Faculty & Staff Directory

Melanie Barrett*, Ph.D., S.T.D.

Chairperson and Professor in the Department of Moral Theology

mbarrett@usml.edu

(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: “From New Age Syncretist to Catholic Moral Theologian” (2022), “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.