
David L. Schindler
Dean Emeritus
Edouard Cardinal Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology
B.A., M.A., Philosophy, Gonzaga University
Ph.D., Religion, Claremont Graduate School
Formerly a Weaver Fellow (1972-73) and a Fulbright Scholar (1974-75, Austria), Professor Schindler taught in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame (1979-92), where he received tenure in 1985, and at Mount St. Mary’s University (1976-79), where he received tenure in 1978. Since 1982 he has been editor-in-chief of the North American edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, a federation of journals founded in 1972 by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Henri de Lubac, and other European theologians. He serves as editor of the series “Ressourcement: Retrieval and Renewal in Catholic Thought” with Eerdmans Publishing Company. Professor Schindler has published over seventy-five articles (translated into nine languages) in the areas of metaphysics, philosophical issues in biology and biotechnology, and the relation of theology/philosophy and culture. He is the author of Heart of the World, Center of the Church: Communio Ecclesiology, Liberalism, and Liberation (T&T Clark and Eerdmans, 1996); and also of Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God (Eerdmans, 2011). His most recent edited collections are Love Alone is Credible: Hans Urs Von Balthasar as Interpreter of the Catholic Tradition (Eerdmans, 2008); and (with Doug Bandow) Wealth, Poverty, and Human Destiny (ISI, 2003). Other edited collections include Beyond Mechanism: The Universe in Recent Physics and Catholic Thought (1986); Act and Agent: Philosophical Foundations of Moral Education, with Jesse Mann and Frederick Ellrod (1986); Catholicism and Secularism in America (1990); and Hans Urs Von Balthasar: His Life and Work (1991). Professor Schindler was appointed by Pope John Paul II as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2002 to 2007.
Select Publications
Select Books
- The Generosity of Creation. (Humanum Academic Press, 2018).
- Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity: The Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom: A New Translation, Redaction History, and Interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae. Co-written with Nicholas J. Healy Jr. (Eerdmans, 2015).
- Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God. (Eerdmans, 2011).
- Being Holy in the World: Theology and Culture in the Thought of David L. Schindler. Edited by Nicholas J. Healy, Jr. and D.C. Schindler. (Eerdmans, 2011).
- Love Alone is Credible: Hans Urs von Balthasar as Interpreter of the Catholic Tradition, volume 1. Editor. (Eerdmans, 2008).
- Wealth, Poverty, and Human Destiny. Co-edited with Doug Bandow. (ISI Books, 2003).
- Heart of the World, Center of the Church: Communio Ecclesiology, Liberalism, and Liberation (T&T Clark and Eerdmans, 1996).
- Hans Urs Von Balthasar: His Life and Work. Editor and contributor. (Ignatius Press, 1991).
- Catholicism and Secularization in America: Essays on Nature, Grace, and Culture. Editor and contributor. (Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1990).
Select Articles
- "On 'Disenchantment,' Work and Leisure." Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, & Science (2017).
- "On Trivializing the Lives of 'Ordinary People' in Liberal Societies." Communio: International Catholic Review 44.1 (Spring 2017): 104-143.
- "Being, Gift, Self-Gift (Part Two)." Communio: International Catholic Review 43.3 (Fall 2016): 409-483.
- "Being, Gift, Self-Gift: Reply to Waldstein on Relationality and John Paul II’s Theology of the Body." Communio: International Catholic Review 42.2 (Summer 2015): 221-251.
- "Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity: An Interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae on the Right to Religious Liberty." Communio: International Catholic Review 40.2 (Fall 2013): 208-316.
- “We Are Not Our Own: Childhood and the Integrity of the Human in a Technological Age.” Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, & Science (Fall 2011).
- “The Repressive Logic of Liberal Rights: Religious Freedom, Contraceptives, and the ‘Phony’ Argument of the New York Times.” Communio: International Catholic Review 38.4 (Winter 2011): 523-47.
- "The Given as Gift: Creation and Disciplinary Abstraction in Science." Communio: International Review 38.1 (Spring 2011): 52-102.
- "The Dramatic Nature of Life: Liberal Societies and the Foundations of Human Dignity." Communio: International Catholic Review 33.2 (Summer 2006): 183-202.