Rev Dr James McEvoy

Senior lecturer in the ACU Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

Rev Dr McEvoy’s theological interests are grounded in a theological and philosophical anthropology derived from the works of Kark Rahner and the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. He is Australia’s leading exponent of a theology of childhood which aims to foreground theologically informed understandings of the dignity of children, acknowledging them as competent and accomplished beings. His work is particularly relevant for those seeking to develop and advance appropriate cultures for the care of children within Catholic school systems.

Rev Dr 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 the 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 Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. His current research studies the place of religion in the contemporary West and the church's understanding of its role·and social relationships in that context. In progress is a monograph on culture, transcendence, and violence today, provisionally titled Believing in a Secular Age.

Selected publications

• McEvoy, J. (2014). Leaving Christendom for Good: Church-World Dialogue in a Secular Age. Lanham, MD: Lexington. Link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739187326
• McEvoy, J. (2013). ‘Religious Pluralism and its Challenges’. In Being Human: Groundwork for a Theological Anthropology for the 21st Century, edited by D. Kirchhoffer., R, Horner., & P. McArdle. Preston, VIC: Mosaic Press. Link: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/186370849?selectedversion=NBD52112002
• McEvoy, J. (2012). Dialogue: Drawn into the Life of the Trinity. Pacifica, 25(3), 239-57. Link: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1030570X1202500302
• McEvoy, J. (2011). Hope, Modernity, and the Church: A Response to Richard Lennan and Dominic Doyle. Theological Studies, 72(2), 269-308. Link: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/004056391107200203
• McEvoy, J. (2009). Proclamation as dialogue: Transition in the church-world relationship. Theological Studies, 70(4), 875-903. Link: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00405639090700040
• McEvoy, J. (2007). ‘A Dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan about Church and Government’. The Heythrop Journal, 48(6), 952-71. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2007.00351.x/full
• McEvoy, J. (2006). Church and World at the Second Vatican Council: The Significance of Gaudium et spes’. Pacifica, 19(1), 37-57. Link: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1030570X0601900103