Main Areas of Research Interest
1) Political Philosophy
2) European Intellectual History
3) Medieval philosophy
Publications
Full length book(sole author) – Crown Under Law: Richard Hooker, John Locke, and the Ascent of Modern Constitutionalism. (LanhamMd, : Rowman &Littlefield, 2008)
http://www.lexingtonbooks.com/Catalog/Flyer2.shtml?SKU=0739124137
Reviewed by Sean D. Sutton in the Review of Politics Volume 71, issue 03, June 2009, pp. 483-486
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6114464&fulltextType=BR&fileId=S0034670509990064
Article - “The Problem of the Desiderium Naturale in the Tho
mistic Tradition,” Verbum. Analecta neolatina. Volume VI/2, pp. 335-344), 2004.
http://verbum.btk.ppke.hu/pdf/6-2-04.pdf
Forthcoming
“Reinhold Niebuhr and the Crisis of Liberalism: Augustinian Realism and Democratic Politics in the Post-Enlightenment” which is slated to appear in 2010 in the volume entitled Religious Challenges and the Prospects of Democracy: From Political Theory to Political Theology under Continuum Press – expected in May, 2010
http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=136609&SearchType=Basic
Solicited by the Review of Metaphysics to review the following books:
Ronald Dworkin’s Justice in Robes. Belknap of Harvard University Press, 2006 (expected in Summer of ‘09)
Lars Vinx. Hans Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law: Legality and Legitimacy. Oxford University Press, 2007 (expected to be forthcoming)
Presentations
Upcoming: Invited Respondent to a paper by Dr. Graham McAleer on Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate at the Gilson Conference in Baltimore, Maryland(October 1, 2009)
Inited Respondent at Peace Conference in LouvainJuly 16, 2008) (
“Democracy and its Modern Critics”, presented at the Federal Executive Institute on May 8, 2008– a US Government educational institution which trains high level executives. The subjects included the Enlightenment, modernity, and Islamic political thought
“The Last End in Thomas Aquinas” – guest lecture for a course at Catholic University of America(Philosophy 201 The Ancient Mind) taught by Dr. Biagio Tassone, December 6, 2007
“Christian Realism and 21st Century Conflict: The Legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr” presented at the International Symposium. Pluralism, Politics, and God: Rational Theism in the Public Square held in MontrealSeptember 13, 2007 at McGill University,
“Crown Under Law” (seminar), presented at the Faculty of Law in LouvainLeuvenFebruary 2, 2006 ), (
“The Medieval Origins of the American Constitution” presented at Loyola CollegeMaryland, January, 23, 2003 (invited lecture).
“The Problem of the Desiderium Naturale in the Thomistic Tradition” presented at PeterPazmanyCatholicUniversity, PiliscabaHungary, , December 15, 2002 (conference paper).
Additional Honors and Associations:
Elected President of the International Philosophy Students Association (IPSA) of Leuven (2000-2001).
My presidential speech at the annual Kerstfeest received recognition and was later published in the Alumni bulletin.
Member of the American Philosophical Association
Assisted with peer review for a number of articles in a Leuven journal of moral philosophy and theology entitled Ethical Perspectives based on my knowledge of just war theory.