Faculty & Staff Directory
Michael Patrick Murphy, Ph.D.
Title: Director, Catholic Studies
Office #: Cuneo Hall 430
Phone: 773.508.3822
E-mail: mmurphy23@luc.edu
CV Link: My CV
About
Michael Murphy is an Instructor of Theology and Director of the Catholic Studies minor, an interdisciplinary program at LUC. Mike's interest in the scholarly possibilities for interdisciplinarity began when he was an undergraduate at the University of San Francisco and continued to undergird his subsequent studies as well. His work explores the idea that the Catholic intellectual tradition is not only an essential resource for "content," but is also one with a deeply ingrained interdisciplinary "method" as well. His first book, A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination (OUP, 2008) is a project in constructive theology that proposes a theoretical framework for reuniting content and critical method. He is delighted to join the Loyola community and lives locally with his wife, two daughters and faithful black lab.
Program Areas
The literary and political cultures of Catholicism; Balthasar's Theodrama; Religion and mimetic theory
Research Interests
Catholic Studies
Sacramental Theology
Christian Spirituality
Systematic Theology (Christology, Trinitarian Theology)
Theology and Literature
Theological Aesthetics
Sacramental Theology
Publications
“Hanging (onto) Words: Language, Religion and Spirituality in The Handmaid’s Tale” in Critical Insights: Margaret Atwood. New York: Ebsco/Salem Press, forthcoming late 2012.
A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.