John Berkman
Key Details
John Berkman, 2021-22 Visiting Fellow at the LSRI, is Professor of Moral Theology at Regis College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies at the University of Toronto. He previously taught at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology in Berkeley, CA, and was Director of the Division of Moral Theology/Ethics at The Catholic University of America. He is a Fellow of the ISSR and recently finished serving a term on the Faith and Witness Commission of the Canadian Council of Churches. In 2017 he was a Visiting Research Scholar at both Christ Church and Blackfriars, Oxford. He is married to a palliative care physician and is the father of three children.
-
Research Interests
In the area of environmental ethics John has been reflecting theologically on non-human animals for almost 30 years, beginning with “A Trinitarian Theology of the Chief End of All Flesh” (with Stanley Hauerwas) in 1992, and most recently “Must We Love Non-Human Animals? A Post-Laudato Si Thomistic Perspective,” in May 2021 in New Blackfriars. He teaches and writes in healthcare ethics, and is editing The Oxford Handbook for Theological Bioethics. He is also currently engaged in a number of projects on the early philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe, with “The Influence of Victor White and the Blackfriars Dominicans on a young Elizabeth Anscombe,” appearing in the September 2021 Jubilee issue of New Blackfriars.
-
Education
PhD Theological Ethics, Duke University
BA Philosophy, University of Toronto
-
Selected Publications
“Justice and Murder: The Background to Anscombe’s ‘Modern Moral Philosophy.’” Roger Teichmann ed., The Oxford Handbook of Elizabeth Anscombe. OUP, forthcoming 2022.
“Embryo Adoption.” Dena Davis ed., The Oxford Handbook on Religious Perspectives on Reproductive Ethics. OUP, forthcoming 2022.
“The Influence of Victor White and the Blackfriars Dominicans on a young Elizabeth Anscombe: An Essay accompanying the Republication of G.E.M. Anscombe's ‘I am Sadly Theoretical: It is the Effect of Being at Oxford’ (1938),” New Blackfriars, September 2021.
“In the Beginning: The Primordial Character of the Problem of Suicide in David Novak’s Scholarship.” Levering & Angier eds, The Achievement of David Novak: A Catholic-Jewish Dialogue. Wipf and Stock: 2021.
“Must We Love Non-Human Animals? A Post-Laudato Si Thomistic Perspective,” New Blackfriars, November 2020.
“St. Thomas Aquinas on Impairment, Natural Goods, and Human Flourishing” (with Robyn Boere), National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, 20:2, Summer 2020.
“The Evolution of Moral Wisdom: What some Ethicists Might Learn from Some Evolutionary Anthropologists.” Fuentes & Deane-Drummond eds., The Evolution of Wisdom: Major and Minor Keys. Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing, 2019.
“Devons-Nous Aimer Les Animaux Non-humains? Une Perspective Thomiste Apres Laudato Si,” Bulletin de Littérature Ecclésiastique, 120:4, December 2019.
“The Story of Max.” Harvie, Eaton, and Bechtel eds., Encountering Earth: Thinking Theologically with a More-Than Human-World. Cascade Books, 2018.
Many of John’s publications can be found at his academia.edu and researchgate.net webpages.
