Matthew Dunch, SJ, DPhil

Assistant Professor

Matthew Ian Dunch, S.J. is assistant professor of philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He previously taught at Xavier University, Cincinnati. Dunch specializes in the relationship of religious language and practice, particularly through the dual lens of St. Thomas Aquinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He also writes on the philosophy and history of Jesuit education. Dunch holds degrees from the Catholic University of America, Loyola University Chicago, and Regis College, University of Toronto. His doctorate in philosophical theology is from Campion Hall, University of Oxford. He is also affiliate faculty in Catholic Studies.

Education

BA, The Catholic University of America

MA, Loyola University Chicago

MDiv/ STB, The University of Toronto, Regis College

ThM/ STL, The University of Toronto, Regis College

DPhil, The University of Oxford, Campion Hall

Research Interests

The early Continental / Analytic Divide

Philosophy of Computation

Published articles

Reading Aquinas with David Burrell, CSC: how Lonergan’s exegesis and method open a way to Grammatical Thomism. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 85 (1): 95-110. 2024.

Though a central figure in Grammatical Thomism, David Burrell, CSC’s work is also deeply influenced by his teacher Bernard Lonergan, SJ. This paper articulates a twofold influence of Lonergan on Burrell, both of which support Burrell’s grammatical reading of Thomas Aquinas. First, Burrell developed his grammatical readings of Thomas Building on Lonergan’s exegesis of the ‘inner word’ of understand…Read more
Though a central figure in Grammatical Thomism, David Burrell, CSC’s work is also deeply influenced by his teacher Bernard Lonergan, SJ. This paper articulates a twofold influence of Lonergan on Burrell, both of which support Burrell’s grammatical reading of Thomas Aquinas. First, Burrell developed his grammatical readings of Thomas Building on Lonergan’s exegesis of the ‘inner word’ of understanding which becomes grammatical in Burrell’s interpretation. Second, Burrell reads Lonergan’s method, in Insight and Method in Theology, and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations as complementary, non-foundational quests for understanding, despite their radically different styles.
John Zizioulas and Emmanuel Levinas on Otherness, the Possibility of Communion, and the Religious Neutrality of Phenomenology. Heythrop Journal 64 (2): 240-249. 2023.
Herbert McCabe's Realism. New Blackfriars 103 (1104): 294-308. 2022.

New Blackfriars, Volume 103, Issue 1104, Page 294-308, March 2022.

Book reviews

Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age: A Response to Charles Taylor and the Crisis of Fullness. By Daniel Hendrickson. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2022. Pp. 197. $44.95. Heythrop Journal 64 (3): 448-449. 2023.

The Heythrop Journal, EarlyView.
Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics: New Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology. Edited by Mikel Burley London: Bloomsbury, 2018. Pp. xv, 266. £95.00 (HB), £28.99 (PB). Heythrop Journal 63 (1): 141-142. 2022.

The Heythrop Journal, Volume 63, Issue 1, Page 141-142, January 2022.
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? By Michael J. Sandel. London: Allen Lane, 2020. Pp. 288. £20.00 (HB)/£9.99. Heythrop Journal 63 (2): 322-323. 2022.

The Heythrop Journal, Volume 63, Issue 2, Page 322-323, March 2022.