Religious Studies
Ph.D. Success Stories
Attentive faculty, small class size and career-related experiences are just some of the reasons our graduate students excel. See what our students have been doing.
Recent Advanced Seminar Offerings for the Ph.D. in Theology:
Course Number: Course Title, Professor, Term
REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography: Sandra A. Yocum, Spring 2018
REL 643: Theology, Environment, and US Culture, Vincent J. Miller, Spring 2018
REL 672: Christianity in Relation to Judaism, Elizabeth T. Groppe and Dustin N. Atlas, Spring 2018
REL 601: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: The Tradition, John Inglis, Fall 2017
REL 623: Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Theology and His Influence, Christopher D. Denny (Visiting Distinguished Professor from St. John's University), Fall 2017
REL 675: Theology and Meta-Ethics, Brad Kallenberg, Fall 2017
REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography, Sandra A. Yocum, Spring 2016
REL 640: Environmental Theology - US Culture, Vincent J. Miller, Spring 2016
REL 672: 20th Century American Liturgical Movement, William H. Johnston, Spring 2016
REL 601: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: The Tradition, Dennis M. Doyle, Fall 2015
REL 623: Latinoa Theologies, Neomi D. DeAnda, Fall 2015
REL 653: Philosophical Theology, Brad Kallenberg, Fall 2015
REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies, Vincent J. Miller and Brad Kallenberg, Spring 2015
REL 620: Modernism, William L. Portier, Spring 2015
REL 620: Evangelicals in America, William V. Trollinger, Spring 2015
REL 602: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Contemporary, William L. Portier, Fall 2014
REL 640: Technology & Christian Anthropology, Vincent J. Miller, Fall 2014
REL 660: Sarah Coakley, Her Theology and Interlocutors, Jana M. Bennett, Fall 2014
REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography, Sandra A. Yocum, Spring 2014
REL 620: Biblical Inerrancy, Protestant Fundamentalism, and the US Religious Experience, William V. Trollinger, Spring 2014
REL 645: The Mystery of God - Trinity, Miguel H. Diaz, Spring 2014
REL 601: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: The Tradition, John A. Inglis, Fall 2013
REL 620: American Origins - Catholicism & Protestantism, Michael S. Carter, Fall 2013
REL 645: The City of God (Ecclesiology), Vincent J. Miller, Fall 2013
REL 660: Habits of Conflict and Reconciliation, Kelly S. Johnson, Fall 2013
REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies, Anthony B. Smith and John A. Inglis, Spring 2013
REL 640: Where is the Church? Ecclesiology, Globalization, and the New Spaces of Community, Vincent J. Miller, Spring 2013
REL 645: Newman Doctrinal Developments, Matthew J. Levering, Spring 2013
REL 602: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Contemporary, William L. Portier, Fall 2012
REL 620: Biblical Hermeneutics: Ancient & Modern, Silviu N. Bunta, Fall 2012
REL 645: Natural Law, Brad J. Kallenberg, Fall 2012
REL 603: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: Historiography, Sandra A. Yocum, Spring 2012
REL 620: Catholic Social Teaching: Theological Development 1800-1963, Vincent J. Miller, Spring 2012
REL 645: Philosophical Theology & Charity, Matthew W. Levering, Spring 2012
REL 645: The Mystical Body of Christ and Society, Vincent J. Miller, Fall 2011
REL 660: Theological Ethics & Gender, Jana M. Bennett, Fall 2011
REL 670: American Studies for Theology, Anthony B. Smith, Fall 2011
REL 604: Seminar in Theological Research Methods: American Catholic Studies, Anthony B. Smith, Spring 2011
REL 620: Americanism, William L. Portier, Spring 2011
REL 645: Sacraments in the Christian West, Matthew W. Levering, Spring 2011
REL 645: Technology & Christian Anthropology, Vincent J. Miller, Fall 2010
REL 660: Theology & Metaethics, Brad J. Kallenberg, Fall 2010
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