Our Rector, Fr. Thomas Joseph White,OP, awarded the title of Master of Sacred Theology.
Father Gerard Timoner, Master of the Order, has awarded Father Thomas Joseph White the title of Master of Sacred Theology. This is an honorary academic title awarded in the Dominican Order in recognition of noteworthy achievements in the field of theology and contributions to the promotion of studies in the Order.
The prerequisites are ten years of teaching at the graduate level and the publication of at least one book postively reviewed in international journals and of several articles in refereed academic journals. A friar with these qualifications may then be nominated by the prior provincial and council of his province. This academic title dates back to 1402, when Pope Boniface IX created the rank so that the Dominican Order could independently grant the faculty to teach theology, without having the candidate approved by a university theology faculty. The ceremony is accompanied by an academic lecture by the recipient.
The ceremony conferring the title will take place 7 December 2023 at 5:45 p.m. at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome in the Aula Minor. Father Thomas Joseph will lecture on the topic of “Mariology and the Sense of Mystery: The Virgin Mary and the Practice of Catholic Theology.” A reception will follow in the Sala Colonne. The degree will be conferred by Archbishop Augustine DiNoia.
Father Thomas Joseph White is the Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. Originally a native of southeastern Georgia in the US, Father Thomas Joseph studied at Brown University, where he converted to Catholicism. He did his doctoral studies in theology at Oxford University. He is a member of the Province of St. Joseph in the United States of America.
Father Thomas Joseph is the author of various books and articles including Wisdom in the Face of Modernity: A Study in Thomistic Natural Theology (Sapientia Press, 2011), The Incarnate Lord, A Thomistic Study in Christology (The Catholic University of America Press, 2015) Exodus (Brazos Press, 2016), The Light of Christ: An Introduction to Catholicism (Catholic University Press, 2017), and The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God (Catholic University Press, 2022). With Matthew Levering he is the co-editor of the academic journal Nova et Vetera. In 2011 he was appointed an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and in 2019 was named a Distinguished Scholar of the McDonald Agape Foundation. He held the 2018-2019 McInnes Chair for theological inquiry at the Angelicum. He was the Director of the Angelicum Thomistic Institute from 2018-2021.
Other Angelicum professors who have received this honor include Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP, Fr. Joseph Ellul, OP, and Fr. Michal Paluch, OP.
