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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

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.

• Twelve doctoral-level theology courses (48 credits), maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Four courses (16 credits) in candidate’s major (systematic or moral)
• Three courses (12 credits) in candidate’s minor (biblical, systematic, or moral)
• Two courses (8 credits) in the remaining area (biblical, systematic, or moral)
• Two required courses: THEO 691 Ancients, and THEO 692 Moderns (8 credits)
• One additional course (4 credits)
• Reading proficiency in Latin, Greek, and one modern language (French, German, or Italian), demonstrated by proficiency exams or approved AMU courses (with a grade of B- or higher)
• Successful completion of oral and written comprehensive exams
• Successful defense of an approved dissertation

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.