•  536
    Matter Without Form: The Ontological Status of Christ's Dead Body
    with Jeremy Sienkiewicz
    Journal of Analytic Theology 6 131-145. 2018.
    In this paper, we provide an account of the ontological status of Christ’s dead body, which remained in the tomb during the three days after his crucifixion. Our account holds that Christ’s dead body – during the time between his death and resurrection – was prime matter without a substantial form. We defend this account by showing how it is metaphysically possible for prime matter to exist in actuality without substantial forms. Our argument turns on the truth of two theses: God is able to prod…Read more
  •  96
    Being disposed to see the marvelous by moving into the familiar is one of the fundamental philosophical dispositions. The pre-Socratic philosophers—especially Heraclitus—emphasized the needfulness of listening. This is true in two senses: we need to learn to listen, and listening is itself a need for something. The logos in nature can be heard only by one who is “awake.” The problem is that most live as though they were asleep, immersed in their own world. Being in tune with nature opens one to …Read more
  •  91
    A Tale of Two Parts
    Res Philosophica 91 (3): 477-484. 2014.
    Joshua Spencer (2010) has recently used the problem of spatial intrinsics in conjunction with the possibility of extended atomic regions of space to argue against the possibility of extended heterogeneous simples. In part 1, I explain Spencer’s argument against the possibility of heterogeneous simples. In part 2, I argue that if his argument is sound, then a parody argument can be constructed showing that heterogeneous composite objects are also impossible. In part 3, I provide an objection to m…Read more
  •  82
    Mental Causation as Teleological Causation
    Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 85 161-171. 2011.
    I argue that the Causal Closure Argument (CCA) and the Explanatory Exclusion Argument (EEA) fail to show that mental causes must either be reduced/ identical to physical causes or that mental causes are epiphenomenal. I begin by granting the soundness of CCA and EEA and go on to argue that they only rule out irreducible mental efficient causes/explanations. A proponent of irreducible mental causation can, therefore, grant the soundness of CCA and EEA, provided she holds mental causation/explanat…Read more
  •  73
    Back to the Primitive: From Substantial Capacities to Prime Matter
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 88 (3): 381-395. 2014.
    We often predicate capacities of substances in such a way so as to modify the way that they exist . However, sometimes a capacity is not for the modification of a substance but for the existence of one. Moreover, we have reason to think that these capacities are just as real as other capacities. If that’s right, then the question arises: if these capacities are real features in the world, what they are real features of? Part I argues that they can’t be capacities of substances, and so they must …Read more
  •  49
    The Recalcitrant Imago Dei (review)
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 85 (3): 507-510. 2011.
  •  47
  •  23
    Hylemorphic Animalism and the Incarnational Problem of Identity
    Journal of Analytic Theology 5 145-162. 2017.
    In this paper, I argue that adherents of Patrick Toner’s hylemorphic animalism who also assent to orthodox Christology and a thesis about the necessity of identity must reject a prima facie plausible theological possibility held by Ockham, entertained in one form by St. Thomas Aquinas, and recently held by Richard Cross, Thomas Flint,, and, and Timothy Pawl and concerning which individual concrete human natures an omnipotent God could assume.
  •  11
    Aquinas On the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union. By Michael Gorman (review)
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 92 (2): 391-394. 2018.
  •  6
    In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay. By Timothy Pawl
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94 (4): 665-667. 2020.
  • Aquinas: Freedom
    Philosophical Forum 42 (3): 282-283. 2011.