Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2024, Theology

Katherine Burton (1887-1969) is a forgotten, yet prolific US Catholic writer who wrote for average, middle-class, white women in the mid-twentieth century. From her conversion to Catholicism in 1930 to her death in 1969, Katherine wrote a monthly “Woman to Woman” column in The Sign for thirty-six years, over forty-four biographies and histories of Catholic men, women, and religious communities, and countless articles for other Catholic periodicals. Her books, as well as the Catholic periodicals in which her writing regularly appeared, had a large, nationwide readership. Katherine's words hold significance for religious scholars today seeking to further understand the faith lives of middle-class women in the pews during one of the most turbulent time periods in US history. Examining Katherine's writing provides scholars with a view into how Catholicism and Catholic womanhood were understood and presented by a laywoman to her mid-twentieth century laywomen audience. Katherine's writing is also a compelling example of how intricately an author's personal life is often entwined with their work and how studying the two side by side enriches the narratives they both tell.

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Dozens of academic studies over the course of the past four or five decades have shown empirically that Catholic schools, according to a wide array of standards and measures, are the best schools at producing good American citizens. This dissertation proposes that this is so is partly because the schools are infused with the Catholic ethos (also called the Catholic Imagination or the Analogical Imagination) and its approach to the world in general. A large part of this ethos is based upon Catholic Anthropology, the Church's teaching about the nature of the human person and his or her relationship to other people, to Society, to the State, and to God. The ideas that make up Catholic Anthropology are also deeply foundational to the set of ideas known collectively as Western Civilization and, through them, to the ideas that together I call the American Covenant. This study takes a foundational approach. While the empirical studies have measured the effects of Catholic schools in making good American citizens, I explore the reasons for this outcome. In doing so, I draw from many disciplines to examine the historical events, significant persons, and philosophical and theological arguments that together have created the American Catholic school. I conclude that if present trends in Catholic schooling continue, there is potentially a great loss to both American Catholicism and to the American republic.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines the journalistic and nonfiction work of radical Catholic activist and journalist Dorothy Day, and her ability to be both faithfully Catholic and fully radical in her writing and work. Day founded The Catholic Worker newspaper and its accompanying movement. Although Day did not self-identify as a feminist and criticized the second-wave feminist movement, Day's lifelong commitment to sharing the viewpoints of the marginalized, as well as her understanding of suffering, reflected beliefs that are in line with both feminist theoretical approaches and are reflective of Catholic teaching. As this thesis demonstrates, through her leveraging and adherence to traditions and teachings, Day was able to access male-dominated spaces, gain legitimacy within the patriarchal structures, and later share her more radical, yet faithful, beliefs with readers and the Church in order to create change from within in both the Church and the newspaper industry. Through a use of primary documents found in Day's personal papers, this thesis applies historical research methods to make the case for Day as an example of an authentically Catholic and simultaneous feminist life vis a vis the Catholic theory of personalism and the application of feminist standpoint theory.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2008, Theology

In his seminal work, The History of Black Catholics in the United States, Dom Cyprian Davis O.S.B. attempted to set a broader framework within which “future historical research” at the local level might occur. This dissertation is one such academic endeavor. Building on the historical work of both Davis and Joseph H. Lackner S.M., this dissertation examines the nature of the “cry for justice” as it was communicated in the American Catholic Tribune, a weekly, nineteenth century, black newspaper printed by Daniel A. Rudd, an influential African American Catholic publisher, educator and civil rights leader. During the years of this newspaper's publication, 1886-1897, Rudd promoted an ecclesiologically-centered vision of justice which presumed for the Catholic Church an essential role in the establishment of race justice in America. An examination of Rudd's life and work reveals that though Rudd agitated for full equality for African Americans throughout his life, three distinct approaches can be discerned which roughly correspond to three periods in his life. During the Springfield Period, 1881-1886, Rudd promoted a “Fredrick Douglass-like” political/judicial activist approach. During the Cincinnati/Detroit Period, 1887-1897, he championed an ecclesiologically-centered approach. Finally, throughout the Southern Period, from 1900 onward, the Catholic laymen advocated a “Booker T. Washington-like” economic, self-help approach for achieving full equality for blacks.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2014, Theology

The dissertation explores the life and work of John J. Wynne, S.J. (1859-1948). Widely recongized as an editor, educator and historian, Wynne was among the foremost Catholic intellectuals of the early twentieth century. In addition to serving as founding editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) and the Jesuit periodical America (1909), Wynne was vice-postulator for the canonization causes of the first American saints, the Jesuit Martyrs of North America, and for St. Kateri Tekakwitha. He was also a founding member of a number of important early twentieth century professional organizations, including the American Catholic Historical Association, the National Catholic Education Association, the American Federation of Catholic Societies, and the National Catholic Welfare Council's Bureau of Education. The dissertation explores Wynne's contribution to the American Catholic intellectual tradition. In particular, it explores the ways in which Wynne used the Catholic Encyclopedia and America to negotiate American Catholic identity during the Progressive Era. Using a lens of theological inculturation, the dissertation argues that Wynne presented an alternate version of social reform rooted in a distinctly neo-Scholastic vision of society, a vision that enabled him to champion Catholic participation in American culture, critique the culture for its weaknesses, and successfully avoid the theological controversies of Americanism and Modernism. The dissertation concludes that Wynne's legacy, which was animated by intellectual concerns characteristic of the Society of Jesus, was part of a much broader flowering of early twentieth century American Catholic intellectual thought that made him a key forerunner to the mid-century Catholic Revival.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2011, Theology

This dissertation examines the theological work of John Hugo by looking at its roots within the history of Ignatian spirituality, as well as within various nature-grace debates in Christian history. It also attempts to situate Hugo within the historical context of early twentieth-century Catholicism and America, particularly the period surrounding the Second World War. John Hugo (1911-1985) was a priest from Pittsburgh who is perhaps best known as Dorothy Day's spiritual director and leader of “the retreat” she memorialized in The Long Loneliness. Throughout much of American Catholic scholarship, Hugo's theology has been depicted as rigorist and even labeled as Jansenist, yet it was embraced by and had a great influence upon Day and many others. Hugo was also significant beyond his association with Day and the Catholic Worker, in that he represented a unique theological impulse within American Catholicism. This inquiry reveals that not only is the Jansenist caricature of Hugo's theology false, but also that that caricature itself is rooted in the particular theological perspective of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century neo-Thomism. Hugo offered a critique of this once dominant theological perspective, and indeed his theology shared many similarities with the work done by Henri de Lubac, S.J. during the same period. This project ultimately intends to show that Hugo's theology of nature and grace remains relevant to contemporary American Catholic discourse, as it provides a corrective and an alternative to the somewhat intransigent debates between thinkers who tend toward a “Thomistic” stance and those who take a more “Augustinian” approach.

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Education and Human Services

The purpose of this historical case study was to explore, through the lens of knowledge transfer, answers to the following two questions: how did the Sister-educators from one community in Northeast Ohio prepare themselves for leadership, and when it became clear that the future of their urban school depended on transitioning to lay leadership, how did Sister-principals prepare their religious communities and their school communities for that change. This qualitative study focuses on six members of one active, engaged, service-based community which has supported schools Northeast Ohio for over a century. The research revealed that a successful Sister-to-laity leadership transition will have its foundation in charismatic love, encourage faith-filled mentoring of faculty and students, honor the mission of the founding community, and support an overarching leadership culture of magnanimity to all stakeholders. This model can be employed in other educational and nonprofit settings where non-hierarchical servant leadership would be an effective approach.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

Faculty are critical players to advance institutional mission in higher education (Clark, 1972). Hiring faculty who have an affinity for mission and who understand and support Catholicism in the spirit of an institution's founding charism can be a significant challenge for academic leaders and for the longevity of institutional mission in Catholic higher education (Heft, 2021). Faculty across disciplines may find it challenging to grasp or apply the mission of their Catholic university because mission-related criteria are not always understood or prioritized in faculty hiring processes (Breslin, 2000; Briele, 2012; Heft, 2021; Steele, 2008). Currently, there is no standard mission focused guide for faculty hiring at the University of Dayton (UD), a Catholic Marianist University. Given that hiring priorities and practical knowledge of Catholic Marianist principles of education differ among faculty across the university, hiring for mission criteria may not be well defined among search committees. This practical action research study used qualitative methods to explore how affinity for the University of Dayton's Catholic Marianist mission is assessed in faculty searches. Results showed that search committee members consider mission principles at least moderately important, but these have not been consistently identified in candidate assessment criteria. Still, participants discussed six mission-based criteria with twenty component elements that have been operative in some way in recent faculty searches. This knowledge, coupled with the principles of Marianist education, informed Hiring Faculty to Engage Catholic Marianist Mission, a practical intervention plan to strengthen hiring for mission practices through articulating the purpose of hiring for mission; developing criteria and assessment rubrics; standardizing the hiring for mission search process; and fostering faculty stakeholder participation. Anticipated results of the action plan and challenges in project lead (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Bioethics

This paper examines the impact consumerist healthcare is having on Catholic Health Ministries, particularly in the language that is adopted and integrated by its leadership into their organizational culture. It shows that while the broader consumerist culture has shaped healthcare in the United States, such an influence is notable in Catholic healthcare, which comprises a significant portion of the healthcare sector in the United States. It shows that while Catholic hospitals and systems proclaim themselves to be ministries rooted in the theological tradition and spirituality of the Catholic Church, they utilize language and have practices that are informed by consumer culture, which runs counter to said theological tradition. Thus, by adopting consumerist language and practices, Catholic health ministries risk losing their capacity to remain genuinely Catholic. By exploring this risk, this paper will offer a caution to Catholic health ministries and proposes that formation, as a deliberate exposure of leaders and team members within Catholic healthcare to Catholic theology, is a means by which Catholic healthcare ministries can cultivate a culture, rooted in the spirituality of their founding orders, that will preserve their missional identity as the healthcare sector becomes increasingly consumeristic.

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

American Catholics were once a voting block which favored the Democratic party. However, Catholics now vote nearly the same as the general population, a contradiction when compared to other Christian denominations in the United States. This essay works to explore the political, historical, and theological elements of this division which caused the Church to fracture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Philosophically, the core political ideals of the Catholic Church and the modern United States stand in stark contrast with one another. Presently, the foundational political theory of the United States as formulated by John Locke has become warped into a sort of hyper-individualism. This hyper-individualism emphasizes a personalization of moral truths, and thus stands against the natural law theory of the Church developed from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. This hyper-individualism would eventually seep into the American Catholic Church, and events throughout the twentieth century would work to further this permeation. Historical events such as the Americanism controversy, the Second Vatican Council, the election of John F. Kennedy, the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae, and the political actions before and after Roe v. Wade, would work to further divide the Church. Finally, the essay concludes with an examination of various topics prevalent in American political discourse and determines how a Catholic could respond to those issues while remaining faithful to the teachings of the Church. This examination includes consideration of teachings from the Magisterium and determines the level of authority each teaching has by utilizing the concluding paragraphs of the Profession of Faith. The conclusions of this examination show that many politicians who claim to be Catholic take up positions contrary to the faith and risk placing themselves outside of full communion with the Catholic Church. Finally, this essay raises the question as to whether American Cathol (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, Educational Leadership

This study examines the professional experiences of three teachers in a national network of urban, low-income serving, Catholic high schools. These teacher-participants were chosen to participate in this study because they engaged in experiential, community-based pedagogy within this national network and exemplified a commitment to social justice through their teaching practice. As detailed in Chapter One, such teaching practice resembles critical pedagogy and aligns with best practice in quality civic education. Therefore, by examining the experiences of critical educators, this study aimed to illuminate ways we can enhance civic learning for K-12 students by enhancing support for and removing the barriers to critical educators' distinct pedagogical practice. This is particularly important for Students of Color, who have faced historical exclusion from formal and informal modes of civic learning (Campbell, 2012; Lo, 2019). Critical theory (Freire, 1970/1993; Giroux, 2003; Horkheimer, 1972[1992]) and social reproduction theory (Bourdieu, 2016; Bowles & Gintis, 2016) were used to frame this study, which employed qualitative portraiture methodology (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) to answer two key research questions. The first question— Why do teachers in this Network engage in experiential, community-based pedagogy? —drew attention to the internal and external factors impacting my participants' practice. This set up inquiry into the second key research question: How do these educators exhibit civic and/or critical consciousness about and through their work? Findings from this study revealed that both internal and external factors contributed to the choice teacher-participants made to engage in experiential, community-based pedagogy. Professional ecology, consisting of local school and corporate cultures, were particularly influential on these teachers. That ecology functioned in distinct ways at each study site to both aid and obstruct the critical teaching (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2021, Theology

The principle of subsidiarity is a signature concept in Catholic social doctrine and papal teaching. Yet, an incomplete understanding of the full principle and papal refrain from prescribing policies or concrete examples of the principle has created difficulties in developing subsidiarity within specific social and cultural situations. This project uses theological and historical methods to investigate the social work and thought of Bishop Bernard James Sheil, his collaboration with Saul Alinsky, and the results of their collaboration in the institutionalization of Alinsky-style community organizing in the American Catholic Church in the form of the Campaign for Human Development, to determine how Catholic subsidiarity is influenced by an adaptation to American democratic culture and the demands that Catholic subsidiarity makes on American liberal democratic social imagination. This study shows that Bishop Sheil's collaboration with Saul Alinsky represents a full embodiment of the structural pluralism, structural-pluralistic subsidiarity and associational subsidiarity that make up the principle of subsidiarity while also attending to American democratic culture's focus on the liberal individual. In short, Bishop Sheil's legacy, in the form of the institutionalization of his collaboration with Saul Alinsky in the CCHD, is representative of a distinctly American and wholly Catholic form of subsidiarity.

Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2016, Theology

The theological paradigm of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) posits two distinct roles for women. In the Roman Catholic Church in the High and Late Middle Ages, women were offered two roles that correspond to Luke's story. Mary, according to Jesus, having chosen the “better” path, is the woman who exemplified discipleship through the consecrated life, while Martha is the medieval housewife. In the medieval church, the role of “Mary,” which was a life of virginal devotion to God, was presented to women as the better path, but women were often forced by family and church into the role of “Martha,” a life of chaste devotion to God through marriage and family life. Augustine's influential theology ascribed greater value to the contemplative life, while Meister Eckhart gives greater value to the active life in his sermon on Mary and Martha. Which is the better path? Or is this a false choice? While this is a question that is relevant in any age, this thesis will demonstrate how the story of Mary and Martha as presented by both Augustine and Eckhart is a false dichotomy using examples from Eckhart's time to show that women both in the consecrated life and the married life exemplify aspects of both contemplative and active lives. This paper will give a brief overview of Augustine's exegesis as well as Meister Eckhart's contrasting sermons on Luke 10. Next, I will discuss the role of women in marriage and family life and some of the struggles and decisions they went through which may have been a cause for their conversion from a “Martha” life of domesticity to a “Mary” role enabling them to take on the devotion of Jesus, which would eventually lead some women to sainthood. Then, I will discuss women's role in religious life and how they moved from a “Mary” to a “Martha” role to effect change within the church in spite of great adversity from their male counterparts. Lastly, I will conclude that the paradigm of Mary and Martha in the Middle Ages is relevant to post-modern (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2019, Theology

Placing the theological anthropology set forth in the foundational addresses of John Paul II's Theology of the Body alongside feminist theological perspectives, this dissertation proposes a more adequate anthropology, proper to the human person as female and male. My objectives include engaging feminist criticism and related theological frameworks, such as feminist, Trinitarian, and embodiment theologies in order to advance a theological anthropology that assimilates a fuller human perspective. Based on a critical essentialist method, this dissertation accepts difference between sexes as an anthropological criterion by which to assess integrated female and male relationships to one another and to God, but does so in a way that defines terms, refines conclusions, and proposes lacunas in the discourse. The significance of this dissertation is twofold. First, it distinguishes the early discourses of the Theology of the Body as foundational to the entirety of John Paul II's audiences in contrast to a pervasive disregard for close attention to early texts in favor of later discourses on sexual ethics. Second, it advances both unique perspectives of the Theology of the Body and feminism towards a more adequate anthropology that thrives in mutuality and reciprocity, in which neither female nor male is diminished. Third, this dissertation contributes to a conversation about the bodily-person, including embodied difference, in which difference is encountered as a necessary principle for unity, particularly in the acts of self-gift and relationship. My conclusions incorporate John Paul II's claim that the body reveals the person with a feminist concern that marginalized persons, especially women, are created as imago Dei in the same measure as every other person. By considering topics of language and meaning, theology and embodiment, anthropology and feminism, and relationships and complementarity, this dissertation concludes that the Theology of the Body discourse (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2019, Honors

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the meaning of Theology of the Body (TOB) and seeks to find ways to incorporate its themes within ministry. There are three parts to this thesis: St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body, Pope Francis's principles of evangelization, and phenomenology. Both the themes of TOB and the principles of evangelization were analyzed separately then phenomenologically analyzed together to find new implications for ministry and ways to incorporate these teachings into ministerial work. The first part of this research is Theology of the Body. This theological anthropology looks at the meaning of humanity and how man and woman are called to live in relationship with each other. For the purposes of this research four main themes that summarize the main themes of Theology of the Body were selected: the human vocation is to be a total gift of self, authentic love is found in a communion of persons, the human body is a sacrament, and the human body has an inherently spousal dimension. The second part of this thesis looks at the political theology of Pope Francis. This is exhibited in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii gaudium. In this papal document, he lists four principles of evangelization that are important for ministry and encountering society. These principles are time is greater than space, unity prevails over conflict, realities are more important than ideas, and the whole is greater than the part. Just like the themes of Theology of the Body, these principles were analyzed to establish a greater understanding of their meaning. The third part of this thesis is phenomenology. Phenomenology is a philosophical methodology that seeks to describe an object and its potentiality. It does so by using a phenomenological reduction that brackets presuppositions or biases towards the phenomena. The object that is analyzed is then described. In this research, the themes of TOB and principles of evangelization were paired up and phe (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

“Coexistent Ethos: The Rhetorical Practices and Situated Business Writing of American Catholic Laywomen” examines the business writing produced by three lay Catholic women's organizations in Columbus, OH during the late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth centuries: The Catholic Ladies of Columbia (CLC) – a fraternal benefits society incorporated in Ohio in 1897; The Catholic Women's League of Columbus (CWL) – a diocesan-level women's group organized in January 1919 as a descendant of the Catholic Women's War Relief Council; and The Immaculate Conception Women's Club (ICWC) – a parish-level women's group founded in 1945. Despite differences in their organizational structures, mission statements and organizational goals, these groups shared an overarching similarity: the use of business writing to construct, cultivate, and preserve a business ethos that was simultaneously highly professional and deeply Catholic. This coexistent ethos allowed these women to navigate diverse business spheres, domains, and discourses while also carrying out their outreach work that was fundamental to their identity as Catholic laywomen. Drawing on feminist theorizations of ethos from scholars such as Nedra Reynolds, Julie Nelson Christoph, Risa Applegarth, Carolyn Skinner and the contributors to the 2015 edited collection Rethinking Ethos: A Feminist Ecological Approach to Rhetoric (Ed. Ryan, Meyers, Jones), I examine the ways that these women deploy a coexistent ethos in their diverse business writing that is, at every turn, fundamentally grounded in business principles and conventions and Catholic fidelity and charity. To illustrate the dexterity with which the Catholic Ladies of Columbia (founded 1897), the Catholic Women's League of Columbus (founded 1919), and the Immaculate Conception Women's Club (founded 1945) deploy coexistent ethos through their business writing, I provide in-depth framing that situates these women and their work within their contemporary eras. This contextual fr (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), University of Dayton, 2017, International Marian Research Institute

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Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Theology

This dissertation examines the social magisterium of Pope Leo XIII as it is developed in the aftermath of the French Revolution and during the nationalizing process of the liberal Italian state. The thesis of the dissertation is that Leo XIII provides Catholic social teaching with a proper vision of human relationship as a mode of analogical participation in the Lord's goodness. In his own historical context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations is developed in tension with the nation-state's proposal of political citizenship as the social relation that relativizes every other relation – most especially one's ecclesial relation. In our own context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations stands in tension with the late-modern proposal of consumerism as the social reality that relativizes every other relation – including one's matrimonial, familial, social, and ecclesial relations.

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 1998, International Marian Research Institute

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Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2004, Department of Educational Administration, Research, and Foundations

The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of statistically significant differences in the perceptions of the correlates of academic achievement held by professional educators in selected union and nonunion Catholic secondary schools in Pennsylvania. The study also sought to determine the presence of statistically significant differences in the perceptions of the correlates of academic achievement held by professional educators in selected union and nonunion Catholic secondary schools within selected demographic, experiential, educational, and institutional variables. These variables consisted of gender, age, years of teaching experience, educational level, school enrollment, average class size, diocesan location, and present position. Perceptions of the correlates of academic achievement were obtained through responses to a 25-item survey instrument developed by the researcher. In addition, participants were asked to respond to 15 demographic, experiential, educational, and institutional background statements. The instrument was mailed to 449 administrators, language arts teachers, and mathematics teachers in 49 selected Catholic high schools located in seven Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses. Chi square tests of independence were used to analyze the data. Results of the study indicated statistically significant differences in the perceptions of respondents from union and nonunion Catholic secondary schools for specific correlates of academic achievement. The study also found similarities in the perceptions of union and nonunion respondents for certain correlates.