Dr. John Rziha

Dr. John Rziha received his MA in theology from the University of Dallas (1998) and his PHD in theology from the Catholic University of America (2006). He has taught at Benedictine College since 2001. His area of expertise is moral theology and he regularly teaches class in moral theology, Church history, bioethics, and Catholic social thought. He has written two books, Perfecting Human Actions: St. Thomas Aquinas on Participation in Eternal Law (CUA Press, 2009) and a handbook for moral theology called, The Christian Moral Life: Directions for the Journey to Happiness (Notre Dame Press, 2017). He and his wife have nine children and run an orchard.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Moral Theology

Catholic University of America, 2006

M.A. in Theology

University of Dallas, 1998

B.A. in Philosophy

Fort Hays State University, 1996

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Moral Theology, including principles of Moral Theology

Christian Bioethics

Catholic Social Thought

Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Christology

Trinitarian Theology

Historical Theology

PUBLICATIONS

The Christian Moral Life: Directions for the Journey to Happiness. The University of Notre Dame Press. Forthcoming in the Spring of 2017.

“The Role of the Theological Virtues in the Moral Methodology of Thomas Aquinas.”  Requested by Edward Houser, editor of the Aquinas and the Virtues series for The Catholic University of America Press.

Perfecting Human Actions: St. Thomas Aquinas on Human Participation in Eternal Law (Washington, D.C.:  The Catholic University of America Press, 2009).

Book Review of Aquinas’s Ethics by Colleen McClusky et al.  The Review of Metaphysics 63 (2010): 688-689.

Book Review of Living the Good Life: A Beginner’s Thomistic Ethics by Steven Jensen. Nova Et Vetera 14 (Summer 2016), 1040-1045.

PRESENTATIONS

“Participation Metaphysics and the Teleological Essence of Natural Law.” Summer 2014 at Dominican Philosophy & Theology Colloquium: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” in Oakland, California.

“The Thomistic Roots of Modern Papal Teachings on Freedom as Found in the Writings of Leo XIII.”  May, 2013 at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“Catholic Bioethics and End of Life Issues.”  December, 2012.   Hosted by the University of Kansas Medical Center Catholic Students Association. 

“Divine Causality and Human Freedom in Actions Caused by Grace.”  May, 2011 at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“The Role of the Theological Virtues in the Moral Methodology of Thomas Aquinas.”  May, 2010 at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“The Church’s Position on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration,”  November, 2004,  Benedictine College to an audience of faculty, students, regional health care workers, lawyers, and others.

“Marital Joy and Natural Family Planning,” St. Benedict’s Abbey, March 2003.