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Department of

Theology and Religious Studies

Gerard Mannion

Professor, Theology and Religious Studies
Director, CCTC

Gerard Mannion is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and Director of the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture (CCTC). A professor of systematic theology and ethics, his academic career has taken in posts in Oxford, Leeds, Liverpool (UK), and Leuven (Belgium). He has held visiting research fellowships at Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University, New York City, the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento (Italy) and was selected to participate in the programme on ‘Teaching the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project’, at the Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College (August 2003). Gerard has held visiting professorships at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and the University of Chichester (UK). He is an Irish citizen, passionate about social justice, rugby union, travel and music.

Education

BA (Hons – MA Cantab.) King’s College, Cambridge University
Theology and Religious Studies

MA, MSt. DPhil. (Oxon.) New College, Oxford University
Theology and Religious Studies/Philosophy

PGCLTHE University of Leeds
(Post-graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education)

Scholarly and Creative Work

Gerard Mannion has published widely in the fields of ecclesiology and ethics, as well as in other aspects of systematic theology and philosophy, with recent books including Ecclesiology and Postmodernity: Questions for the Church in Our Time (2007), Catholic Social Justice: Theological and Practical Explorations (co-ed., 2007), The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church (2008, ed. with Lewis Mudge), Church and Religious Other (ed., 2008), The Vision of John Paul II: Assessing his Thought and Influence, (ed. 2008) and The Ratzinger Reader (2010 ed., with Lieven Boeve). He serves as chair of the Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network, co-chair of the Ecclesiological Investigations Program Unit of the American Academy of Religion and is editor of the Continuum Series, ‘Ecclesiological Investigations’. He has advised charities and NGOs on an ongoing basis and served on numerous committees, working parties and commissions, including the Social Justice Commission of the English and Welsh Bishops’ Conference, the Theological Advisory Reference Group of CAFOD, the Committee of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain and was a member of the Queen’s Foundation Working Party on Authority and Governance in the Roman Catholic Church for its duration between 1996 and 2001. He has organised and co-organised numerous conferences, symposia and colloquia and is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal, Ecclesiology (Brill).

Teaching Interests

Mannion has taught a wide range of courses over the years including in the areas of introductory theology and philosophy, ethics and moral theology, historical, philosophical and systematic theology; as well as a number of courses in philosophy, particularly the philosophy of religion and ethical and political philosophy. He has served as an external examiner at both graduate and undergraduate level to several universities in Ireland, the UK and Belgium and has been responsible for producing distance learning courses on topics such as ‘The Bible and Ethics’, ‘Death and Dying’ (Theological and Philosophical Anthropology) and Ecclesiology.

His scholarly interests lie especially in the fields of ethics and ecclesiology, with particular interest in the following areas: ecumenics - dialogue within and between churches, faiths and between faith communities and the wider ‘world’; comparative ethics and ecclesiology; social ethics (particularly pertaining to social justice, globalization, work, the morality of institutions and bioethical questions); the notion of ‘theologically-informed ethics’ (i.e. the nature of the contribution of the church to moral debates in secular society); the related area of ‘public theology’ and the parameters of a ‘public ecclesiology’; the moral philosophies of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and their era (including their impact, later influence and interaction with religious currents of thought); ethical theory; the possibility and nature of ethics in a postmodern age; ecclesial authority, governance, leadership and organisation; modern and contemporary systematic and philosophical theology.