human being created in the image of God — and to the closely related topics of nature and grace, divine and human freedom, faith and reason, theology and metaphysics. He has developed a special interest in the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The author of four scholarly books and numerous articles, reviews, and translations, he has also co-edited six books. His most recent books include Reason and the Reasons of Faith(ed. with Paul J. Griffiths), Ressourcement Thomism: Sacred Doctrine, the Sacraments, and the Moral Life (ed. with Matthew Levering), and Dust Bound for Heaven: Explorations in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas. He was the editor of Pro Ecclesia: a Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology and served on the editorial board of Theology Today. He is presently co-editor of the academic series Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy and Renewal Within Tradition: Nova & Vetera Books, and is co-editor of Nova et Vetera: The English Edition of the International Theological Journal.

He was awarded the Henry Luce III Fellowship, was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Religion of the University of Chicago, a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, served as visiting professor at the University of Jena, Germany, was elected for membership in the American Theological Society, served as president of the Academy of Catholic Theology, held the Robert J. Randall Distinguished Chair of Christianity and Culture at Providence College, is a Distinguished Fellow of The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and an Ordinary Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

‍

FR. BRYAN KROMHOLTZ, O.P.

2011 RECIPIENT

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to announce the winner of the 2011 Charles Cardinal Journet Prize, On the Last Day:  “The Last Enemy to Be Destroyed: General Resurrection in St. Thomas Aquinas and the Christian Response to Death” by Fr. Bryan Kromholtz, O.P.

To the question: When will the resurrection of the dead occur? St. Thomas Aquinas consistently taught that the resurrection will occur when Christ returns at the end of the world, for everyone at the same time. In this, Thomas highlights the theological significance of human persons’ connections with Jesus Christ, with the created world, and with one another. In On the Last Day, Fr. Kromholtz explains how Thomas’s attention to these three dimensions (Christ, cosmos, and community) anticipates many current concerns and can contribute to a better understanding of resurrection for today, one that more fully accounts for the Christological, corporeal, cosmological, and ecclesiological aspects of eschatology.

Fr. Kromholtz holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.  He is Regent of Studies of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Western USA) of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and is a member of the Order’s Permanent Commission for the Promotion of Studies. He is Assistant Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA.

‍

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE

2010 RECIPIENT

Alasdair MacIntyre is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

He has written 16 books, including God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition in which he presents a compelling argument on the necessity and importance of philosophy. Because of a need to better understand Catholic philosophical thought, especially in the context of its historical development and realizing that philosophers interact within particular social and cultural situations, MacIntyre offers this brief history of Catholic philosophy. Tracing the idea of God through different philosophers’ engagement of God and how this engagement has played out in universities, MacIntyre provides a valuable, lively, and insightful study of the disintegration of academic disciplines with knowledge. MacIntyre demonstrates the dangerous implications of this happening and how universities can and ought to renew a shared understanding of knowledge in their mission.

It is with pride and gratitude that we award Prof. Macintyre the 2010 Charles Cardinal Journet Prize for God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition.

‍

THOMAS HIBBS

2008 RECIPIENT

In his book,  Aquinas, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion, Thomas Hibbs recovers the notion of practice to develop a more descriptive account of human action and knowing, grounded in the venerable vocabulary of virtue and vice. Drawing on Aquinas, who believed that all good works originate from virtue, Hibbs postulates how epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and theology combine into a set of contemporary philosophical practices that remain open to metaphysics. Hibbs brings Aquinas into conversation with analytic and Continental philosophy and suggests how a more nuanced appreciation of his thought enriches contemporary debates. This book offers readers a new appreciation of Aquinas and articulates a metaphysics integrally related to ethical practice.

Professor Hibbs is also the author of numerous other acclaimed books, including two books on film and culture, Acts of Darkness: American Noirand the Quest for Redemption and Shows about Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture from The Exorcist to Seinfeld, as well as Virtue’s Splendor: Wisdom, Prudence, and the Human Good and his groundbreaking first book Dialectic and Narrative in Aquinas: An Interpretation of the Summa contra Gentiles.

Prior to taking up his present position as Dean of the Honors College and Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture at Baylor University, Dr. Hibbs taught philosophy at Boston College, and he began his teaching career at Thomas Aquinas College.

We have had the privilege of knowing Thomas Hibbs for a number of years, first as students and later as colleagues in the academy. His brilliance and wit are a rich contribution to any conversation. He is the model of a Catholic scholar and philosopher, and someone whose insights are always worth obtaining. It is with pride and gratitude that we award Thomas Hibbs’s Aquinas, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion the 2008 Charles Cardinal Journet Prize.

‍

RALPH MCINERNY

2007 RECIPIENT

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to announce the winner of the 2007 Charles Cardinal Journet Prize, Praeambula Fidei: Thomism and the God of the Philosophers by Ralph McInerny.

The praeambula fidei (“preambles of faith”) are regarded by Thomas Aquinas as the culmination of philosophy: natural theology, the highest knowledge of God that is possible on philosophical grounds alone. The natural home for such considerations is the Metaphysics of Aristotle and Thomas’s commentary on that work. Yet Thomas’s view has been cast into doubt, with philosophers and theologians alike attempting to drive a wedge between Aquinas and Aristotle. In this book, renowned philosopher Ralph McInerny sets out to review what Thomas meant by the phrase and to defend a robust understanding of Thomas’s teaching on the subject. After setting forth different attitudes toward proofs of God’s existence and outlining the difference between belief and knowledge, McInerny examines the texts in which Thomas uses and explains the phrase “preambles of faith.” He then turns his attention to the work of eminent twentieth-century Thomists and chronicles their abandonment of the preambles. He draws a contrast between this form of Thomism and that of the classical Dominican commentators, notably Cajetan, arguing that part of the abandonment of the notion of the preambles as philosophical involves a misreading and misrepresentation of Cajetan. McInerny concludes with a positive rereading of Aristotle’sMetaphysics and Aquinas’s use thereof. In the end, the book argues for a return to the notion of Aristotelico-Thomism—Thomistic philosophy as the organic development of the thought of Aristotle.

Ralph McInerny is Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies in the department of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is cofounder of Crisis magazine and author of several books published by CUA Press, namely, the bestselling Ethica Thomistica, The Question of Christian Ethics, Aquinas on Human Action, and Boethius and Aquinas.

‍

MICHAEL SHERWIN, OP

2006 RECIPIENT

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to announce the winner of the 2006 Charles Cardinal Journet Prize, By Knowledge and By Love: Charity and Knowledge in the Moral Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas by Michael Sherwin, O.P.

Fr. Sherwin is Associate Professor of Fundamental Moral Theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. As Alasdair MacIntyre says of Fr. Sherwin’s By Knowledge and By Love, “Sherwin has provided a wonderfully illuminating study of the development and structure of Aquinas’ thought on these matters. Both as a guide to recent scholarship and as an insightful account of what is philosophically and theologically at stake this is an excellent book.”

Similarly Fr. Stephen Brock of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross observes that in light of Sherwin’s book, “There should be no more talk of a Thomas who detaches will from reason.”

BRUCE MARSHALL

2019 RECIPIENT

Dr. Bruce Marshall serves as the Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Trinity and Truth (2000) and Christology in Conflict (1987), and is presently at work on a book on the Trinity, faith, and reason in Aquinas and contemporary Catholic theology. He is a member and past president of the Academy of Catholic Theology. He serves on the editorial boards of Nova et Vetera (English edition), Pro Ecclesia.

‍

SCOTT HAHN

2018 RECIPIENT

Dr. Scott Hahn is the Fr. Michael Scanlan Professor of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990. He is the Founder and President of the St. Paul Center, an apostolate dedicated to teaching Catholics to read Scripture from the heart of the Church. The author or editor of over forty popular and academic books, Dr. Hahn’s works include best-selling titles Rome Sweet Home, The Lamb’s Supper, and Hail Holy Queen. His most recent titles include The Creed and The Fourth Cup. He is the editor of the academic journal Letter & Spirit: A Journal of Catholic Biblical Theology. Dr. Hahn graduated from Grove City College in 1979 with his BA in Theology, Philosophy and Economics. He received his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Theology from Marquette University in 1995. He was ordained in 1982 at Trinity Presbyterian Church (Fairfax, VA). He entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, 1986. Over the last three decades, Dr. Hahn has delivered thousands of popular talks and academic lectures, nationally and internationally, on a wide range of topics related to Scripture, Theology, and the Catholic faith.

‍

JOSEPH P. WAWRYKOW

2017 RECIPIENT

Joseph Wawrykow is an associate professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in medieval theology. Much of his research is dedicated to the study of Thomas Aquinas and his scholastic contemporaries.

Professor Wawrykow is the author of God’s Grace and Human Action: ‘Merit’ in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995) and of The Westminster Handbook to Thomas Aquinas (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005). He is also co-editor (with Kent Emery) of Christ among the Medieval Dominicans (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999) and (with Rik Van Nieuwenhove) The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005). He has published on a wide variety of medieval theological topics, in such journals as Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and The Thomist. He is on the editorial board of The Westminster Collection of Sources of Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press) and is the area editor for the History of Christianity for Religious Studies Review. He is currently at work, as co-editor, on the Cambridge History of Later Medieval Theology. He was formerly on the editorial board of the University of Notre Dame Press.

‍

MATTHEW LEVERING

2016 RECIPIENT

Matthew Levering holds the James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, prior to which he taught at Ave Maria University and the University of Dayton.  He is the author or editor of over forty books on topics in dogmatic, sacramental, moral, historical, and biblical theology.  Among his books are Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance (forthcoming); Paul in the Summa Theologiae; Reading Job with St. Thomas Aquinas (forthcoming, co-edited with Jorgen Vijgen and Piotr Roszak); and two volumes co-edited with Michael Dauphinais, Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas and Reading Romans with St. Thomas Aquinas.  He co-edits two quarterly journals, Nova et Vetera and International Journal of Systematic Theology.  He has directed the Center for Scriptural Exegesis, Philosophy, and Doctrine since 2011.

‍

FR. SERGE-THOMAS BONINO, OP

2015 RECIPIENT

Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino is a French Catholic theologian and religious of the Dominican Order. He became the secretary of the International Theological Commission in 2011 and was appointed the President of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 2014.

‍

FR. MATTHEW LAMB

2014 RECIPIENT

Fr. Matthew Lamb, Dr. Theol. is Cardinal Maida Professor of Theology and the founding director of our graduate programs. He previously taught for twenty years at Boston College and, before that at Marquette University for ten years. His research interests include foundational, doctrinal, and systematic theologies. He has authored and edited several books, including Catholicism and America: Challenges and Prospects (Sapientia Press, 2012), Eternity, Time, and the Life of Wisdom (Sapientia Press, 2007), and Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2008), and published more than 150 articles. Before his studies in Rome, Rev. Lamb spent fifteen years in a contemplative monastery; he hopes to return to such a monastery when he retires. He holds the degrees of S.T.L. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Dr. Theol. with a Universitätspreis from the State University of Münster in Germany, and an honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

‍

RUSSELL HITTINGER

2013 RECIPIENT

Russell Hittinger graduated Summa cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame.  He also received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from St. Louis University.

Since 1996, he is the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he is also a Research Professor of Law.  He is the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion.  Professor Hittinger has taught at Fordham University, in the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, and, as a Visiting Professor, at N.Y.U. and Princeton University.  In 1991 and 1994, he was a Visiting Professor at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in Rome. Since 2001, he is a member of the Pontificia Academia Sancti Thomae Aquinatis (Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas), to which he was elected a full member (ordinarius) in 2004.

es on several boards and boards of advisors, including First Things, the American Journal of Jurisprudence, Nova et Vetera, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.

In 1993 Professor Hittinger was invited by the Ministry of Culture of the Italian Government to give a lecture to mark the centenary of the death of Pope Leo XIII.  In October 1994 he gave “Secularity and the Anthropological Problem,” as the Inaugural Claude Ryan Lecture in Catholic Social Thought, McGill University in Montreal.

His books and articles have appeared on the University of Notre Dame Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, Fordham University Press, the Review of Metaphysics, the Review of Politics, several law journals (American and European). In 2000, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, where he began research on a book Man and Citizen in Roman Doctrine on the Modern State 1800-1989, to be published in a new series of monographs prepared by the Law and Religion program at Emory Law School.  His most recent book The First Grace: Re-Discovering Natural Law in a Post-Christian Age was published in Jan. 2003.  His essays on papal social doctrine will appear later this year in a two-volume work Law and Human Nature: Teachings of Modern Christianity (Columbia University Press), edited by John Witte and Frank Alexander.

‍

FR. ROMANUS CESSARIO, O.P.

2012 RECIPIENT

Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P. is Professor of Theology at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, MA and Visiting Professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. and Melbourne, Australia.  In addition to his teaching responsibilities at St. John’s, Fr. Cessario serves as an Associate Editor of The Thomist, Rédacteur of Pierre d’angle, General Editor of the Catholic Moral Thought Series of the Catholic University of America Press, and Senior Editor of Magnificat.  Fr. Cesssario holds advanced degrees from the Dominican House of Studies, a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and an honorary doctorate from The Institute for the Psychological Sciences.

Fr. Cessario has previously held academic positions at Providence College, the University of Fribourg, and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (Dominican House of Studies).  He is currently a member of the board of the Academy of Catholic Theology and since 1999 has been an Ordinary Academician of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Fr. Cessario has published over fifteen books, numerous translations, and more than one-hundred articles, essays and chapters in books.  His books include: Christian Satisfaction in Aquinas; The Godly Image: Christ and Salvation in Catholic Thought from Anselm to Aquinas; The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics; Le Virtù; Perpetual Angelus. As the Saints Pray the Rosary; Christian Faith and the Theological Life; Jean Capreolus en son temps (1380-1444); Le thomisme et les thomistes; Introduction to Moral Theology; and A short History of Thomism.

In deep gratitude for his friendship and paternal guidance, for his remarkable appropriation of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist tradition, the example of excellence and fidelity that he has given to a generation of students of Catholic theology, and his tireless service to the Church, the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is honored to award the 2011 Veritas Medal to Fr. Cessario.

‍

FR. CHARLES MOREROD, OP

2011 RECIPIENT

Fr. Morerod entered the Dominican Order in 1983 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988 in the city of Geneva, of his native country Switzerland. He holds the degrees of licentiate in philosophy and theology and a doctorate in theology from University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Institut Catholique in Toulouse, France.

He is the author of eight books and has published over 100 hundred scholarly articles or chapters in books. Fr. Morerod’s work is inspired by a wide range of theological and philosophical sources including, to name just two, his elder Dominican brother St. Thomas Aquinas, and his countryman, the noted Swiss theologian Charles Cardinal Journet. His devotion to Journet’s work and legacy is particularly manifest in his ongoing and longtime editorial service to both the French and English editions of the journal Nova et Vetera, which was originally founded by Journet.

Fr. Morerod currently holds several posts to which he has been either elected or appointed. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC); since 2005 he has been a member of the The Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue Between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches; in 2008 he was appointed to the pontifical academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Morerod is a consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in 2009 he was appointed Secretary General of the International Theological Commission. In September of 2009 Fr. Morerod was elected Rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he has taught since 1996 and held, prior to his election as Rector, the positions of Vice-Dean of the Theology and Dean of Philosophy.

‍

DR. ROBERT LOUIS WILKEN

2009 RECIPIENT

Dr. Robert Louis Wilken is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has taught at Gregorian University, Institutum Patristicum “Augustiniam,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Notre Dame, Fordham University, and Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Dr. Wilken is the author of 10 books, including The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (Yale, 2003), Remembering the Christian Past (Eerdmans, 1995), and The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (Yale, 1984). He is also the translator, along with Paul Bowers, of On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ. Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003).

Dr. Wilken is an elected fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, former president of the American Academy of Religion, and former president of the North American Patristic Society.

‍

DR. JANET E. SMITH

2008 RECIPIENT

Janet E. Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. She is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, editor ofWhy Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader. Her long list of published articles—-in academic journals as well as popular periodicals—-includes contributions in abortion, bioethics, feminism and women, moral philosophy, and Plato. She has taught at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Dallas as well as at Ave Maria College.

Prof. Smith has received the Haggar Teaching Award from the University of Dallas, the Prolife Person of the Year from the Diocese of Dallas, and the Cardinal Wright Award from the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. She is serving a second term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family. Over a million copies of her talk,“Contraception: Why Not” have been distributed.

For her constant defense of the teachings of the Catholic Church in the areas of marriage and the family as well as life issues, for her constant search for truth ranging from her studies of Plato to her writings on Thomistic moral philosophy, for her readiness to serve the Church as the Church needs to be served as she now devotes her talents to the intellectual formation of priests, for all of these areas, the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is most honored to award the 2008 Veritas Medal to Professor Janet Smith.

‍

AVERY CARDINAL DULLES, SJ

2007 RECIPIENT

The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal is delighted to award Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, with the 2007 Veritas Medal. Cardinal Dulles’s extraordinary achievements have merited for him the title of “dean” of Catholic theologians in the United States, and he exemplifies the attributes that the Veritas Medal honors.

Cardinal Dulles is presently the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, a position he has held since 1988. Previously he taught at Woodstock College and Catholic University of America, in addition to serving as visiting professor at many other eminent universities, including the Gregorian University, the University of Notre Dame, Oxford University, and Yale University.

The author of over 750 articles on theological topics, he has published over twenty books displaying his extraordinary theological competence and range, among them Models of the Church, Models of Revelation, The Catholicity of the Church, The Craft of Theology, The Assurance of Things Hoped For, The Splendor of Faith: The Theological Vision of Pope John Paul II, The New World of Faith, and The History of Apologetics. His new book The Magisterium will appear this Spring from Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University.

He was named a Cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II.

‍

GEORGE WIEGEL

2006 RECIPIENT

The Aquinas Center is pleased to announce the inaugural recipient of the Veritas Medal, Professor George Weigel. George Weigel is a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II and most recently of God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church. His other books include Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy, The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism,Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism, The Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored, The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church, Letters to a Young Catholic, The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, Tranquillitas Ordinis: The Present Failure and Future Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace, among others. Click here to view all of his books.

Professor Weigel received the 2006 Veritas Medal before his keynote address to the John Paul II and the Holy Land conference on February 8, 2006.

THE AQUINAS CENTER

In response to Pope Saint John Paul II’s call for a New Evangelization, the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal (the Aquinas Center) aims at providing scholarly resources that will assist in a transformation – a new evangelization – of the academic discipline of theology. It seeks to reinvigorate the place of Catholic theology in the academy by supporting research, writing, lecturing, and teaching. As a central part of its mission, the Center seeks to develop bonds of friendship and dialogue between scholars from around the world.

The Center encourages academic scholarship that assists the Church in communicating the Wisdom of Christ to the contemporary world. The projects of the Center focus particularly upon identifying ways of drawing St. Thomas Aquinas’s vibrant theological and philosophical contributions into the conversations and debates that are ongoing today in the fields of theology, philosophy, and biblical studies. The Center seeks to develop a community of scholars worldwide who share a metaphysical and biblical vision of theology. As such, the Center welcomes and encourages the participation of philosophers, biblical scholars, and theologians.

The Center has assumed the responsibility for the Thomistica.Net website initiated by Dr. Mark Johnson. Dr. Nutt is responsible for its ongoing editorship. The Center also reaches out to scholars and doctoral students around the world and bestows awards in recognition of their contributions to the study of Aquinas and Catholic intellectual and faith life.

Directors: Dr. Michael Dauphinais, Dr. Steven A. Long, Dr. Roger Nutt.