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Brian Matz, PhD, STD

 

EDUCATION

PhD and STD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
PhD,  St. Louis University
ThM, Dallas Seminary
BSBA, Washington University St. Louis

ABOUT

Dr. Matz serves Aquinas Institute as Professor of Historical Theology and Associate Dean for Academic and Administrative Assessment. His research interests span Christianity in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages; in particular, he is interested in the Cappadocians, reception of Augustine, the Carolingian era, and the intersection of religion and the State. In addition to roles in several research project groups, he is a member of the North American Patristics Society, the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Society of Biblical Literature.

SELECTED COURSES

Church History I
Church History II
History of Preaching
History of Catholicism in the U.S.

Selected Publications

“Disability Theology in Gregory of Nazianzus.” In Disability in the Greek Fathers. Edited by Petre Maican. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, forthcoming 2024.

“Office of Deacon in Gregory of Nazianzus.” In The Office of Deacon in the Early Church, Volume II. Edited by Esko Ryökas. Pp. 78-90. Leiden: Brill, 2024.

“Use of Scripture in the Semi-Pelagian Controversy, 425-430 C.E.” In Handbook to the Bible in Christian North Africa, Vol. II. Edited by Jonathan Yates and Anthony DuPont. Berlin: DeGruyter, 2023.

Editor. Non scholae sed vitae: The Founding and Educational Visions of the Colleges of the Sisters of St. Joseph in North America. St. Louis: Fontbonne University Press, 2023.

Co-General Editor. Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. Volumes 17-21. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020-2023. Area Editor for Latin Patristics: 2018-2023.

 “El bien común (κοινωφελές) en Basilio de Cesarea.” In La Síntesis Teológica de la Noción de Bien Común en Patrística. Edited by Matthias Nebel, Clemens Sedmak and Pascal Mueller-Jourdain. Pp. 39-60. Barcelona: Herder Press, 2022.

“Silence and Ascent in Gregory of Nazianzus.” In Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God. Edited by Kevin Clarke and Don Springer. Pp. 213-230. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

 “Enchiridion 26.100 in the Predestination Debate of the Ninth Century.” In Augustine and Tradition. Fetschrift in Honor of J. Patout Burns. Edited by David Hunter and Jonathan Yates. Pp. 380-400. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2022.

 “Scripture as Medicine in Early Christian Social Ethics.” In New Approaches to Biblical Ethics. Biblical Interpretation Series. Edited by Volker Rabens. Pp. 369-391. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

 “Ordination Language in Apostolic Constitutions: A Tiny, Troubling Detail in the Debate over Women Deacons.” Presbyterion 44 (2018): 116-118.

“Mind and Body in Gregory of Nazianzus.” In A History of Mind and Body in Late Antiquity. Edited by Sophie Cartwright and Anna Marmodoro. Pp. 306-320 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

 

“‘Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees’: Jewish Teaching and Heresy in Early Christian Exegesis of Matt 16:6-12”. In The ‘New Testament’ as a Polemical Tool: Studies in Ancient Christian Anti-Jewish Rhetoric and Beliefs. Edited by Riemer Roukema and Hagit Amirav. Pp. 205-220. The Hague: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2018.

 

“Augustine in the Predestination Controversy of the Ninth Century. Part II: The Single Predestinarians John Scotus Eriugena and Hincmar of Rheims.” Augustinian Studies 47 (2016): 17-40.

 

“Augustine in the Predestination Controversy of the Ninth Century. Part I: The Double Predestinarians Gottschalk of Orbais and Ratramnus of Corbie.” Augustinian Studies 46 (2015): 155-184.

 

“Reception of the Augustinianism Debate in the Double-Predestination Debate of the Carolingian Era.” In Grace for Grace: The Debate after Augustine and Pelagius. Edited by Brian Matz, Augustine Casiday and Alexander Hwang. Pp. 235-270. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2014.

 

“Early Christian Philanthropy as a ‘Marketplace’ and the Moral Responsibility of Market Participants.” In Distant Markets, Distant Harms: Economic Complicity and Christian Ethics. Edited by Daniel Finn. Pp. 115-145. Oxford: Oxford University Press. March 2014.

 

Patristic Social Thought and Catholic Social Thought: Some Models for a Dialogue. Studies in the Catholic Social Tradition. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014.

 Brian Matz, Augustine Cassiday and Alex Hwang, eds. Grace for Grace: The Debate after Augustine and Pelagius. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2014.

Matz, with Meghan Benson, Luke Connors, Porsche Erekson et al.. “Legacy of Prosper of Aquitaine in the Ninth-Century Predestination Debate.” Studia Patristica 69 (2013): 283-288.

 

“Ascetic Readings of the Agricultural Parables in Mt 13:1-48 in the Cappadocians.” In Askese und Exegese in im frühen Christentum. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus. Vol. 101. Edited by Hans-Ulrich Wiedemann. Pp. 268-283. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.

 

“Baptism as Theological Intersection in Gregory Nazianzen’s Oration 39.” Sacris Erudiri 51 (2012): 35-58.

 

“Deciphering a Recipe for Preaching in Oration 14.” In Re-Reading Gregory of Nazianzus: Essays on History, Theology, and Culture. Edited by Christopher A. Beeley. Pp. 49-66. CUA Studies in Early Christianity. Washington D.C.: CUA Press, 2012.

Brian Matz, Johan Leemans, and Johan Verstraeten, eds. Reading Patristic Texts on Social Ethics: Issues and Challenges for 21st Century Christian Social Thought. CUA Studies in Early Christianity. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2011.

Patristic Sources and Catholic Social Teaching: A Forgotten Dimension. A Textual, Historical, and Rhetorical Analysis of Patristic Source Citations in the Church’s Social Documents. Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia. Vol. 59. Leuven: Peeters Press, 2008.