Kevin Clarke
Ph.D. theology, Ave Maria University
S.T.L., Jesuit School of Theology
M.A. theology, Franciscan University
My research, which intersects with various exegetical and theological themes, has primarily focused upon the Biblical hermeneutics in early Christianity (New Testament authors and Church Fathers), especially their spiritual exegesis of the Old Testament and readings that harmonize both Old and New, more specifically Maximus the Confessor and his interpretation of Scripture in the 7th century. My dissertation explored his understanding of the assumed human nature of Christ and its centrality to Maximus’s theology. My translation of Maximus’s Opuscula and the Dispute with Pyrrhus will be published in CUA’s Fathers of the Church Series. I co-edited Patristic Spirituality, a book of essays on the ascent to God, in Brill’s Studies in Theology and Religion series (Brill, 2022). I also edited a book for CUA Press on the Church Fathers and the capital vices and the virtues that heal the vices of the soul (May 2018). I have published or forthcoming numerous articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. I have over a decade of teaching experience ranging from secondary education to undergraduate and graduate education, in Catholic universities and in seminary.
Supervisors: Michael Waldstein
Address: Prof. Kevin Clarke, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, 2701 Chicago Blvd, Detroit, MI 48206
S.T.L., Jesuit School of Theology
M.A. theology, Franciscan University
My research, which intersects with various exegetical and theological themes, has primarily focused upon the Biblical hermeneutics in early Christianity (New Testament authors and Church Fathers), especially their spiritual exegesis of the Old Testament and readings that harmonize both Old and New, more specifically Maximus the Confessor and his interpretation of Scripture in the 7th century. My dissertation explored his understanding of the assumed human nature of Christ and its centrality to Maximus’s theology. My translation of Maximus’s Opuscula and the Dispute with Pyrrhus will be published in CUA’s Fathers of the Church Series. I co-edited Patristic Spirituality, a book of essays on the ascent to God, in Brill’s Studies in Theology and Religion series (Brill, 2022). I also edited a book for CUA Press on the Church Fathers and the capital vices and the virtues that heal the vices of the soul (May 2018). I have published or forthcoming numerous articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. I have over a decade of teaching experience ranging from secondary education to undergraduate and graduate education, in Catholic universities and in seminary.
Supervisors: Michael Waldstein
Address: Prof. Kevin Clarke, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, 2701 Chicago Blvd, Detroit, MI 48206
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Edited Books by Kevin Clarke
Contributors are: Benjamin D. Wayman, John S. Bergsma and Luke Iyengar, Hans Boersma, Stanley E. Porter, Gregory Vall, Don W. Springer, Bogdan G. Bucur, Amy Brown Hughes, Sean Argondizza-Moberg, Stephen M. Hildebrand, Brian Matz, Anna Silvas, Ann Conway-Jones, Sandy L. Haney, Despina D. Prassas, Gerald Boersma, Brian E. Daley, Andrew Louth, Jonathan L. Zecher, Kevin M. Clarke, Lewis Ayres.
Sacred Scripture did not neatly list the seven deadly sins, so where did this tradition come from? Unsurprisingly, it can be traced back to the Church Fathers. But were there eight or seven? In a sense, the answer is “both.” The tradition of the capital sins has a rich development in the patristic era, not only in the presentation of the list of vices but in the preaching and teaching of the early shepherds of the Church. So how do the capital sins spawn other vices in the soul? How does one cultivate the virtues that heal the soul from those vices? How are gluttony and lust related? Is sadness really a vice? How is vainglory different from pride? What role does almsgiving have in soothing the passion of anger? The Fathers of the Church answer these questions and more in this volume.
The capital vices are the gateway drugs to countless sins. The path of the book descends through the vices, culminating with their queen ruler, pride. The words of the Fathers will assist the reader in being more realistic about the attacks upon the soul. The text should also be edifying and medicinal. Since each chapter begins with vice and ends with virtue, one’s path through the chapters represents a sort of ascent out of vice and into the freedom of the virtues. The text gives special attention throughout to the thought of Augustine of Hippo, Evagrius of Pontus, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, and Maximus the Confessor.
Academic Papers by Kevin Clarke
Streszczenie
Niniejszy artykuł analizuje myśl Maksyma Wyznawcy dotyczącą palącego problemu jego czasów, a mianowicie zagrożenia stwarzanego przez monoteletyzm i monenergizm. Jakie było teologiczne ryzyko dla ortodoksji, i jak on je postrzegał, skoro stawił tak mocny opór wobec cesarskich prób doktrynalnego kompromisu? Autor w pierwszej części artykułu omawia zagadnienie sposobu zjednoczenia we wcieleniu i przybrania natury ludzkiej, w tym ludzkiej woli i ludzkiego działania. Maksym Wyznawca potrafi bronić prawowierności Ojców, zwłaszcza Grzegorza z Nazjanzu, Cyryla Aleksandryjskiego i Dionizego, także w kontekście interpretacji różnych ¢por…ai przez swoich przeciwników. W drugiej części artykułu przeanalizowano ujęcie heterodoksji w ogólności przez Maksyma i jego końcowy wniosek, a mianowicie, że postrzeganie zjednoczenia natur w Jezusie Chrystusie – pozbawiając Go natury Boskiej z jednej strony oraz prawdziwej natury ludzkiej z drugiej – ostatecznie zniszczy wszystko w teologii. Chrystus nie może zbawiać lub przebóstwiać człowieka, skoro sam nie jest już jak człowiek. Zamiast tego, Chrystus stał się swego rodzaju tertium quid, ani samym Bogiem, ani samym człowiekiem, jednym ruchem rozwikłując teologię trynitarną, chrystologię i soteriologię. W sekcji końcowej autor pokrótce rozważa bezpośrednie skutki wynikłe z męczeństwa Maksyma, w tym kwestię dziwnego braku wzmianek o nim w tekstach Soboru Konstantynopoliatńskiego III. Wreszcie, autor odnosi się do Maksyma w kontekście naszych czasów, podejmując zwłaszcza następujące zagadnienie: jak jego teologia, powstała w VII wieku, może być swego rodzaju odpowiedzią na niektóre trudności post-oświeceniowej nowoczesności.
First, the Church Fathers’ homilies show how Mary’s bodily assumption is the eschatological sign for all believers, and hence the Virgin illumines the mystery of consecrated life especially. Furthermore, she plays an essential role in deification: “For if you had not gone before us, no one would ever become perfectly spiritual,” wrote St. Germanus, and “all things are made holy by your myrrh-like fragrance,” according to St. Andrew of Crete. Secondly, in exploring the Marian Psalter, one encounters in Our Lady a beauty most desirable and fecund that bears fruit for those who praise her. This beauty speaks to the universal call to holiness (universali vocatione ad sanctitatem). Beauty is a thread woven throughout the psalter’s praise of the Virgin. Her body and her face are beautiful; her beauty is pedagogical: “Beautiful are your ways: and your paths are peaceful. In you shine forth the beauty of chastity, the light of justice, and the splendor of truth.” The psalmist even writes in the language of eros concerning the virtue of Mary: “I have coveted your chastity from my youth up.” Finally, this article will show how the image of spousal love given by Pope St. John Paul II in his theology of the body points beyond Eve to Mary, the New Eve. He wrote, “Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine gift, because he bears within himself the inner dimension of the gift. And with it he carries into the world his particular likeness to God, with which he transcends and also rules his ‘visibility’ in the world, his bodiliness, his masculinity or femininity, his nakedness.” The femininity of the Virgin-Mother exists as gift to her Son, but as sign it also is a sacrament of divine love. In this section, particular attention will be paid to John Paul’s exegesis of the Song of Songs to see how the beauty of the vocation to spousal love is particularly illumined by the mutual love of Jesus and Mary and by the communion of persons in the Holy Family.
Conference Presentations by Kevin Clarke
Contributors are: Benjamin D. Wayman, John S. Bergsma and Luke Iyengar, Hans Boersma, Stanley E. Porter, Gregory Vall, Don W. Springer, Bogdan G. Bucur, Amy Brown Hughes, Sean Argondizza-Moberg, Stephen M. Hildebrand, Brian Matz, Anna Silvas, Ann Conway-Jones, Sandy L. Haney, Despina D. Prassas, Gerald Boersma, Brian E. Daley, Andrew Louth, Jonathan L. Zecher, Kevin M. Clarke, Lewis Ayres.
Sacred Scripture did not neatly list the seven deadly sins, so where did this tradition come from? Unsurprisingly, it can be traced back to the Church Fathers. But were there eight or seven? In a sense, the answer is “both.” The tradition of the capital sins has a rich development in the patristic era, not only in the presentation of the list of vices but in the preaching and teaching of the early shepherds of the Church. So how do the capital sins spawn other vices in the soul? How does one cultivate the virtues that heal the soul from those vices? How are gluttony and lust related? Is sadness really a vice? How is vainglory different from pride? What role does almsgiving have in soothing the passion of anger? The Fathers of the Church answer these questions and more in this volume.
The capital vices are the gateway drugs to countless sins. The path of the book descends through the vices, culminating with their queen ruler, pride. The words of the Fathers will assist the reader in being more realistic about the attacks upon the soul. The text should also be edifying and medicinal. Since each chapter begins with vice and ends with virtue, one’s path through the chapters represents a sort of ascent out of vice and into the freedom of the virtues. The text gives special attention throughout to the thought of Augustine of Hippo, Evagrius of Pontus, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, and Maximus the Confessor.
Streszczenie
Niniejszy artykuł analizuje myśl Maksyma Wyznawcy dotyczącą palącego problemu jego czasów, a mianowicie zagrożenia stwarzanego przez monoteletyzm i monenergizm. Jakie było teologiczne ryzyko dla ortodoksji, i jak on je postrzegał, skoro stawił tak mocny opór wobec cesarskich prób doktrynalnego kompromisu? Autor w pierwszej części artykułu omawia zagadnienie sposobu zjednoczenia we wcieleniu i przybrania natury ludzkiej, w tym ludzkiej woli i ludzkiego działania. Maksym Wyznawca potrafi bronić prawowierności Ojców, zwłaszcza Grzegorza z Nazjanzu, Cyryla Aleksandryjskiego i Dionizego, także w kontekście interpretacji różnych ¢por…ai przez swoich przeciwników. W drugiej części artykułu przeanalizowano ujęcie heterodoksji w ogólności przez Maksyma i jego końcowy wniosek, a mianowicie, że postrzeganie zjednoczenia natur w Jezusie Chrystusie – pozbawiając Go natury Boskiej z jednej strony oraz prawdziwej natury ludzkiej z drugiej – ostatecznie zniszczy wszystko w teologii. Chrystus nie może zbawiać lub przebóstwiać człowieka, skoro sam nie jest już jak człowiek. Zamiast tego, Chrystus stał się swego rodzaju tertium quid, ani samym Bogiem, ani samym człowiekiem, jednym ruchem rozwikłując teologię trynitarną, chrystologię i soteriologię. W sekcji końcowej autor pokrótce rozważa bezpośrednie skutki wynikłe z męczeństwa Maksyma, w tym kwestię dziwnego braku wzmianek o nim w tekstach Soboru Konstantynopoliatńskiego III. Wreszcie, autor odnosi się do Maksyma w kontekście naszych czasów, podejmując zwłaszcza następujące zagadnienie: jak jego teologia, powstała w VII wieku, może być swego rodzaju odpowiedzią na niektóre trudności post-oświeceniowej nowoczesności.
First, the Church Fathers’ homilies show how Mary’s bodily assumption is the eschatological sign for all believers, and hence the Virgin illumines the mystery of consecrated life especially. Furthermore, she plays an essential role in deification: “For if you had not gone before us, no one would ever become perfectly spiritual,” wrote St. Germanus, and “all things are made holy by your myrrh-like fragrance,” according to St. Andrew of Crete. Secondly, in exploring the Marian Psalter, one encounters in Our Lady a beauty most desirable and fecund that bears fruit for those who praise her. This beauty speaks to the universal call to holiness (universali vocatione ad sanctitatem). Beauty is a thread woven throughout the psalter’s praise of the Virgin. Her body and her face are beautiful; her beauty is pedagogical: “Beautiful are your ways: and your paths are peaceful. In you shine forth the beauty of chastity, the light of justice, and the splendor of truth.” The psalmist even writes in the language of eros concerning the virtue of Mary: “I have coveted your chastity from my youth up.” Finally, this article will show how the image of spousal love given by Pope St. John Paul II in his theology of the body points beyond Eve to Mary, the New Eve. He wrote, “Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine gift, because he bears within himself the inner dimension of the gift. And with it he carries into the world his particular likeness to God, with which he transcends and also rules his ‘visibility’ in the world, his bodiliness, his masculinity or femininity, his nakedness.” The femininity of the Virgin-Mother exists as gift to her Son, but as sign it also is a sacrament of divine love. In this section, particular attention will be paid to John Paul’s exegesis of the Song of Songs to see how the beauty of the vocation to spousal love is particularly illumined by the mutual love of Jesus and Mary and by the communion of persons in the Holy Family.
On this episode, Drs. Kevin Clarke, William Diem, Daniel Lendman, and Taylor Patrick O'Neill discuss the Marian titles of "Co-Redemptrix" and "Mediatrix of all Graces." Can the titles be applied to Mary? What precisely do the titles designate? The participants debate the precise meaning of the titles and consider whether the Church should formally declare them.