Ave Maria University
Take the next step in your journey to be astounded by the infinite knowledge and wisdom of our God. Obtain your Ph.D. in theology at AMU and you’ll benefit from strictly capped class sizes and a distinguished and ecclesiastically approved teaching faculty. Dare to wonder at the greatest mysteries of our faith and prepare yourself for advanced studies or leading roles in Catholic higher education. Get started today by enrolling in the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Theology program at AMU.
Careers: Director of Religious Education, Diocesan Leader, Theology Professor, Religious Life
Ph.D. students at AMU. develop the habit and unified vision of theological wisdom according to the unerring magisterial teachings of the Church. Through the study of biblical, moral and systematic theology, our doctoral students become conversant in the Catholic theological tradition and lay the groundwork for teaching roles in Catholic or non-Catholic institutions of higher education.
Fast Fact: More than 90% of our doctoral graduates are teaching theology at the college, university or seminary level.
Sedes Sapientiae, ora pro nobis!
Thank you for visiting Ave Maria University’s website in order to learn more about our Ph.D. in theology, AMU is committed to the renewal and deepening of genuinely Catholic spiritual, intellectual, and cultural life. To enter our graduate theological programs is to embark on an exacting and exciting venture to deepen both one’s contemplative union with the Triune God and one’s understanding of the great truths of the Catholic faith.
To study theology challenges us to open our minds and hearts to Jesus Christ, the one Teacher who illumines everything by his very being as the Word of the Father in the Holy Spirit. To study Catholic theology is to realize that the Word Incarnate and the Holy Spirit inspired Sacred Scripture and continue to guide the Magisterium of the Church, whose Tradition directs us as we reach up to the great minds and hearts of the many saints and scholars who over the millennia have contributed to the quest for genuine holiness, wisdom, science, scholarship, and art.
If you decide to join our graduate program, it is their lives and writings that you will study. Fidelity to Catholic truth demands more—not less—commitment to deepening and broadening one’s intelligence to appreciate the unity of theological and philosophical wisdom, too often forgotten in the many specializations and fragmentations of contemporary academic culture. Our program emphasizes a contemplative pattern of study that initiates students into the great tradition of speculative wisdom, with its unifying theoretical vision of the whole of God’s creative and redemptive presence.
Dr. Dauphinais
Education: B.A., Religious Studies, Trinity Western University; M.A., Theology, Ave Maria University; Ph.D., Theology and Religion, University of Durham Office: Henkels 3003 Email: gerald.boersma@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 304-7910 Curriculum Vitae: Download
Education: B.A., St. Stephen’s College; M.A., St. Stephen’s College; S.T.L., Dominican House of Studies; S.T.B., Dominican House of Studies; S.T.D., University de Fribourg; S.T.M., The Order of Preachers, Santa Sabina, Rome Email: rev.romanus.cessario@avemaria.edu Office: Henkels 3026 Phone: (239) 304-7935
Education: Education: B.S., Engineering, Duke University; M.T.S., Theology, Duke Divinity School; Ph.D., Systematic Theology, University of Notre Dame Office: Henkels 3005 Email: michael.dauphinais@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 280-2538
Education: B.A., English Literature, Aurora University; M.A., Theology, Catholic University of America; S.T.L., Theology, Catholic University of America; J.C.L., Canon Law, The Catholic University of America; S.T.D., Theology, The Catholic University of America Office: Henkels 2068 Email: robert.garrity@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 280-2424 Curriculum Vitae: Download
Education: B.A., Liberal Arts, Thomas Aquinas College; M.A., Philosophy, Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology; S.T.M., Theology, International Theological Insitute; S.T.L., Systematic Theology, International Theological Insitute; Ph.D., Systematic Theology, Ave Maria University Email: danielw.lendman@avemaria.edu Office: Henkels 3029 Phone: (239) 304-7934
Education: B.A., Philosophy, University of Toledo; M.A., Philosophy, University of Toledo; Ph.D., Philosophy, The Catholic University of America Office: Henkels 3007 Email: steven.long@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 280-1664
Education: B.A., Philosophy, Saint Meinrad College; M. Div., Theology, Saint Meinrad School of Theology; M.A., Religious Studies, Indiana University; M.A., Philosophy, Marquette University; S.T.D., Pontifical Gregorian University Office: Henkels 3009 Email: fr.guy.mansini@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 280-2594
Education: B.E.S., Literature & Philosophy, St. Cloud State University; M.A., Theology & Christian Ministry, Franciscan University of Steubenville; S.T.B., Sacred Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, S.T.L., Sacred Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas; S.T.D., Sacred Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Office: Henkels 3056 Email: roger.nutt@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 280-1603 Curriculum Vitae: Download
Education: B.S., Psychology, Texas Christian University; M.A., Counseling, Dallas Theological Seminary; Th.M., Systematic Theology Dallas Theological Seminary; M.T.S., Theology, Duke University; Ph.D., Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University Office: Henkels 3008 Email: thomas.vanwart@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 304-7825 Curriculum Vitae: Download
Education: B.S., Management Purdue University; M.T.S. Theological Studies, Duke Divinity School; Ph.D. Religious Studies, Maquette University Office: Henkels 3004 Email: jeffrey.walkey@avemaria.edu Phone: (239) 304-7363 Curriculum Vitae: Download
Over 90% of our doctoral graduates are teaching theology at the college, university, or seminary level.
One-on-One Instruction: Incoming classes are capped at four doctoral students per year to ensure individualized attention and mentoring throughout the Ph.D. program.
Colloquium: Weekly colloquia on the ancients and the moderns, focusing on the interplay between philosophical and theological inquiry, Christian and pre-Christian.
Year One and Two Complete all required coursework and language proficiency courses or exams. By the end of Year Two, submit a comprehensive-exams reading plan to the program director, and schedule the written and oral exams for the following November. Prepare for comps over the summer.
Year Three – Fall Semester Register for THEO 699: Residential Research & Dissertation (1 credit). Ask a faculty member to be your dissertation director, discuss and refine the topic, and begin your research. Serve as a teaching assistant to an assigned professor (not necessarily your director), and attend an assigned undergraduate course throughout the semester. Take written and oral comprehensive exams in November as scheduled.
Year Three – Spring Semester Register for THEO 699. Teach one section of an undergraduate course (normally THEO 105: Sacred Scripture, THEO 205: Sacred Doctrine, or THEO 400: Living in Christ: Moral Theology). Ask two professors to be readers on your dissertation board (one of these may be external to the department or to the university). Submit your dissertation proposal to the program director and to the dissertation director. Once the proposal has been approved by your board, and both the proposal and the composition of your board have been validated by the entire Theology faculty, you may begin writing.
Year Four Register for THEO 699. Teach one section of an undergraduate course per semester (normally THEO 105: Sacred Scripture, THEO 205: Sacred Doctrine, or THEO 400: Living in Christ: Moral Theology). Complete and defend the dissertation. The “Application for Ph.D. Degree” form is available from the registrar. Submit a degree application form and the graduation fee early in the semester in which the student intends to graduate.
Ph.D. applications are due by February 1st.
Applicants to the Ph.D. Program must possess an M.A. in Theology or a related discipline (such as Philosophy or Classical Languages) and should have completed at least 12 credits of undergraduate or graduate coursework in philosophy. They must submit:
Those accepted into the program may be offered a tuition scholarship and/or stipend for research/teaching assistantships. Regardless, all students must pay the technology fee, the activities fee, and the graduation fee.
Graduate Enrollment Office Ave Maria University 5050 Ave Maria Blvd. Ave Maria, FL 34142
Candidates who are judged to have significant lacunae in their prior academic formation in theology or philosophy will be directed to take courses that complement the Ph.D. curriculum.
Throughout the residency candidates are expected to maintain full-time status and to devote themselves to studies as to a full-time occupation. They are encouraged to take advantage of the sacramental and spiritual life of the university as an integral element in their theological formation.
The tuition-remission scholarship and living stipend remain in effect throughout the four-year residency, provided the candidate is in good academic standing, maintains full-time status, and follows the above course of study in a timely fashion. If the dissertation has not been successfully defended by the last day of August following Year Four, the candidate will need to register for THEO 698 Non-residential Research & Dissertation, and pay tuition (1 credit hour) and any applicable fees, for each subsequent semester, in order to remain enrolled in the program until the dissertation has been successfully defended. The faculty is under no obligation to accept for defense any draft of a dissertation submitted more than eight years after matriculation.
Continuance in the program is subject to faculty review each semester. Candidates must maintain good academic standing (GPA of 3.0 or higher) to retain the tuition-remission scholarship and the living stipend. If a candidate receives a final grade of C+ or lower in any course, he or she will be required to retake the course or, at the program director’s discretion, to resubmit selected assignments. A candidate who receives two or more grades of C+ or lower in a single academic year will be discontinued from the program.
If personal circumstances require the interruption of studies, the student should inform the program director immediately and must apply for a leave of absence. At the director’s discretion, a leave may be granted for a fixed period. A student who interrupts studies without an approved leave of absence is considered to have withdrawn from the program and must reapply if he or she wishes to return.
Major: Moral Theology
Minor: Systematic Theology
Major: Systematic Theology
Minor: Biblical Theology
Minor: Moral Theology
Major: Systematic Major, Biblical Theology Minor
Curriculum Vitae: Download
Dr. Michael Dauphinais, Program Director: (239) 280-2538 Megan Hare, Administrative Assistant: (239) 280-1629
Email: graduatetheology@avemaria.edu
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