Ph.D. Degrees Awarded, Early Christian Studies

The Rev. William B. Palardy (May 1992): "The Church and the Synagogue in the Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus." Father Palardy served as Rector and President of the Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts from 2010-2016. He now serves as pastor of St. Agatha Parish in Milton, MA.

John J. O'Keefe (May 1993): "Interpreting the Angel: Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentators on the Book of Malachi." Formerly Professor of Historical Theology and Environmental Theology at Creighton University, Dr. O'Keefe is now Director of the Bruegemann Center for Dialogue at Xavier University. Among other works, he has published (with R.R. Reno), Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).

Jeffrey L. McDonald (May 1995): "The Christological Works of the Emperor Justinian." Dr. MacDonald teaches at the Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Theological Seminary, established in 1992 at Shen Vlash, near Durrës, Albania.

The Revd Panayiotis E. Papageorgiou (May 1995): "A Theological Analysis of Selected Themes in the Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans." Dr Papageorgiou is protopresbyter, Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, Marietta, GA.

The Revd Joseph Torchia, O.P. (May 1995): "The Theological Significance of the Doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo in St. Augustine's Anti-Manichean Polemic." Dr Torchia is Professor of Philosophy at Providence College, Providence, RI (with a joint appointment in the Department of Theology) and Associate Editor of The Thomist. Among his publications are the books Plotinus, Tolma, and Descent of Being: An Exposition and Analysis (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 1993); Creatio ex nihilo and the Theology of St Augustine: the Anti-Manichaean Polemic and Beyond (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 1999); Exploring Personhood: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008); Restless Mind: Curiositas and the Scope of Inquiry in St. Augustine's Psychology (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2013); Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought. The Beginning of All Things (Lanham/Boulder/New York/London: Lexington Books, 2019); and Plotinus and Augustine on the Mid-Rank of Soul. Navigating Two Worlds (Lanham/Boulder/New York/London: Lexington Books, 2023). 

Sr Gertrude Gillette, O.S.B. (May 1996): "The Glory of God in Augustine's Enarrationes in psalmos." Sister Gertrude served as Associate Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University in Naples, FL, and is now superior of the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Peace in Mount Holly, NC.

The Very Revd Michael A. Mascari, O.P. (May 1996): "Zeno, Gaudentius, and Chromatius: the Dynamics of Preaching in Northern Italy." Father Mascari is Vice President and Academic Dean, Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, MO. He previously served as Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of Albert the Great (with its headquarters in Chicago, IL) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Providence College, Providence, RI. 

Carole Cole Burnett (May 1996): "God's Self-Revelation in the Theology of Pelagius." Dr Burnett is Staff Editor of the series "Fathers of the Church," published by the Catholic University of America Press, and teaches history in the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St Mary's Seminary and University, Baltimore, MD. She is the author of Zionism through Christian Lenses: Ecumenical Perspectives on the Promised Land (2013).

Stanley P. Rosenberg (May 1999): "Christianizing the Cosmos: Intellectual and Popular Cosmology in Saint Augustine." Dr Rosenberg is a member of the Theology Faculty at Oxford University and Director of the Centre for Scholarship and Christianity, also in Oxford.

Cornelia Horn (May 2001): "Beyond Theology: the Career of Peter the Iberian in the Christological Controversies of Fifth-Century Palestine." Dr. Horn is Professor of Eastern Christianity at the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg. She is author of Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-Century Palestine: the Career of Peter the Iberian (Oxford and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Demetrios S. Katos (May 2001): "Palladius of Helenopolis: Origenist Monk and Writer of the Fifth Century." Dr Katos is President of Hellenic College Holy Cross in Brookline, MA. His book Palladius of Helenopolis, The Origenist Advocate was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.

Robert E. Winn (January 2002): "The Theology of Eusebius of Emesa." Dr Winn is Professor of History at Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa. He is author of Eusebius of Emesa: Church and Theology in the Mid-Fourth Century (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2011). He is currently turning his attention to early medieval historiography, and to Bede in particular; and he hopes to produce a volume of Eusebius of Emesa's sermons translated into English.

William E. Fahey (May 2002): "Maximus of Turin and his Late Antique Community." Dr. Fahey is President of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH.

Mihai Vlad Niculescu (January 2004): "Origen's Mystagogical Paideia." Dr Niculescu is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Bradley University in Peoria, IL. He is author of The Spell of the Logos: Origen's Pedagogy in the Contemporary Debate Regarding Logocentrism (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2009), and (in Romanian) of Theology and Retractation [Teologie si retractare]: A Phenomenological Approach to Patristic Literature (Iasi: Sapientia, 2003).

C. Clark Carlton (January 2003): "The Dogmatic and Ascetical Theology of St. Mark the Monk." Dr. Carlton is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology and Political Science at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN.

Lois Farag (May 2003): "St. Cyril of Alexandria, a New Exegete: his Exegetical Method and Theology as Presented in his Commentary on the Gospel of John." Dr Farag is Professor of Early Church History at the Luther Seminary in St Paul, MN. She is author of St Cyril of Alexandria, a New Testament Exegete: His Commentary on the Gospel of John (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007); Balance of the Heart: Desert Spirituality for Twenty-First Century Christians (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012); and The Coptic Christian Heritage: History, Faith and Culture (London: Routledge, 2013).

Joel Kalvesmaki (May 2006): "Formation of the Early Christian Theology of Arithmetic: Number Symbolism in Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Platonic Gnosis." Dr Kalvesmaki is XML Specialist, U.S. Government Publishing Office. He is the author ofThe Theology of Arithmetic: Number Symbolism in Platonism and Early Christianity, (Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013), and the editor, with Robin Darling Young, of a collection of essays, Evagrius and His Legacy  (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2016). He was recently appointed editor of Christianity in Late Antiquity, the official book series of the North American Patristics Society, published by the Univ. of California Press.

Eric Phillips (May 2006): "Man and Salvation in Theodore of Mopsuestia." Dr. Phillips is pastor of Concoria Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anne Seville (October 2008): "Ascetics and Society in Nilus of Ancyra: Old Testament Imagery as a Model for Personal and Social Reform." Dr Seville teaches history in the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St Mary's Seminary and University, and is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology at Loyola College, both in Baltimore, MD.

Jonathan Loopstra (May 2009): "Patristic Selections in the 'Masoretic' Handbooks of the Qarqapt? Tradition." From 2008 to 2009, after a year teaching under the aegis of the International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient in Granada, Spain, Dr Loopstra taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary, Washington DC. From 2009 to 2011, he was Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Ancient Mesopotamia at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. He is now  Professor and Chair of History at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul, MN. His most recent books are Job. According to the Peshitta Version with English Translation (Gorgias Press, 2016) and An East Syrian Manuscript of the Syriac 'Masora' Dated to 899 CE. Introduction, List of Sample Texts, and Indices to Marginal Notes in British Library, Additional MS 12138. Vols. 1 and 2 (Gorgias Press, 2014-5).

Sidney R. Banks (May 2011). "Blazing Walls, Blazing Brothers: Monks and the Making of the Demon in the Pachomian Koinonia." Dr. Banks teaches Latin at Florence High School, Florence AL.

Carl W. Griffin (May 2011). "Cyrillona: A Critical Study and Commentary." Dr Griffin is Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religous Scholarship at Brigham Young University and director of its Christianity and the Bible Research Initiative. He recently published two books on the Syriac poet Cyrillona: Cyrillona: A Critical Study and Commentary (Gorgias Press, 2016) and The Works of Cyrillona (Gorgias Press, 2016). He is also co-editor, with Kristian S. Heal, of Syriac Manuscripts from the Vatican Library, 1 (Provo, UT: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana & Brigham Young University, 2005).

Jutta Raithel (Jan. 2011). "Beginning at the End: Literary Unity and the Relationship between Anthropology and Liturgy in the Protevangelium Jacobi (P. Bodm. 5)."

Mark Mourachian (May 2012). "Human Freedom in the Context of the Theological Anthropology of St. Ephrem the Syrian." Dr Mourachian is Assistant Professor of Greek and Latin and Chair of Humanities and Sciences at the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, PA.

Allen E. Barnes (May 2014). "Origen's Developing Understanding of the Exegete's Task and its 'canonical' Implications."

Ky R. Heinze (May 2015). "Sacrifice to Demons in Porphyry and Origen." Dr. Heinze teaches Classics at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, Barry's Bay, Ontario.

Dana Robinson (Jan. 2016). "Food and Lay Piety in Late Antiquity." Dr. Robinson is Assistant Professor of History and Theology and Associate Director of the Honors Program at George Fox University. She is the author of Food, Virtue, and the Shaping of Early Christianity (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Sean Argondizza-Moberg (May 2016). "The Apophthegmata Patrum and the Greek Philosophical Tradition." Dr. Argondizza-Moberg is Assistant Professor of Greek Patristics at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. 

Yuliya Minets (May 2017). "The Slow Fall of Babel: Conceptualization of Languages, Linguistic Diversity and History in Late Ancient Christianity." Dr. Minets is Associate Professor of Classics, Department of Modern Languages and Classics, University of Alabama. Her new book, The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity, was published by the Cambridge University Press in December 2021.

Sr. Maria del Fiat Miola, SSVM (May, 2018). "Spaces of Salvation in Sixth-Century Arles: The Women's Monastery as Household and Family." Sr. Fiat is currently working on behalf of her religious order in Fossanova, Italy.

Carl Vennerstrom (Jan. 2023). "Evagrius of Pontus and Scripture: Philosophical Interpretation in the Scholia Collections." Dr. Vennerstrom is Assistant Professor of Theology, The Augustine Institute.

If you know of additions or corrections that could be made to this page, either about yourself or about a colleague, please notify the Center.