Faculty

Margaret Harper McCarthy

Associate Professor of Theological Anthropology
Margaret Harper McCarthy

RESEARCH AREAS

  • Theological Anthropology
  • Sexual Difference
  • Gender Ideology
  • Feminism

Margaret Harper McCarthy

Associate Professor of Theological Anthropology

Education

S.T.D., Pontifical John Paul II Institute, Pontifical Lateran University

S.T.L., Pontifical John Paul II Institute, Pontifical Lateran University

M.A., Theology, University of St. Thomas

B.A., Religion/French, Grove City College

Bio

Dr. McCarthy received her doctoral degree in theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute at the Lateran University in Rome (1994), with a dissertation on the contemporary theology of predestination.  Since then, her teaching and writing has focused on various themes belonging to theological anthropology relative to the question of sexual difference (the imago Dei, equality, experience, feminism, the nature of love), but also relative to the larger nature-grace question (Christocentrism, predestination, the relation between the church and the world).  She is the editor of the book Torn Asunder – Children, The Myth of the Good Divorce and the Recovery of Origins (Eerdmans Publishing, 2016), and author of Recovering Origins (Catholic University Press, 2022).

Dr. McCarthy has been teaching at the John Paul II Institute since 1992. She is the editor of Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, and Science, serves on the editorial board of the English edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, is a member of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and is a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine.

Courses

JPI 510/729

Theological Anthropology: History and Method

Beginning with an examination of the problem of anthropology in modernity, this course will examine the main themes of a […]

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JPI 814

The Problem of Love

While most people intuit what love is and recognize it when they see it, it is not always easy to […]

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JPI 950

Feminism in Theology and Culture

This course examines the key elements of contemporary feminism, both “equity” and “difference”: its critique of patriarchy, its central concern […]

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JPI 872

Sexual Difference

“Sexual difference is one of the important questions of our age, if not in fact the burning issue. . . […]

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JPI 927

The Problem of Love

While most people intuit what love is and recognize it when they see it, it is not always easy to […]

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JPI 640

The Problem of Love

While most people intuit what love is and recognize it when they see it, it is not always easy to […]

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JPI 851

Feminism in Theology and Culture

This course examines the key elements of contemporary feminism, both “equity” and “difference”: its critique of patriarchy, its central concern […]

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JPI 550/850

The Sexual Difference

“Sexual difference is one of the important questions of our age, if not in fact the burning issue. . .. […]

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JPI 1009

Sexual Difference: A Theological Investigation

“Sexual difference is one of the important questions of our age, if not in fact the burning issue. . .. […]

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Books


Select Articles

“Theological Foundations of the Vocation of Women in the Life of the Church: The Baptismal Priesthood and the Sacrament of Matrimony: A Response to Prof. Dr. Barbara Hallensleben.” In Ruolo Delle Donne Nella Chiesa – Atti del Simposio promosso dalla Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, 21-34. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2017).