Fr. Richard Schenk, O.P.
Professor of Philosophy and Theology
Office phone: (510) 883-7150
E-mail:

B.A., M.A. in Philosophy (St. Albert's College);
Dr. theol., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (University of Munich);
Master of Sacred Theology (Order of Preachers)

The manifold crisis about human dignity is also a crisis about God. It belongs to Dominican study to grasp the link between the two, tracing where our loss of God leads ultimately to our loss of human dignity and finding both with each other again. For this reason it is as impossible for Dominican study to neglect the fundamental questions of God, salvific history or the ultimate truths of creation as it is to neglect the questions of the peace, justice, and stewardship to which the Gospel leads us.... Study is thus linked with that “misericordia” which moves us to proclaim the Gospel of God's love for the world and the dignity which results from such love. Our study helps us to perceive human crises, needs, longings, and sufferings as our own (cf. Thomas Aquinas, STh, II-II 30, 2 co: “...Quia autem tristitia seu dolor est de proprio malo, intantum aliquis de miseria aliena tristatur aut  inquantum miseriam alienam apprehendit ut suam”).

From “Misericordia Veritatis”,  the document on “The Intellectual Life”, Dominican General Chapter, Providence 2001

Fr. Richard’s work in philosophy and theology seeks to develop a stronger Catholic identity in the service of Church and society today by a searching recollection of the past and the anticipation of a future urged in particular by the memory of human suffering.

The courses Fr. Richard has offered include the themes:

• Philosophical Anthropology
• Theological Anthropology
• Medieval Thought
• 20th Century Systematic and Ecumenical Theology
• Hermeneutics and Phenomenology
• History and Systematics of the Christian Theology of Non-Christian Religions

Essays by Fr. Richard

• “Exemplified by St. Thomas Aquinas”: But How?
• "Why a Dominican School of PHILOSOPHY and Theology?"

Fr. Richard’s recent work

Select Publications

And Jesus Wept. Notes Towards a Theology of Mourning, in: Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering (ed.), Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas. Theological Exegesis and Speculative Theology (Washington, D.C., Catholic University of America Press 2005) 212-237.

From Providence to Grace: Thomas Aquinas and the Platonisms of the Mid-Thirteenth Century, in: Nova et Vetera 3 (2005) 307-320.

The Unsettled German Discussions of Justification: Abiding Differences and Ecumenical Blessings, in: Dialog. A Journal of Theology (44:2, 2005) 153-164.

Officium signa temporum perscrutandi. New Encounters of Gospel and Culture in the Context of the New Evangelization, in: Michael Naughton et al. (ed.) The Call to Justice. The Legacy of Gaudium et Spes. Forty Years Later (Vatican City 2005)

Co-editor (with P. Koslowski), Ambivalenz – Ambiguitaet – Postmodernitaet. Begrenzt Eindeutiges Denken (Collegium Philosophicum Vol. 5) frommann-holzboog, Stuttgart- Bad Cannstatt 2004.

The Progress and End of History, Life after Death, and the Resurrection of the Human Person in the World Religions: An Attempt at a Synthesis from a Christian Perspective, in: Peter Koslowski (ed.), The Progress, Apocalypse, and Completion of History and Life after Death of the Human Person in the World Religions (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 2002) pg. 104-120.

Ist die Rede vom leidenden Gott theologisch zu vermeiden? Reflexionen über den Streit von K. Rahner und H.U. von Balthasar, in: Friedrich Hermanni and Peter Koslowski (ed.), Der leidende Gott. Eine philosophische und theologische Kritik (Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2001) pg. 225-239.

Co-editor (with Wolfgang Voegele), Apokalypse. Vortragsreihe zum Ende des Jahrtausends (Loccumer Protokoll Nr.54/98), Evangelische Akademie Loccum, Rehburg-Loccum, 2000.

Leibniz und die Zukunft der Oekumene, in: Vittorio Hoesle et al. (ed.), Leibniz und die Gegenwart (Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2002) pg. 13-25.

Der Mensch – die Dornenkrone der Schöpfung? Umweltzerstörung aus theologischer Sicht, in: Vittorio Hösle et al. (ed.): Nachhaltigkeit in der Ökologie. Wege in eine zukunftsfähige Welt (C.H. Beck, Munich 2001) pg. 151-174

Debatable Ambiguity: Paradigms of Truth as a Measure of the Differences  among Christian Theologies of Religion, in: Jahrbuch fuer Philosophie des Forschungsinstituts fuer Philosophie Hannover, Vol. 11, 2000, eds. R. Schenk, V. Hoesle, and P. Koslowski (Vienna, Passagen 2000) pg. 121-151.

Telling Time – Telling Stories. Temporal Counting – Recounting the Past – Accounting for the Future, in: Sybille Fritsch-Oppermann (ed.), Storytelling and Cyberchat. Die Bedeutung neuer Kommunikationstechnologien aus der Sicht unterschiedlicher Kulturen (Loccumer Protokoll Nr. 59/99) Rehburg-Loccum, Evangelische Akademie Loccum 2000.

Co-editor (with Hans Otte), Die Reunionsgespraeche im Niedersachsen des 17. Jahrhunderts. Rojas y Spinola – Molan – Leibniz (Goettingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1999)

Editor, Kontinuitaet der Person. Zum Versprechen und Vertrauen (Collegium Philosophicum, vol. 2), Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Frommann-Holzboog 1998.

Christ, Christianity, and Non-Christian Religions. Their Relationship in the Thought of Robert Kilwardby, in: K. Emery, Jr. and J. Wawrykow (ed.), Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of Preachers (Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Notre Dame 1988) pg. 344 – 363.