John Sheveland, Ph.D.

Professor of Religious Studies; Flannery Chair in Catholic Theology

John N. Sheveland (Ph.D. Boston College) is Professor of Religious Studies and current Flannery Chair in Catholic theology at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA., USA, and teaches courses in theology, interreligious dialogue, and religion and violence....

Portrait of Dr. John Sheveland

Contact Information

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. Boston College 2006 (Systematic and Comparative theology)

M.A.R. Yale University Divinity School 1999 (Christian theology)

B.A. University of Portland 1996 (History & Theology)

Courses Taught

RELI 428 Religion and Violence

RELI 334 Interreligious Dialogue

RELI 227 Theology in Global Contexts

RELI 226 Challenges in Catholic Theology

RELI 193 First Year Seminar: Violence and the Humanities



John N. Sheveland (Ph.D. Boston College) is Professor of Religious Studies and current Flannery Chair in Catholic theology at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA., USA, and teaches courses in theology, interreligious dialogue, and religion and violence. In 2019 he began a four year term on the National Review Board, an advisory body for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He received a Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.) from Yale Divinity School in 1999 and a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Systemic and Comparative theology from Boston College in 2006. He organized the annual lecture series entitled 'Being Religious Interreligiously' for ten years. John received in 2013 a Faculty Diversity Leadership Award and in 2015 an Exemplary Faculty Award from Gonzaga University. He serves on the board of directors of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies and the College Theology Society, and is a book review editor for Horizons. His articles appear in a variety of journals and books, and is the author of Piety and Responsibility (Ashgate, 2011; Routledge, 2017).

[A] Book

2023—John N. Sheveland, ed., Theology in a Post-Traumatic Church (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2023). Website Here.
2011—John N. Sheveland, Piety and Responsibility: patterns of Unity in Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, and Vedanta Desika (Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate, 2011; reprint Routledge, 2017. Website Here.

[B] Roundtable Guest-Editor

John N. Sheveland and Frans Wijsen, eds., “Roundtable: Exploring the field of intercultural theology,” Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology 1/1 (March 2017): 91-92 [91-152]. Here

[C] Peer-Reviewed Articles and Chapters

2023 – “Fratelli Tutti at the Intersection of Interfaith Studies and Whiteness,” Why We Can’t Wait: Racism and the Church, edited by Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos, Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, and Elisabeth T. Vasko (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2023), 131-143. Website Here.
2021 – “Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Work of Redemption: Gestures Toward a Theology of Accompaniment,” Buddhist-Christian Studies 41 (2021): 71-86.
2019 – “Radicalization and Bold Mercy: Christian theological learning in dialogue with the 2014 Open Letter,” Buddhist-Christian Studies 39 (2019): 79-87.
2019 – “Do Not Grieve: Reconciliation in Barth and Vedanta Desika,” in Martha Moore-Keish and Christian T. Collins Winn, eds., Karl Barth and Comparative Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019). 2018 – “Facing Religious Neighbors: Nostra Aetate Fifty Years On,” in John K. Downey, Steven Ostovich, and Johann Vento, eds., Facing the World: Political Theology and Mercy (Paulist Press, 2018), 125-142.
2018 – “Redeeming Trauma: an agenda for theology fifteen years on,” American Catholicism in the 21st Century: Crossroads, Crisis, or Renewal?, eds. Nicholas Rademacher and Benjamin Peters (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2018), 137-148.
2016 – “Receptive Theological Learning in and from the Asian Bishops,” Asian Horizons 10/3 (September 2016): 545-560.
2016 – “Review Symposium.” Interreligious Friendship after Nostra Aetate, eds. James Fredericks and Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), in Horizons 43/1 (2016): 168-172. Here
2014 – “Toward a Fuller Catholicity: the promise of Asian theological method,” Louvain Studies 38/2 (2014): 184-197. Here
2014 – “Restoring Intimacy: Christian-Buddhist resources toward solidarity,” Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 25/2 (2014): 152-170. Here
2014 – “In Search of Wisdom and its Blind Spots: Catholic theological reflections on the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.” International Journal of Dharma Studies 2/1 (2014): 1-16. Here
2014 – “The Rich Soil of Asia: a North American appreciation of theological method in the Federations of Asian Bishops’ Conferences,” in Shaji George Kochuthara, ed., Revisiting Vatican II: Fifty Years of Renewal (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2014), 322-336.
2014 – “What has Renaissance Polyphony to offer Theological Method?” in Peter Phan and Jonathon Ray, eds., Understanding Religious Pluralism: Perspectives from Religious Studies and Theology (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2014), 264-276.
2010 – “Solidarity in Three Sacred Texts: Bhagavad Gītā, Dhammapada, 1 Corinthians,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 74/8 (August 2010): 593-605.

    • French Translation 2013 (Belgium).

2008 – “The Meaningfulness of Yoga to Christian Discipleship,” The Way: A Review of Christian Spirituality Published by the British Jesuits 47/3 (2008): 49-62. Here
2007 – “The Gita’s ‘Equal Eye’: Resourcing a Christian Concept of Neighbor without Limit,” Louvain Studies 32/4 (2007): 408-21. Here
2004 – “Tears of Dependence: Anselm and Barth on Intelligere,” The Expository Times 115/6 (March 2004): 181-186. Here
2002 – “Interreligious Momentum in David Tracy’s Postmodern Christian Theology,” Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 12/2 (2002): 207-225. Here

[D] Book Chapters and Essays

2019 – “Do Not Grieve: Reconciliation in Barth and Vedanta Desika,” in Martha Moore-Keish and Christian T. Collins Winn, eds., Karl Barth and Comparative Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019).
2018 – “Existential Poverty, Christian and Hindu: Barth in dialogue with Vedanta Desika,” in Susanne Hennecke, eds, Karl Barth und die Religion(en): Erkundungen in den Weltreligionen und in der Ökumene (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018), 207-217.
2018 – “Facing Religious Neighbors: Nostra Aetate Fifty Years On,” in John K. Downey, Steven Ostovich, and Johann Vento, eds., Facing the World: Political Theology and Mercy (Paulist Press, 2018), 125-142.
2011 – “Is Yoga Religious?”, The Christian Century 128/12 (June 14, 2011): 22-25.
2010 – “Solidarity through Polyphony,” in Francis X. Clooney, S.J., ed., The New Comparative Theology: Interreligious Insights from the Next Generation (London & New York: T&T Clark International, 2010): 171-190.
2009 – “Polyphony and the Aesthetics of Interreligious Dialogue,” in Arvind Sharma, ed., Windows to World’s Religions: Selected Proceedings of the Global Congress on World Religions After September 11th (Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2009): 3-13.

[E] Sermon Resources for The Expository Times

2024 – “The Time for Renewal Has Come,” Trinity Sunday, The Expository Times 135/7 (April 2024): 304-307.
2020 – “Time has Grown Short,” Sunday after Epiphany, The Expository Times 132/3 (2020): 138-140.
2020 – “Without Price?,” 9th Sunday after Pentecost, The Expository Times 131/10 (2020): 447-448.
2019 – “Who is my neighbor?,” Fifth Sunday after Pentecost July 14, 2019, The Expository Times 130/9 (June 2019): 408-410.
2019 – “See, everything has become new,” Fourth Sunday of Lent, The Expository Times, 130/5 (2019): 225-227.
2016 – “Redemptive Reversals,” The Expository Times 128/2 (November 2016): 83-84.
2015 – “For all the Saints,” The Expository Times 127/1 (October 2015): 25-26.
2015 – “Accepting Acceptance,” The Expository Times 126/5 (February 2015): 233-235.
2014 – “Listening Church, Humbled Church,” The Expository Times 125/11 (August 2014): 549-551.

[F] Encyclopedia Entries

2017 – “Nostra Aetate,” in Jeffrey Shaw and Timothy J. Demy, eds., War and Religion: an Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict. Volume II. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, March 2017).
2007 – “Divine Love in Christianity,” in Yehudit Kornberg Greenberg, ed., Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007): 161-62.
2004 – “Sin,” in Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed., Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Volume 4. (New York: Routledge, 2004): 1733-34.

[G] Blog writings

2021 –“Child Sexual Abuse and Indifference: Contemplating a Christian-Buddhist Renovation of Affect,” Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies, October 2021.
2019 – “How do we pray in a post-traumatic Church?,” Center for Child Protection, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. October 16, 2019.

[J] Podcast

2021 – “Healing in a post-traumatic church,” Promise to Protect podcasts, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  
Comparative theology responsive to violence; sexual abuse prevention and healing; theological engagement with trauma studies; the theology of Karl Barth; Asian theological method.