Recent Advanced Seminar Offerings for the Ph.D. in Theology:

Course Number: Course Title; Professor; Term

REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies; Anthony Smith; Spring 2025

REL 633: Ressourcement Theology; Tim Gabrielli; Spring 2025

REL 674: Classic and Contemporary Readings: Global Black Catholicism; Shannen Dee Williams; Spring 2025

REL 602: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Contemporary; Vince Miller; Fall 2024

REL 623: Mary, Synod and Breastmilk; Neomi DeAnda; Fall 2024

REL 672: Ethics and Hermeneutics; Brad Kallenberg; Fall 2024

REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography; Sandra Yocum; Spring 2024

REL 643: Theology Environment and Culture; Vince Miller; Spring 2024

REL 672: Ecclesiology; Joseph Flipper; Spring 2024

REL 601: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: The Tradition; Ethan Smith; Fall 2023

REL 653: Theology, Ethics and Gender; Jana Bennett; Fall 2023

REL 672: History of American Evangelicalism in Theology and Practice; William Trollinger; Fall 2023

REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies; Vince Miller; Spring 2023

REL 633: Mysticism; Sandra Yocum; Spring 2023

REL 671: Sacraments; William Johnston; Spring 2023

REL 602: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Contemporary; Vince Miller; Fall 2022

REL 653: Gender, Power and the Black Catholic World; Shannen Dee Williams; Fall 2022

REL 675: Philosophy for Theology; Brad Kallenberg; Fall 2022

REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography; Sandra Yocum; Spring 2022

REL 633: Major Documents of Vatican II; Vince Miller; Spring 2022

REL 672: Race, Ethnicity and Theology; Joseph Flipper; Spring 2022

REL 601: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: The Tradition; John Inglis; Fall 2021

REL 643: Theological Anthropology; Elizabeth Groppe; Fall 2021

REL 672: History of American Evangelicalism in Theology and Practice; William Trollinger; Fall 2021

REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies; Vince Miller; Spring 2021

REL 633: Black Catholics: Early Church-U.S. Civil Rights Movement; Cecilia Moore; Spring 2021

REL 676: Ancient Scriptural Hermeneutics; Silviu Bunta; Spring 2021

REL 602: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Contemporary; William Portier; Fall 2020

REL 672: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism; Dennis Doyle; Fall 2020

REL 675: Ethics and Hermeneutics; Brad Kallenberg; Fall 2020

Collection of Recent Dissertation Titles

Student Name: Dissertation Title, Year Completed

Louis T. Albarran: The Face of God at the End of the Road: Mexican Catholic Devotionalism and the Sacramentality of Jack Kerouac, 2013

Gary Bruce Agee: A Cry for Justice: Daniel A. Rudd's Ecclesiologically-Centered Vision of Justice in the American Catholic Tribune, 2008

Wesley J. Arblaster: A Semblance of Things Unseen: Damaged Experience and Aesthetic Recovery in Theodor Adorno and Hans Urs Von Balthasar, 2017

Matthew D. Archer: Proclaiming Christ: Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth on Chalcedon, 2015

John Birch: Providence and Space-Time: Rethinking God's Relation to the World Through the Eyes of John Polkinghornel, 2020

Andrew D. Black: Crisis of Concreteness: John W. Nevin, the Mercersburg Theology, and the Church Question, 2013

Joshua R. Brown: Incorporating Xiao 孝: Exploring Christ's Filial Obedience Through Hans Urs Von Balthasar and Early Confucian Philosophy, 2016

Mary Jude Brown: Souls in the Balance: The "Heresy Affair" at the University of Dayton, 1960-67, 2003

Isabel Caridad Fernandez: For the Welfare of the City: Disciples & Citizens, A Case Study in Congregation-Based Community Organization, 2007

Damian M. Costello: Honor and Caritas: Bortolome de las Casas, Soldiers of Fortune and the Conquest of the Americas, 2013

Michael D. Cox: Grammar and Glory: Eastern Orthodoxy, the 'Resolute' Wittgenstein, and the Theology of Rowan Williams, 2015

Coleman Fannin: From Churches in Cultural Captivity to the Church Incarnate in a Culture: Ecclesial Mediation after the Dissolution of the Southern Baptist Subculture, 2014

Timothy J. Furry: From Past to Present and Beyond: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis, and Historical Theology, 2011

Timothy R. Gabrielli: Solidarity and Mediation in the French Social-Liturgical Stream of Mystical Body Theology, 2014

Susanna L. Cantu Gregory: Associates of Iowa Cistercians and Presentation Associate Partners 1987-2012: An Ecclesiological Investigation, 2014

Derek Christopher Hatch: E.Y. Mullins, George W. Truett, and a Baptist Theology of Nature and Grace, 2011

Benjamin E. Heidgerken: The Christ and the Tempter: Christ's Temptation by the Devil in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Thomas Aquinas,  2015

Jason A. Hentschel: Evangelicals, Inerrancy, and the Quest for Certainty: Making Sense of Our Battles for the Bible, 2015

Jason A. Heron:  The Analogia Communitatis: Leo XIII and the Modern Quest for Fraternity, 2016

Joseph Harry Jacobs: The Last Modernist? The Spiritual Vision of Maude Dominica Petre, 2003

Aaron James: Analogous Uses of Language, Eucharistic Identity, and the Baptist Vision, 2010

Satish Anthony Joseph: Globalization and Militant Hindu Nationalism: The New Context for Theology in India, 2009

Michael F. Lombardo: Founding Father: John J. Wynn, S.J., and the Inculturation of American Catholicism in the Progressive Era, 2014

Jonathan Anthony Malone: Changed, Set Apart, and Equal: A Study of Ordination in the Baptist Context, 2011

Daniel E. Martin: Institutional Innovator: Sargent Shriver's Life as an Enagaged Catholic and as an Active Liberal, 2016

Scott C. McDaniel: Of Mountain Flesh: Space, Religion, and the Creatureliness of Appalachia, 2018

Emily H. McGowin, As for Me and My House: The Theology of the Family in the American Quiverfull Movement, 2015

Justin J. Menno, Sociology and Sanctity: Paul Hanly Furfey, Franz Mueller, and Luigi Sturzo on "Supernatural Sociology," A Transatlantic Debate, 1928-1946, 2017

Vernon Joseph Meyer: This Far By Faith - The History of Black Catholics in Phoenix, Arizona, 1868-2003, 2004

Herbert D. Miller: Enacting Theology, Americanism, and Friendship: The 1837 Debate on Roman Catholicism Between Alexander Campbell and Bishop John Purcell, 2015

Jeffrey Lawrence Morrow: Evangelical Catholics and Catholic Biblical Scholarship: An Examination of Scott Hahn's Canonical, Liturgical, and Covenantal Biblical Exegesis, 2007

Jens Mueller: "Where Two or Three are Gathered": The Use of Religious Symbols in Twentieth-Century Catholic Social Movements, 2021

Benjamin Tyler Peters: John Hugo and an American Catholic Theology of Nature and Grace, 2011

Brian R. Peterson: Ancient Voices: The Church Fathers in Ecumenical Conversation, 2012

Biff D. Rocha: "De Concilio's Catechism," Catechists, and the History of the Baltimore Catechism, 2013

Nancy G. Romer: The Woman with the Hemorrhage: Opening the Wounds of Women to God's Healing Grace, 2022

Michael A. Romero: Mary Among the Missionaries: Articulation and Reception of the Immaculate Conception in Sixteenth Century Franciscan Evangelization of Indigenous Peoples in Central Mexico and Seventeenth Century Church Homiletics, 2022

Anthony J. Rosselli, History, Context, Politics, Doctrine: Toward an Epistemology for Doctrinal Development, 2022

Susan K. Sack: Teilhard in America: The 1960s, the Counterculture and Vatican II, 2014

Mac Sandlin: Help Us to be Good: A Pneumatological Virtue Ethic for Churches of Christ, 2021

Katherine G. Schmidt: Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic Imagination, 2016

Phyllis Howser Scholp, The Personal is the Theological: Rosemary Radford Ruether's Practical Theology as Social Critique, 2017

Matthew Allen Shadle: A New Catholic Approach to Understanding the Origins of War, 2007

Adam Sheridan: This Place of Exile: The Lockean Problem and Theology of Labor in Rerum Novarum, 2022

Ethan D. Smith: The Praise of Glory: Apophatic Theology as Transformational Mysticism, 2017

Benjamin Williamson: The Jesus People Movement in the Midwest and Attempts to Escape Fundamentalism, 2020

Justin Yankech: Subsidiarity in America: The Legacy of Bernard James Sheil, 2020

PhD in Theology - Where Are They Now?

Endowed Chairs

Dara Delgado: Bishop James Mills Thorburn Chair of Religious Studies, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, and Black Studies, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.

Derek Hatch: Associate Professor of Religion and Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies, Georgetown College, Ky.

Timothy Gabrielli: Gudorf Chair in Catholic Intellectual Traditions, University of Dayton

Jason Heron: S. Wilma Lyle Endowed Chair and Assistant Professor Theology, Mount Marty College, Yankton, S.D.

Professors

Aaron James: Professor of Philosophy, Illinois Central College, East Peoria, Ill.

Jeffrey Morrow: Professor of Undergraduate Theology, Seton Hall University, East Orange, N.J.

Benjamin Peters: Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Honors Program, The University of St. Joseph, West Hartford, Conn.

Associate Professors

Louis Albarran: Associate Professor and Chair, Holy Cross College, Notre Dame, Ind.

Josh Brown: Associate Professor of Theology, Mount St. Mary's University, Emmitsburg, Md.

Emily McGowin: Associate Professor of Theology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill.

Matthew Shadle: Associate Professor of Theology, Marymount University, Arlington, Independent Theologian, Va.

Katherine Schmidt: Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York

Ben Williamson: Associate Professor of Theology, Ohio Christian University, Circleville, Ohio 

Assistant Professors

John Birch: Assistant Professor, Indiana Wesleyan University; Ohio Christian University

Christine Dalessio: Teaching Assistant Professor of Theology at Marquette University,  Milwaukee 

Susanna Cantu Gregory: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Clarke University, Dubuque, Iowa

Sean S. Martin: Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies at Viterbo University, La Crosse, Wis.

Jens Mueller: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Notre Dame College, Md.

Alan Mostrom: Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, The Athenaeum of Ohio, Mount St, Mary's Seminary, Cincinnati

Robert Parks: Assistant Professor of Theology, Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, Ohio

Mac Sandlin: Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology, Harding University, Searcy, Ark.

Other Academic

William Coleman Fannin: Adjunct Instructor, Berry College, Mount Berry, Ga.

Damian Costello: Director of Postgraduate Studies, NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, Browning, Mont.

Laura Eloe: Administrative Coordinator for the Fr. Ferree Chair in Social Justice & Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Michael Cox: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Dayton

Ben Heidgerken: Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota; Adjunct Professor, The Saint Paul Seminary, School of Divinity, University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.

Elizabeth Huddleston: Head of Research and Publications, National Institute for Newman Studies, Pittsburgh

Michael Lombardo: Director of the Rome Campus, University of Mary, Bismarck, N.D.

Matthew Minix: Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology, Xavier University, Cincinnati

Maria Morrow: Theologian Mom Blogger; Adjunct Professor of Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University, East Orange, N.J.

Michael Romero: Director of the Pastoral Institute at the University of the Incarnate Word, Texas.

Ethan Smith: Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Adam Sheridan: Adjunct Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

Pastoral/Administrative/Education

Gary Agee: Seminary Recruiter & Church Relations Specialist, Anderson University, Anderson, Ind.

Wes Arblaster: Lead Pastor, Restoration Park Church, Medway, Ohio

Andrew Black: Executive Director, Lake Nixon Outdoor Center, a ministry of Second Baptist Church Downtown Little Rock, Little Rock, Ark.

Mary Brown: Associate Dean (Retired), College of Arts and Sciences, University of Dayton

Timothy Dillon: Department Chair and Teacher, Religion Department, Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School, Dayton, Ohio

Isabel Caridad Fernandez: Director of Mission Effectiveness, San Pedro Center, Diocese of Orlando, Orlando, Fla.

Timothy Furry: Faculty, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Jason Hentschel: Senior Pastor, Wyoming Baptist Church, Cincinnati

Satish Joseph: Pastor, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish, Dayton, Ohio

Jonathan Malone: Pastor, First Baptist Church, East Greenwich, R.I.

Dan Martin: Instructor, Department of Theology, Saint Xavier High School, Louisville, Ky.

Justin Menno: Theology Faculty, Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Vernon Meyer: Pastor, Sun Lakes United Church of Christ, Sun Lakes, Ariz.

Herbert Miller: Senior Pastor & Head of Staff, Philadelphia Presbyterian Church, Mint Hill, N.C.

Brian Peterson: Faculty, Trinity School at Greenlawn, South Bend, Ind.

Biff Rocha: Regulatory & Artwork Manager at Advanced Testing Laboratory, Blue Ash, Ohio

Susan Sack: Spiritual Director, Lilac Woods Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Formation, Englewood, Ohio

Justin Yankech: Theology Faculty, Archbishop Alter High School, Kettering, Ohio