Melanie Barrett, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Chairperson and Professor in the Department of Moral Theology
(847) 837-4523
B.A. (Political Science and International Studies), Northwestern University. M.A. (Divinity) and Ph.D. (Religious Ethics), University of Chicago Divinity School. S.T.L. (Dogmatic Theology), University of St. Mary of the Lake. S.T.D. (Moral Theology), University of Fribourg. Recent publications include: “David Novak and Jewish Natural Law: How a Theistic Believer Engages a Pluralistic and Secular Milieu” (2021), “Virtuous Obedience Amidst Competing Loyalties: Navigating the Ecclesial Landscape” (2021), “Catholic Voting: How Ecclesial Authority, Moral Principles, and Prudential Judgment Intersect” (2020), “Restoring our Christ-Centered Vision: The Seminary as Contemporary Bethsaida” (2020), “Pilate’s Question in a Post-Truth Context” (2019), “Ethics and the Need for God” (2018), “Continuity, Pope Francis, and Amoris Laetitia” (2018), and “Doctrine and Praxis in Pope Francis’s Approach to Evangelization” (2018). Author of Love’s Beauty at the Heart of the Christian Moral Life: The Ethics of Catholic Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Currently completing a second book on suffering and the moral life in the work of Thomas Aquinas. Member of Chicago Studies editorial board. Member of the Society of Christian Ethics, the Academy of Catholic Theology, and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Books
Science, Faith and Human Fertility
Science, Faith and Human Fertility: Third Conference on Ethical Fertility Health Management
Edited by Richard Fehring and Theresa Notare
Dr. Barrett contributed the chapter, “Co-Creating with the Creator: a Virtue Ethics Based Approach”
Marquette University Press, 2012, 421 pages
Love’s Beauty at the Heart of the Christian Moral Life
Love’s Beauty at the Heart of the Christian Moral Life develops the ethical theory implicit in the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, a prominent 20th century Swiss Catholic theologian, attempting to retrieve the concept of beauty for Christian theology and yielding important ethical insights, culminating in an aesthetic and dramatic theory of ethics: one in which the perception of the beauty of God’s love in Christ becomes a foundational experience for moral formation and ongoing ethical discernment.
Edwin Mellen Press, 2009, 317 pages
Papers & Presentations
- “Restoring our Christ-Centered Vision: The Seminary as Contemporary Bethsaida.”, Josephinum Journal of Theology 26, no. 1-2 (2019): 120-127, July 2020
- “Catholic Voting: How Ecclesial Authority, Moral Principles, and Prudential Judgment Intersect.”, Chicago Studies, Spring/Summer 2020
- “Pilate’s Question in a Post-Truth Context.”, Church Life Journal, April 18, 2019
- “Ethics and the Need for God.” Response to Christian Smith, “Just How Good without God Are Atheists Justified in Being?”, Chicago Studies 57:1, Summer 2018
- “Continuity, Pope Francis, and Amoris Laetitia.”, Article for Vatican Insider , Pubblicato il 29/05/2018
