Rev. Thomas O'Meara, O.P.

Portman Professor 2008-09
Ph.D., University of Munich

Contact information

Office: Maher 283, Phone: (619) 260-7917, Fax: (619) 260-2260
E-mail: tomear1@sandiego.edu

Research specialties

Theology of church and ministry, German Catholic theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the theology of Thomas Aquinas

Teaching specialties

Theology of church and ministry, German Catholic theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the theology of Thomas Aquinas

Selected publications

God in the World: A Guide to Karl Rahner's Theology. Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier Books, 2007.

Erich Przywara, S.J.: His Theology and His World. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.

A Theologian’s Journey. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2002.

Theology of Ministry. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999.

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian. Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.

Biographical information

Thomas Franklin O’Meara, O.P., grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wisconsin, and is a priest of the Dominican Order (Central Province). He did his doctoral studies at the University of Munich with Heinrich Fries and Karl Rahner.

A past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, he taught at Aquinas Institute (Dubuque, Iowa; now St. Louis, MO) from 1966 to 1979. He has been visiting professor at Weston School of Theology (Cambridge, Mass.), the Seminary of St. Peter and Paul (Ibadan, Nigeria), Wartburg Theological Seminary (a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).

From 1981 to 2002, at the University of Notre Dame, he was the William K. Warren Professor of Theology.

He continues to teach at Notre Dame, Aquinas Institute, and the Catholic Theological Union (Chicago) part-time. Recently he has been a visiting professor at St. Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, Province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa (2005) and at the University of San Diego (2006).