Faculty

Office Location
Robinson House 011

Office Location
Robinson Hall, Room 004

Office Hours
Office Hours: By appointment only. Please feel free to contact me at any time at 509-294-1173.

Office Location
Robinson 104

Office Location
Robinson House 110

John K. Downey (Ph.D., Marquette) is Professor of Religious Studies (Foundational Theology & Political Theology) at Gonzaga University where he has taught for 20 years. Before comming to Gonzaga he taught in the Program in Religious Studies at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He also served as Director of Education and Staff Theologian at the University of Illinois Newman Foundation. Other faculty apppointments include Spokane Falls Community College, Mount Mary College, Cardinal Stritch College, and Marquette. Special interests: foundatonal theology and method, political theology, higher education and pedagogy, linguistic philosophy, human rights, interdiciplinary dialogue, liberation theologies, Wittgenstein, Lonergan, Tracy, Metz.

Office Location
Robinson House 109

Dr. Robert Egan, SJ, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has obtained Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in philosophy from Loyola University, Chicago, and the Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago.  His Ph.D. is from the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. His dissertation, Doing Theology from Life: Mysticism, Politics, & Hermeneutics in a Practical Catholic Foundational Theology, is a study in theological foundations and methodology. He has taught philosophy and theology at Loyola University, Chicago; the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; and since 1984 at Gonzaga University and St. Michael’s Institute.  Since 1976, he has also been extensively engaged in the ministry of spiritual direction. His main professional interests as a theologian have been in church renewal, formation for ecclesial ministry, the theory/practice relationship in theology, and the relationship between the mystical and the prophetic dimensions of Christian existence. He has lectured widely and has published articles in Commonweal, Compass, The Way, and other journals. He is currently writing a book on the crisis in contemporary Catholicism.

Office Location
Robinson House 103

Dr. Mary Garvin, SNJM, completed undergraduate studies in English Literature and Drama from Marylhurst University. She obtained Masters Degrees in Drama at the University of Washington and Spirituality from Gonzaga University. She completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in Church and Ministry from Andover Newton Theological School with major research focus on the intersection of the International Women's Movement and Vatican Council II. Dr. Garvin instructs: Contemporary Church, Women and Contemporary Church, Theology of Ministry and Ignatian Spirituality. She is the director for Practicums, Supervised Ministry and Internships which integrate the practice of ministry with theological reflection and spiritual formation. Mary is a co-author of The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed – Liberating Possibilities for Women.

Office Location
Robinson 105

Dr. Patrick Hartin, Professor of Religious Studies, is an ordained priest from the diocese of Johannesburg, South Africa, and has been teaching New Testament Studies in the Religious Studies Department at Gonzaga University since 1995. Patrick studied theology at the Gregorian University in Rome (1967- 1971). He holds two doctorates in Theology from the University of South Africa (Pretoria) in Ethics (1981) and in New Testament (1988). His area of specialization is in the traditions behind the Gospels, particularly the Sayings Gospel Q, as well as the Letter of James and the non-canonical writings attributed to Thomas. Prior to coming to Gonzaga, Patrick taught New Testament at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the University of South Africa, Pretoria. He was also chaplain to the Catholic Community at the Claremont Colleges, California. Author of seven books, his most recent is A Spirituality of Perfection: Faith and Action in the Letter of James (Colllegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1999).

Office Location
Robinson House 012

Dr. Robert Hauck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, has a B.A. in history from Seattle Pacific University, an M.A. in Church History from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Ph.D. in history of Christianity from Duke University. He is the author of a book and several articles and papers on early Christianity, and is working on a project on the ways Christian apologists of the second and third centuries formulated notions of salvation in relation to Hellenistic philosophy and culture. He has taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, the University of Oregon, and taught for ten years at Converse College in South Carolina, where he was R.L. Maclellan Professor of Religion and chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy. Prior to coming to Gonzaga, he was Dean of Liberal Arts at Spokane Community College. A native of the Seattle area, he is married and has two children.

Office Location
Robinson House 015

Dr. Steve Kuder, S.J., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Rector of Gonzaga University’s Jesuit Community. His area of specialization is religion and literature with an emphasis in biblical literature.  He also teaches homiletics, Christian leadership, and—in the M.A. program in Organizational Leadership—leadership and imagination.  Dr. Kuder took his Bachelor's degree from Gonzaga University where he majored in classics, English, and philosophy.  He received a Master’s degree in English Literature from Boston College.  Dr. Kuder received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. His dissertation was titled "The Literature of Conversion: Religious Background and Literary Achievement in Dante Alighieri, John Bunyan, and James Joyce.”
 

Office Location
Robinson House

Office Hours
Fall 2008 Tu/Th 1-2; W 10-12

Dr. Ron Large is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane WA. His area of specialization is Christian Ethics with an emphasis in Christian Social Ethics and peace studies. Dr. Large took his Bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia where he majored in Religious Studies. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. His M.Div. thesis examined violence and nonviolence as methods of social change. Dr. Large received his doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. His dissertation was on the connection between virtue and social change in the thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. He teaches classes in Nonviolence, Christian Morality, Death and Dying, Sexual Morality, Religion and Film, and the Vietnam War. For the academic year 2000-2001, he was named Teacher of the Year at Gonzaga University.

Office Location
Robinson 08

Office Location
Robinson House 008

Dr. Kevin McCruden, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, arrived at Gonzaga in 2003 after completing his Ph.D. in New Testament/Early Christianity at Loyola University Chicago.  Prior to his doctoral work Kevin pursued theological studies at Yale Divinity School, where he received the M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees in 1994 and 1995, respectively.  Kevin's area of specialization focuses on New Testament documents associated with first century Rome, in particular the Letter to the Hebrews.  Kevin's additional teaching and research interests include the Gospel of Mark and the Letters of Paul. Kevin is the author of several articles and book reviews in such journals as Biblica, Biblical Research, and Theological Studies.  His most recent work includes an essay on 2 Peter and Jude, an essay on non-violence in the Gospel of Mark, and a monograph examining the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews entitled: Solidarity Perfected: Beneficent Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews.  BZNW 159 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008).

Office Location
Robinson House 013

Amy C. Merrill Willis joined the faculty of the Religious Studies Department in 2004. She teaches courses related to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Her teaching interests include community based learning and the Old Testament, women and the Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Her research interests include the depiction of God in apocalyptic literature, biblical theology, myth and the Old Testament, cults of the dead in Ancient Israel, and the Bible and culture. Instructor Merrill Willis is presently completing her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible at Emory University. Her dissertation is a study of Divine Sovereignty in the Book of Daniel. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts double degree in English and Bible/Religion from Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina. Instructor Merrill Willis is a member of the clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and has served in churches in Virginia and South Carolina. She is married to Rev. Steve Willis, also a member of the Presbyterian clergy. They have two young children.

Office Location
Robinson House 111

Dr. Joy Milos, CSJ is presently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Religious Studies at Gonzaga. She is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet from the Albany, NY Province. She received her Ph.D. from The Catholic University of American in Christian Spirituality. Joy has taught a wide range of courses in spirituality, Christology, women and Christian spirituality, spiritual direction and comparative Christianity. Joy has published a number of articles, chapters and book reviews in such journals as The Way, Commonweal, Living Light, Sewanee Theological Review and Spirituality. Her most recent articles have been about the spirituality of Dorothy L. Sayers and Dr. A. Maude Royden. She has also directed retreats in various locations around the country, Canada, England and Ireland. In addition to her academic background, Joy is committed to an integration of spirituality and social justice, especially around issues related to adequate housing and women's concerns. She has taken numerous groups of Gonzaga students on Habitat for Humanity Global Village experiences to rural central Mexico.

Office Location
Robinson House 115

Matthew S. Rindge (Ph.D., Emory University) joined the Religious Studies faculty in 2008. His dissertation (Illustrating Wisdom: Luke 12:16-21 and the Interplay of Death and Possessions in Sapiential Literature) situates Luke's parable of the Rich Fool within an intertextual conversation on the intersection of death and possessions. He has taught at Emory University, Candler School of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary, and in several Asian and Latin American countries. His research interests include Jesus' Parables, Luke's Gospel, Religion and Film, and Wisdom Literature. At Gonzaga he teaches Synoptic Gospels, Bible and Film, Parables and Popular Culture, and Bible and Ethics. He has forthcoming articles in Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and Teaching Theology and Religion. He is currently co-editing The History of Biblical Interpretation to 1835: A Reader (Westminster John Knox Press). He serves on the Steering Committee for the Bible and American Popular Culture section in the Society of Biblical Literature. Previous education includes Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.), University of Notre Dame (M.A.), and University of California at Santa Barbara (B.A).       

Office Location
Robinson House 014

Dr. Linda S. Schearing is Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Gonzaga University, where she has taught since 1993.  Before coming to Gonzaga she taught at Luther College (Decorah, IA), Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), and Emory University (Atlanta, GA). She has co-authored two books, Eve & Adam:  Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender (Indiana University Press, 1999) and Those Elusive Deuteronomists: The Phenomenon of Pan-Dueteronomism (JSOT, 268; 1999), authored several articles, and has been a contributing writer for the Anchor Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible,  The New Interpreters Bible Dictionary,  and to Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, The apocryphal/Deuterocanoncial Books and the New Testament. In addition to these publication activities, she has served as a consultant for various presses as well as a speaker in both local and national venues.  Her research interests are Hebrew Scriptures, Biblical Interpretation, the Bible and popular cultures, and women’s studies.

Dr. John Sheveland, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, received a Masters degree in Christian theology from Yale Divinity and a Ph.D. in systematic and comparative theology from Boston College.  Before coming to Gonzaga he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles.  At Gonzaga he teaches courses on the intersection of Christianity and world religions.  His research interests include Christian-Hindu comparative theology, Christian-Buddhist comparative theology, comparative theological anthropology, method in comparative theology, and the yoga sutras.  He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the College Theology Society, and the Catholic Theological Society of America.  He has contributed articles to Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, The Expository Times, The Encyclopedia of Protestantism, and The Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions.

Office Location
Robinson House 112

Dr. Cate Siejk, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, received her Ph.D. in Theology and Education from Boston College in 1992. She began teaching at Gonzaga in fall, 1991 and regularly teaches courses in Christian Doctrine, Feminist Theologies, and Sharing Faith ( graduate course in religious education and other ministries.) Dr. Siejk's research interests are in epistemology, feminist theory, and feminist theologies. She is also a faculty member in the Womens Studies Program.

Office Location
Robinson House 015

Office Location
Jesuit House

Office Hours
By Appointment

Dr. Bernie Tyrrell, SJ, is a member of the Society of Jesus and was ordained in 1965. His degrees include an M.A. in Philosophy (1958) from Gonzaga University, an M.A. in Theology from Santa Clara University (1966) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University (1972). Professor Tyrrell has taught at Gonzaga since 1972 and became an Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies in 1997. He retains membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theology Society and other academic societies. Professor Tyrrell’s doctoral thesis dealt with Bernard Lonergan's Philosophy of God. His second major interest is the relationship between psychology and religion. He has written a number of books and articles dealing with his two major academic foci as previously described.

Dr. Anastasia Wendlinder is Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies Department at Gonzaga University. She received her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2004, where she wrote her dissertation on Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart and served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Theology Department. Anastasia received her M.A. in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkelely, California in 1993 and her B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1987 with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. Besides her concentration in systematic theology, Anastasia’s areas of expertise include sacramental and liturgical theology, the Second Vatican Council, inter-Christian relations and issues of social justice. Anastasia is a member of the College Theology Society, the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Academy of Religion.

Dr. Michael Woods, SJ, is currently Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. Father Woods is a Jesuit of the Maryland Province, having been ordained in 2004. He received his doctorate from The Catholic University of America in Liturgical Studies. His dissertation examined the intersection of the American liturgical movement and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, noting the ways Catholic agrarians made the liturgy the spiritual foundation of its social agenda. He has authored “Cultivating Soil and Soul,” a chapter in an edited volume to be published in spring 2008 by Eerdmann. His general academic interests focus on the relationship between liturgy and life. He is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and Societas Liturgica. Fr. Woods is also deeply interested in issues of sustainability especially as they pertain to rural communities. He ministers in several rural parishes in the Diocese of Spokane, in addition to other pastoral work such as retreats and giving the Spiritual Exercises. He is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and enjoys a variety of outdoor activities.