- Vice Dean (for STD)
- Fr.
- Mariusz
- Tabaczek, O.P.
- Professore Aggregato
- Section: Thomistic
Academic degrees earned
M.A. Theology / Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow, Poland
S.T.L. Theology / University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznan, Poland
Ph.D. Systematic and Philosophical Theology / Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
Dr. Habil. in Philosophy / Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland
Courses at the Angelicum
- tS3355
- Licentiate
- Dogmatic and Fundamental, Thomistic
- Semester II
- tP3354
- Licentiate
- Dogmatic and Fundamental, Thomistic
- Semester II
MARIUSZ TABACZEK, O.P., is a Polish Dominican and theologian. He holds Ph.D. in philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and Church Licentiate from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and Dr. habil. in philosophy from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland. He is a vice dean of the faculty of theology, overseeing the S.T.D. program and research, and member of the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, co-responsible for the Project for Science and Religion.
He is interested in the science-theology dialogue, especially in the issues concerning science and theology of creation, divine action, and evolutionary theory. His research also goes to other subjects related to systematic, fundamental, and natural theology, philosophy of nature, philosophy of science (philosophy of biology, in particular), philosophy of causation, and metaphysics. His works address a whole range of topics, including: the origin of life, the notion of species, metaphysics of evolutionary transitions, concurrence of divine and natural causes in evolutionary transitions, definition and role of chance and teleology in evolution, classical and new hylomorphism, classical and contemporary (analytical) concepts of causation, emergence, science-oriented panentheism and its critique, and various aspects of divine action in the universe.
He published a number of articles on metaphysics and the issues concerning the relation between theology and science, and three monographs: Emergence. Towards A New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science (University of Notre Dame Press 2019), Divine Action and Emergence. An Alternative to Panentheism (University of Notre Dame Press 2021), and Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2023).
Systematic/dogmatic theology
Science/theology dialogue
Theistic evolution, Divine action
Philosophy of nature
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of biology
Causation
Metaphysics
International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR)
CTNS (Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences), Berkeley, CA
Society of Catholic Scientists (scholar associate)
Philosophy of Nature Section of the Polish Philosophical Society
Fall 2023 Fr. Val McInnes chair holder at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome
Fellowship at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Studies (2016/2017)
CTNS Charles T. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship in Theology and Science (2014)
GTU Newhall Teaching and Research Fellowship (2013)
AI and Virtue
Pain and Suffering ~ as part of the project “The Dynamic Theodicy Model: understanding God, Evil and Evolution”
Aquinas and evolution – for the special issue of the journal “Religions”
Does nature need miracles (conference paper and a larger research project)
Books
Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Emergence and Divine Action: An Alternative to Panentheism. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021.
Emergence: Towards a New Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2019.
Book chapters
“Emergence.” In: Glăveanu V.P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2020.
Henry, John and Mariusz Tabaczek. “Causation.” In Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, ed. Gary B. Ferngren, 377-394. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
Harris, Steven J. and Mariusz Tabaczek. “Roman Catholicism since Trent.” In Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, ed. Gary B. Ferngren, 251-267. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.
Journal Articles
“Evolution and Creation – A Response to Michael Chaberek’s Critique of Theistic Evolution.” Nova et Vetera 22, no. 1 (2024): 255–84.
“Afterword to the Polish Edition of Thomistic Evolution: A Catholic Approach to Understanding Evolution in the Light of Faith; by Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., James Brent, O.P., Thomas Davenport, O.P., and John Baptist Ku, O.P.” Nova et Vetera 22, no. 1 (2024): 225–37.
“Qué Hacen Realmente Dios y Las Criaturas En Un Cambio Evolutivo? Análisis Causal Del Transformismo Biológico Desde La Perspectiva Tomista.” Translated by Hna. Mónica Albornoz. Espíritu LXXII, no. 165 (2023): 262–96. Originally published in English as Mariusz Tabaczek, “What Do God and Creatures Really Do in an Evolutionary Change? Divine Concurrence and Transformism from the Thomistic Perspective,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 93, no. 3 (2019): 445–82.
“Contemporary Version of the Monogenetic Model of Anthropogenesis: Some Critical Remarks from the Thomistic Perspective.” Religions 14, no. 4 (2023): 523.
“Aristotelian-Thomistic Contribution to the Contemporary Studies on Biological Life and Its Origin,” Religions 14, no. 2 (February 2023): 214.
“Teleology in Natural Theology and Theology of Nature: Classical Theism, Science-Oriented Panentheism, and Process Theism.” Nova et Vetera 20 (4) 2022: 1179-1206.
“Does God Create through Evolution? A Thomistic Perspective.” Theology and Science 20 (1) 2022: 46-68.
“The Image of God in Western (Christian) Panentheism: A Critical Evaluation from the Point of View of Classical Theism.” Sophia 61 (2022): 611-642.
“The Metaphysics of Evolution: From Aquinas’s Interpretation of Augustine’s Concept of Rationes Seminales to the Contemporary Thomistic Account of Species Transformism.” Nova et Vetera 18 (3) 2020: 945-972.
“Rola przyczynowości w naukowych modelach wyjaśniania w kontekście powrotu do klasycznej koncepcji działania Boga w świecie.” (“The Role of Causality in Scientific Models of Explanation in the Context of the Retrieval of the Classical Concept of Divine Action”). Scientia et Fides 8(1) 2020: 41-73.
“What Do God and Creatures Really Do in an Evolutionary Change? Divine Concurrence and Transformism from the Thomistic Perspective.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 93 (1) 2019: 445-482.
“Klasyczny i współczesny hylemorfizm a dusza ludzka” (“Classical and Contemporary Hylomorphism and Human Soul”). Roczniki Filozoficzne (Annals of Philosophy) 67 (1) 2019, 147-176.
“A Trace of Similarity within Even Greater Dissimilarity: Thomistic Foundations of Erich Przywara’s Teaching on Analogy.” Forum Philosophicum 23 (1) 2018: 95-132. (published in 2019).
„Czy współczesne nauki przyrodnicze mogą inspirować filozoficzny i teologiczny namysł nad przyczynowością?” (“Can Contemporary Science Inspire a Philosophical and Theological Reflection on Causality?”) Scientia et Fides 6 (2) 2018, 147-180.
“Emergence and Downward Causation Reconsidered in Terms of the Aristotelian-Thomistic View of Causation and Divine Action.” Scientia et Fides 4 (2016), 115-149.
“Thomistic Response to the Theory of Evolution: Aquinas on Natural Selection and the Perfection of the Universe.” Theology and Science 13 (2015), 325-344.
“The Metaphysics of Downward Causation: Rediscovering the Formal Cause.” Zygon 48 (2013), 380-404.
“Hegel and Whitehead: In Search for Sources of Contemporary Versions of Panentheism in Science/Theology Dialogue.” Theology and Science 11 (2013), 143-161.
Book Reviews
Jaonna Leidenhag, Minding Creation: Theological Panpsychism and the Doctrine of Creation. London: T&T Clark, 2021. Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences (PTSc) 10 (2023), 139-143.
Daniel W. Houck. Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Angelicum 99, no. 2 (2022).
Gerard Verschuuren. Aquinas and Modern Science. A New Synthesis of Faith & Reason, Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2016. Theology and Science 16 (2018), 364-368.
Gregory T. Doolan. Aquinas on the Divine Ideas as Exemplar Causes, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008. Theology and Science 14 (2016), 387-389.
John Dudley. Aristotle’s Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity, and Determinism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2012. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (2013), 779-81.
Michael J. Dodds, O.P. Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science & Thomas Aquinas. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2012. Theology and Science 11 (2013), 164-66.
Academia.edu profile
