Rev. Dr James McEvoy

Religion and Theology

Areas of expertise: systematic theology; church and world; faith and culture; theology of childhood; Karl Rahner; Charles Taylor

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2735-9115

Phone: +61 3 9953 3982

Email: james.mcevoy@acu.edu.au

James McEvoy is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, lectures in systematic theology, and is a priest of the Adelaide Archdiocese. For almost two decades prior to 2014 he taught at Catholic Theological College and Flinders University Department of Theology. His doctoral thesis was in the fields of theological and philosophical anthropology, studying the works of Karl Rahner and Charles Taylor. His current research has two primary foci: first, the place of religion in the contemporary West and the church’s understanding of its role and social relationships in that context. He has published many articles and a monograph (2014) on these questions. He is currently working on another monograph on culture, transcendence, and violence, provisionally titled "Believing in a Secular Age." Second, since 2014 he has been working on a theology of childhood. This project has its origins in dialogue with Catholic Education South Australia and has developed into a frequently taught Masters-level unit and several articles, one co-authored with Professor Joce Nuttall of ACU’s Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education.

Select publications

Books

Leaving Christendom for Good: Church-World Dialogue in a Secular Age. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2014.

Book chapters

‘Religious Pluralism and its Challenges’. In Being Human: Groundwork for a Theological Anthropology for the 21st Century, edited by David Kirchhoffer, Robyn Horner, & Patrick McArdle, 272-84. Preston, VIC: Mosaic Press, 2013.

Articles

with Joce Nuttall, “Theological-Relational Pedagogy: Winnicott, Rahner, and the Development of a Theological Perspective on Relational Pedagogy,” Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51, no. 5 (2020): 720-31, doi:10.1080/00220272.2019.1686180
“Towards a Theology of Childhood: Children’s Agency and the Reign of God,” Theological Studies, 80, no. 3 (2019): 673-91, doi:10.1177/0040563919856368
“Theology of Childhood: An Essential Element of Christian Anthropology,” Irish Theological Quarterly 84, no 2 (2019): 117-36, doi:10.1177/0021140019829322e
“The Conversation’s the Thing: The Gospel in Australian Culture,” Australasian Catholic Record 93, no. 1 (January 2016): 68-80.
Dialogue: Drawn into the Life of the Trinity’. Pacifica 25 no. 3 (2012): 239-57.
‘Hope, Modernity, and the Church: A Response to Richard Lennan and Dominic Doyle’. Theological Studies 72 no. 2 (2011): 269-308.
“Proclamation as Dialogue: Transition in the Church–World Relationship,” Theological Studies 70, no. 4 (December 2009): 875-903.
‘A Dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan about Church and Government’. Heythrop Journal 48 no. 6 (November 2007): 952-71.
‘Church and World at the Second Vatican Council: The Significance of Gaudium et spes’. Pacifica 19 no. 1 (2006): 37-57.

Accolades and awards

Australian Catholic University Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning: “Integrating Catholic Intellectual Tradition in Teaching Practice” 2019.
International Visiting Fellowship at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, 2009-2010 academic year.

Appointments and affiliations

Member, Australian Catholic Theological Association
Member, Catholic Theological Society of America
Member, Australian Lutheran–Roman Catholic Dialogue

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