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Nicholas Healy

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Culture
M.T.S. Program Advisor
Nicholas Healy portrait
202-526-3799
  • McGivney Hall 305

RESEARCH AREAS

  • Eschatology
  • 20th Century Ressourcement Theology
  • Theology of Marriage
  • The Sacrament of the Eucharist

Nicholas Healy

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Culture
M.T.S. Program Advisor
Back to Faculty List

Education

D.Phil., Theology, Oxford University
M.St., Theology, Oxford University
M.A., Philosophy, Franciscan University
B.A., History, Franciscan University

Bio

Dr. Healy received his doctorate from Oxford University, with a dissertation on the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. He teaches and writes in the area of metaphysics, theological anthropology, and sacramental theology. Since 2002 he has served as an editor of the North American edition of Communio: International Catholic Review. He is a founding member of the Academy of Catholic Theology. Recent articles have addressed the theological anthropology of Thomas Aquinas and Henri de Lubac, the redaction and interpretation of Vatican II’s Declaration on Freedom: Dignitatis Humanae, Christian marriage as nature and sacrament, and the relationship between the Eucharist and eschatology.

Courses

JPI 554/764

Catechesis on Human Love

This course examines John Paul II’s Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body through a sequential reading of …

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JPI 613/848

History of the Church

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the historical unfolding of the life and mission of Church. …

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JPI 921

Thomism, Ressourcement, and Vatican II

This course aims to familiarize students with the key debates of twentieth-century theology which form the backdrop to the Second …

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JPI 960

The Metaphysics of Hans Urs von Balthasar

In Fides et ratio John Paul II called for “a philosophy of genuinely metaphysical range . . . a philosophy …

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JPI 986

Christian Marriage as Nature and Sacrament

“The Eucharist, as the sacrament of charity, has a particular relationship with the love of man and woman united in …

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JPI 1001

The Liturgical Theology of Joseph Ratzinger

“In the crisis of faith through which we are going,” writes Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, “again and again the focal point …

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JPI 634/826

The Sacrament of Marriage

This course offers a systematic reflection on the sacrament of matrimony, addressing both the concept of sacramentality generally and its …

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Books

RVIIP r 96810

Ressourcement after Vatican II: Essays in Honor of Joseph Fessio SJ. Co-edited with Matthew Levering. (Ignatius Press, 2019).

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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 David L. Schindler (Eerdmans, 2015).

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Being Holy In the World: Theology and Culture in the Thought of David L. Schindler. Co-edited with D.C. Schindler. (Eerdmans, 2011).

9780199278367

The Eschatology of Hans Urs von Balthasar: Being as Communion. (Oxford University Press, 2005).


Select Articles

"Henri de Lubac and the Christian Mystery of Nature and Grace." Communio: International Catholic Review 49.1 (Spring 2022): 109–140.

"Communion, Sacramental Authority, and the Limits of Synodality." Communio: International Catholic Review 48.4 (Winter 2021): 663-685.

“The Indissoluble Nexus of Nature, Body, and Person: Fifty Years after Humanae Vitae.” Communio: International Catholic Review 45.3-4 (Fall-Winter 2018): 553-566.

“Marriage, Priesthood, and the Sincere Gift of Self.” Communio: International Catholic Review 45.2 (Summer 2018): 320-333.

“The Truth Will Set You Free.” Columbia (August 2018).

“Henri de Lubac and the Development of Doctrine.” Communio: International Catholic Review 44.4 (Winter 2017): 667-689.

“The Light of Faith and the Development of Doctrine.” Anthropotes 33 (2017).

“The Spirit of Christian Doctrine.” Communio: International Catholic Review 43.2 (Summer 2016): 232-246.

“Faith and the Sacrament of Marriage: A Response to the Proposal of a New Minimum Fidei Requirement.” Communio: International Catholic Review 42.2 (Summer 2015): 309-30.

“Vatican II and Religious Freedom: Rupture or Authentic Development?” Catholic World Report (November 2015).

“Christ’s Eucharist and the Nature of Love: The Contribution of Hans Urs von Balthasar.” St. Anselm Journal 10.2 (2015).

“The Merciful Gift of Indissolubility and the Question of Pastoral Care for Civilly Divorced and Remarried Catholics.” Communio: International Catholic Review 41.2 (Summer 2014): 306-330.

“The Marian Dimension of the Church and the Economic Order.” In Mary, God-Bearer to a World in Need, edited by Maura Hearden and Virginia M. Kimball, 77-90. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013.

“Natural Theology and the Christian Contribution to Metaphysics: On Thomas Joseph White’s Wisdom in the Face of Modernity.” Nova et Vetera 10.2 (2012): 539-62.

“Christian Personalism and the Debate Over the Ends of Marriage.” Communio: International Catholic Review 39.1 (Summer 2012): 186-200.

“Eating Fire and Spirit: The Eucharist and the Blessed Trinity.” In The Beauty of God’s House: Essays in Honor of Stratford Caldecott, edited by Francesca Aran Murphy, 89-98. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014.


YouTube video

The Sacramental Arc of Wojtyła's Philosophy of Action

YouTube video

Nuptial Love: Marriage, Priesthood, and the Sincere Gift of Self. Part III: As Christ Loved the Church

YouTube video

Eucharistic Ecclesiology & Eschatology: On the Church's Relation to the World

Full Youtube Playlist