THEOLOGY - Key Persons
Alaina's research interest centers on Christian-Buddhist comparative theology, particularly focusing on the dialogue that emerges when comparing Christian Mariology and understandings of Kannon in Japanese Buddhism. She is also interested in the intersection of motherhood and compassion as expressed in material culture and devotion. When she is not reading, Alaina enjoys playing the violin, reading Pride and Prejudice, and attempting to keep her houseplants alive.
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- Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins Director, the Reverend Joseph a. Fitzmyer, S.J. Institute on Sacred Scripture at Georgetown University Ph.D., Yale University, 1986
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- Ryan Family Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy, Georgetown University
Allyson's research explores the intersections of the yoga industry and Christian spiritual practices. Her broader interests include mysticism, comparative theology, pluralism, and lived religion. She is the managing director of Christians Practicing Yoga, a non-profit organization founded on interfaith and interreligious practices that honors the intersections of yoga philosophy and Christian theology. When not writing or reading, Allyson enjoys practicing aerial circus arts and striving to be the cool aunt.
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- Orick Visiting Professor, Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics, Yale University
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- Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies
Anthropology and sociology of religion, historical anthropology, World Christianities, Afro-Catholicism(s), Pentecostalism(s), African religions, African diasporas, mobility and migration, religion and mental health, visual and material studies, and life stories.
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- Office of University Counsel / Compliance & Ethics Senior Compliance Specialist / Protection of Minors Policy Manager / Adjunct Instructor
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- Associate Director of the Georgetown University Women 's Center / Adjunct Instructor
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- Chairman
- Department Chair
Interests: Hindu law and rituals, Magic in India, Religion and the body in India, Psychology of religion, Religion and pain, Religion and pleasure, Religious communities, Mysticism, Contemplation and work
Arunjana Das (she/ her/ hers) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Her dissertation project comprises a comparative theological study of Hindu and Christian political theologies around resistance, liberation, and peace. Originally from Assam, the land of tea in India, Arunjana has a B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India; an M.A. in International Affairs from American University; an M.A. in Theology and Religious Studies from Georgetown University; an M.A. in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University in Washington, D.C., and a Diplôme d'Université in International Nuclear Law from the University of Montpellier, France. Her research interests generally include: Hindu and Christian theologies, peace studies, global governance, and nuclear disarmament.
She is currently learning Sattriya Nritya, a 15 th -century Vaiṣṇava classical dance form from Assam. She loves going running and spending quality time with Captain Curie Das (her puppy), her family, and her friends. Her ardent wish is to have Hermione Granger's Time-turner.
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- Director of Graduate Studies
- Director of Graduate Studies / Associate Professor and Thomas P. McKenna, C'63 Family Term Endowed Chair in Buddhist Studies, D.Phil. 2007, University of Oxford
Interests: Tibetan religions, divine kingship, religious historiography and epic, Dunhuang studies, divination, medieval Tibetan law, and animals and religion.
Chris's background is in continental (B.A.) and analytic philosophy (M.A.). He minored in Religious Studies and both of his undergraduate and graduate theses were written on topics related to the philosophy of religion. He is currently pursuing a Diploma in Interreligious Studies at a pontificate university in Rome, Italy . He is interested in exploring the philosophical aspects of interreligious dialogue and the relationship between modern secularism and religious pluralism.
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- Associate Professor, Ph.D., Yale, 1999
Interests: Christian ethics, Catholic moral theology, comparative ethics, animal rights, Hans Urs von Balthasar
Danielle's primary research interests have included African Inspired Churches and Hoodoo, the African Traditional Religions, African Diasporan Religions, and African approaches to understanding disability. She is currently the assistant director of Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality in St. Paul, where she organizes programs focused on community, spirituality, and education. Danielle also enjoys watching hockey, baking, and spending time with her two cats and her chihuahua, Allie.
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- Senior Fellow
- Distinguished Research Professor
Interests: Catholic social thought; religious ethics, the common good, and human rights; religious and ethical responses to humanitarian crises and refugees; religion and political life.
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- Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair in Jewish Studies, University of Toronto
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- Emeritus Faculty / Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Dohee Kang B.A., Liberal Arts, St. John's College NM M.A., Eastern Classics, St. John's College NM M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University Dohee is interested in the influence of Buddhism on Korean writers, especially contemporary poets. She works with Korean, Japanese, and classical Chinese sources, and her broader interests include the intersection between religion/spirituality and literature, art, and film; indigenous/indigenized spiritual practices of Korea and its diaspora; and Buddhism as therapy. In her free time, Dohee enjoys the underground music scenes of DC and Seoul and is currently learning sound synthesis. Email: dk999@georgetown.edu
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- Senior Fellow
- Distinguished Professor of Ethics
- Professor
Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and an affiliate professor in the Department of Theology
Interests: Ethics in international affairs, peacemaking, issues of war and peace, global human development, environmental justice, Middle East affairs and ecumenical dialogue.
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- Professor, Ph.D., Baylor, 2006
Interests: Chinese philosophy and religion, comparative ethics, political philosophy, feminist philosophy, Ignatian spirituality
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- Professor, Ph.D. 1992, Ph.D. University of Chicago
Interests: Buddhism and science, Buddhism and aesthetics, Comparative Studies, Methods in the Study of Religion.
Interests: Modern Religious Thought, William James, Pragmatism, Travel and Pilgrimage, Post-modernism, the Religious Construction of the Self
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- Professor of History, Oregon State University
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- Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales, Sydney
George Chochos B.A., Bard College (2010) MPS, New York Theological Seminary (2011) M.Div., Yale Divinity School (2016) STM, Yale Divinity School (2018) George is a Ph.D. student and Healy Fellow in the Theological and Religious Studies program. His interests include theologies of liberation (in the Christian and Islamic traditions), theological epistemology, epistemic injustice, and theological critiques of mass incarceration. He speaks around the country on the intersections of theology, restorative justice, and prison and criminal legal system reform. When he is not studying, he enjoys binge watching tv series with his wife and playing the drums.
Halla studies narratives from the Qur'ān and Hebrew Bible with special attention to the Abrahamic figures and their role in shaping religious identities throughout history. She is interested in the interaction between scriptures and society as well as the manifestation of religious rhetoric in contemporary sociopolitical discourse. At Georgetown she has been working to establish a methodological framework for approaching religious texts and has developed deeper interests in literary criticism, postmodern theories and feminist theology. Halla is fluent in Arabic and French and is currently studying Biblical Hebrew. Other research interests include early Islamic history, the biography of the prophet Muhammad and the compilation of the Qur'ān. She also enjoys playing the electric guitar, rotating through coffee shops, and learning stop motion animation.
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- Shailer Mathews Professor Emeritus of New Testament, University of Chicago Divinity School
Hemal Trivedi A.S., Biology, County College of Morris (2015) B.A., Psychology, Rutgers University (2015) M.A., Religious Studies, Rutgers University (2017) M.A., Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin (2019) Hemal is interested in facilitating a dialogue between religion and the psychological sciences. His research involves analyzing psychological themes in Hindu philosophical texts (Sāṅkhya-Yoga) and modern psychological studies (Cognitive Neuroscience, Clinical/Counseling Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Learning & Memory, etc.). Specific topics include psychology and phenomenology of the Self, mysticism, meditative practices, psychedelics, meaning making, etc. In his free time, Hemal contributes to his online school: The Academy of Indian Philosophy, teaching topics in Yoga Philosophy, Sanskrit, Vedic Astrology (Jyotiṣa), and much more. Email: hpt7@georgetown.edu
Shelton's research focuses on philosophical theology as it relates to the spiritual life, and how the contemporary incarnation of comparative theology offers an opportunity to enrich our understanding of one another, our traditions, and ourselves. While he is interested broadly in both historical and contemporary encounters between Christianity and Islam, he is particularly engaged with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and Ibn al-‘Arabī. Shelton seeks to reimagine the works of Aquinas, through an encounter with Ibn al-‘Arabī's intellectual mysticism, in the same way Aquinas reimagined Christianity as a result of his encounter with Greco-Arab philosophy.
Shelton is from North Carolina, though during college basketball season his heart is at the University of Kentucky. When he is not studying he enjoys cooking, working out, and watching horror movies.
Javian Baker is a Ph.D. student at Georgetown University in the theological and religious studies program. His two traditions are Christianity and Islam, with a research interest in Africana Religious Thought. His interdisciplinary approach focuses on social critical theory, ethics, race, and political economy of religion. He holds a BA from Xavier University of Louisiana (in systematic theology) and an MTS from Vanderbilt University (in Black Religious Thought).
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- Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor, Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Jiyoung studies philosophy of religion, with particular attention to metaphysical and epistemological concerns in Christian and East Asian traditions (esp. Confucianism and Daoism) and the religious implications of classical American pragmatism. She is also interested in the contemporary pragmatist perspectives on theories and methods in religious/comparative studies. Her background is in philosophy, and she wrote her graduate thesis on Duns Scotus's position in the medieval realist-nominalist debate while studying at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea.
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- Emeritus Faculty / Senior Fellow, Science and Religion Woodstock Theological Center
- Thomas Healey Distinguished Professor of Theology, Georgetown University
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- Distinguished University Professor / Faculty Profile
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- Special Assistant to the Vice President for Mission & Ministry / Adjunct Instructor
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- Professor and Samuel Eig Professor of Jewish Studies
Interests: Jewish Studies, Sephardic history, Diaspora Studies, Mediterranean Studies
Jordan's research focuses on Muslim-Christian relations, theologies of religious pluralism, Islamic studies, interreligious dialogue, and Islamophobia. Her dissertation argues for an expanded Catholic pneumatology by examining Islamic texts on the Prophet Muhammad's character and virtue. Jordan is the author of two books, Finding Jesus among Muslims (Liturgical Press, 2017) and Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination (Orbis, 2021). Previously, Jordan worked as a research fellow at the Bridge Initiative and was a Fulbright scholar in Amman, Jordan. She lives outside Washington, DC with her husband and son.
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- Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs Professor, Ph.D. 1982, New School for Social Research
Interests: Sociology of Religion, Secularization and Secularism, Global Religious and Secular Dynamics, Religion and Globalization
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- Project Director for the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy / Adjunct Instructor
Julia A. Lamm is a historical theologian specializing in the thought of Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher (1768-1834); the theology of Julian of Norwich (1343-ca. 1416); the history of Christian thought; the doctrine of God; Christian understandings of grace; Christian mysticism; feminist theology.
Kathy Lin is a Ph.D. candidate with interests in East Asian Buddhism, environmentalism, theories and methods in the study of religion, and moral philosophy informed by ordinary language philosophy. She is working on an account of religious change as seen through Buddhist environmentalism, which situates Buddhist history and ideas within a naturalistic story of human life in language, along an animal continuum. More broadly, her research moves in two directions: putting political economy into an account of religion; and putting religion into natural history.
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- Nippon Foundation Endowed Chair & Professor of Japanese Studies Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
- Professor and Nippon Foundation Endowed Chair / Adjunct Instructor
Interests: Catholicism in Modern Japan, especially Tanaka Kotaro's Natural Law, The Theology of Yoshimitsu Yoshihiko, Fiction of Endo Shusaku and Sono Ayako;
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- Co - Director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life / Adjunct Instructor
Kirsty Jones was invited to be on the programming committee for the new Global Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, a conference she's been engaged with from the start of her doctoral program. This initiative will bring the benefits of a scholarly meeting to a far wider demographic, and coheres with Kirsty's passion for diversity, equity and inclusion within the academy. She is also part of the steering group for the Senses, Cultures and Biblical Worlds program unit.
Kirsty Jones graduated from the University of Cambridge (B.A., MPhil) in June 2016, specializing in Hebrew Bible, before spending time as a visiting scholar at the Concordia Centre for Sensory Studies in Montreal. She researches disability and the senses in scripture, and wrote her thesis on disability in prophetic utopias. She is passionate about the intersection between biblical studies and contemporary ministry, and is a research associate for the Kirby Laing Institute of Christian Ethics.
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- Professor and Matteo Ricci Chair
Interests: Christian responses to religious pluralism in the USA; interpretation of the Bible in interreligious relationships; Buddhist-Christian relations; Christian theologies response to Buddhism
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- Vice President for Mission and Ministry / Adjunct Instructor
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- Associate Professor, Ph.D., Brown, 2005
- Director of Admissions & Recruitment, Graduate Program
Interests: American pragmatism, philosophy of religion, modern religious thought, religious ethics
Mideum Hong B.A., Yonsei University Th.M., Yonsei University M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary Mideum's research focuses on the history of the encounter between Christianity and Asian religions, particularly Jesuit missions and their interaction with Buddhism and Hinduism in the early modern era. His study also examines early Korean Catholicism, Mariology, material culture & lived religion. Email: mh1987@georgetown.edu (new window)
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- University Professor, Georgetown University
Nathan Jowers is a Ph.D. student at Georgetown University in Theological and Religious Studies. His two traditions are Christianity and Islam, with a special focus on doctrines of divine simplicity and their influence on responses to human diversity. He is also interested in how theology is enriched by discourses and disciplines usually outside its scope. Born and raised near Johnson Space Center, Nathan enjoys regaling his wife and their guests with random information about thermodynamics and closed-cycle rocket engines.
Nathan's traditions of academic study include Islam and Christianity. He has a special interest in religion and American culture, the experiences of American Muslims, and the nexus between popular music and religion. His dissertation focuses on the vibrant relationship between jazz and Islam. His 2012 book, The Islamophobia Industry (Pluto Press), is now in its second edition and has been translated into several languages. He is also the author of the 2018 primer, Islam and the West: Critical Skills for Students (Rowman and Littlefield). He currently lives in North Carolina where he enjoys spending time with his family.
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- Teaching Professor at Center for Jewish Civilization / Adjunct Instructor
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- Emeritus Teaching Professor / Adjunct Instructor
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- Thelma Shobe Professor of Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions of Nursing Care, University of California, San Francisco
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- Professor, Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2000 Post - Doctorate, Society of Fellows, Princeton University, 2001 - 2004
Interests: Political theology, religious skepticism, epistemology, history of Sufism, comparative ethics (Islam and Christianity), theo-humanism, empire & religion, classical Arabic literature and adab, Islamic history.
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- Senior Fellow
- Distinguished Research Professor
Pedro Arrupe Distinguished Research Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Senior Fellow of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown
Interests: Catholic systematic theology (in particular Trinity, Christology, eschatology, liberation theology, and Karl Rahner); history of Christian missions, especially in Asia; religion and culture; interreligious dialogue; religious pluralism; and the impact of migration on Christianity.
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- Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Boston College, 2019
Interests: Systematic theology; ecumenical dialogue; biblical hermeneutics; ecclesiology
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- Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union, 2008 / Director of Intellectual Life, Graduate Program
- Director of Intellectual Life, Graduate Program
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- Special Assistant to the President of the University / Adjunct Instructor
Sherie Gayle is a student in the Department of Theology and Religious Sciences. Her research lies at the various intersections of religion, gender, race, ability, and power. She explores these identities in the context of late antiquity/early Medieval sacred texts within the Abrahamic religions.
Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, Sherie is an ordained minister within the Greater Baltimore Church. She also serves as a Residential Minister, spiritually accompanying undergraduate students at Georgetown University. When not engaged in research or accompaniment, Sherie can be found tending to her plants, writing poetry, and tinkering on her guitar.
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- Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke University
Dr. Stephanie Wong (PhD '18), has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Comparative Theology at Villanova University. Congratulations, Stephanie!
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- William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Yale University Law School
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- Hackett Family Professor in
Interests: Thomas Aquinas; the thought of Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, John Henry Newman; the problem of nature and grace; metaphysics and the philosophy of religion; theories of natural law ethics
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- Director of Undergraduate Studies
- Director of Undergraduate Studies / Associate Professor, Ph.D., Duke University, 2013
Interests: Hebrew Bible; masculinity and coming of age in the Bible; the problem of biblical violence; ancient historiography; social-scientific interpretation of the Bible; conceptions of death and the afterlife in the ancient Near East
Susie Hayward is a scholar practitioner working at the intersection of religion, violence, and peacebuilding with a focus on Asian contexts. Susie's research focuses on Buddhist and Christian theological responses to authoritarianism and violence in Myanmar/Burma. Her broader research focus includes interfaith engagement, feminist religious expression, and political Buddhism in Sri Lanka. She studied Buddhism in Nepal, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and serves on the selection committee for the Niwano Peace Prize.
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- Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology and Ethics, Drew University
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- Professor, Ph.D., Emory 1997
Interests: Hebrew Bible, Literary theory, and criticism, narrative and poetry, doughnuts.
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- Professor, Robert L. McDevitt, K.S.G., K.C.H.S. and Catherine H. McDevitt L.C.H.S. Chair in Catholic Theology, Georgetown University Ph.D., Yale University
Professor, Robert L. McDevitt, K.S.G., K.C.H.S. and Catherine H. McDevitt L.C.H.S. Chair in Catholic Theology, Georgetown University; Ph.D., Yale University
Interests: Catholic and Protestant theology and ethics, 19th century-present; Catholic social teaching and public theology; virtues and emotions in religious life; the ethics of war and peace