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Grant Kaplan, Ph.D.

Professor of Theology

Courses Taught

Atheism and Christianity, Theological Method, Theological Foundations, Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought in Germany

Education

  • Ph.D. in Systematic Theology, Boston College, 2003
  • B.A. in History and Theology, Boston College, 1996
Additional studies in Tübingen (1996–97) and Fribourg (2002–03)

Practice Areas

Religion and violence, anti-Catholicism, the Vatican, mimetic theory, German theology

Research Interests

  • 19th-century religious thought
  • theologies of tradition
  • mimetic theory
  • German Catholic theology

Labs and Facilities

Grant Kaplan's website

Publications and Media Placements

Books

  • Johann Sebastian Drey’s On the Spirit and Essence of Catholicism, co-translated with Jordan Daniel Wood (University of Notre Dame Press, 2026).
  • Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Volume 1: 1781–1848, edited by Grant Kaplan and Kevin Vander Schel (Oxford University Press, 2023). 
  • Faith and Reason through Christian History: A Theological Essay (Catholic University of America Press, 2022). 
  • René Girard, Unlikely Apologist: Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016; 2022 in paperback).
  • Answering the Enlightenment: The Catholic Recovery of Historical Revelation (Crossroad/Herder, 2006).  

Articles (last ten years)

  • "The Thomistic Fundamental Theology of Thomas Joseph White,” in The New Ressourcement 3:3 (2026).
    The Art of Retrieval and the Science of History, or How to Think Ressourcement Historically,” in Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 68:1 (2026): 129–48.
  • “The Sensus Fidelium and the Sense of Tradition: Newman and the Present Moment,” in Newman Studies Journal 22:2 (2025): 5–18.
  • “Newman’s Theology of Tradition Then and Now: A Historiographic Overview,” in Newman Studies Journal 21:2 (Winter 2024): 26–49.
  • “Catholic Theology and Catholic Higher Education in the United States: Looking Backward and Forward,” in Concilium: International Journal for Theology (2023:5): 36–45
  • Enhancing Ressourcement: Johann Adam Möhler’s Retrieval of Anselm,” in Theological Studies 84:2 (2023): 312–36.“
  • Escalation to Academic Extremes? Revisiting Academic Rivalry in the Möhler/Baur Debate,” in Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 30 (Spring 2023). 163–82.
  • “Revisiting Johannes Eck: The Leipzig Debate as the Beginning of the Reformation,” in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 24:2 (March 2021): 73–97.
  • “Locating Newman: Faith and Reason in Newman and the Johannes Kuhn,” in Newman Studies Journal 16:2 (2019): 5–27.
  • “Did Schelling Live on in Catholic Theology? An Examination of his Influence on Catholic Tübingen,” in International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 80:1 (2019): 57–70.
  • “What Has Prussia to Do with Tübingen? The Political-Ecclesial Context of Möhler’s Symbolik,” in Pro Ecclesia 27:1 (2018): 81–112.
  • Retrieval and Renewal: Chenu, the Tübingen School, and the Renewal of Theological Method in Optatam Totius,” in Theological Studies 77:3 (September 2016): 567–92.
  • Between Rome and Tübingen: Rethinking Johann Adam Möhler’s Political Theology,” in Journal of Church and State 58:2 (Spring 2016): 234–60. 


Book Chapters (last five years)

  • “All Desire is a Desire for Lila? Imitation, Desire, and Novelistic Conversion in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet” in Analogy, Desire, and Imitation, ed. Philip Gonzales (Wipf & Stock, 2026).
  • “Johann Adam Möhler,” in T&T Clark Handbook of Modern Theology, eds. Philip Ziegler and David Nelson (T&T Clark, 2026), 449–54.
  • “Does the Neckar Flow into the Tiber? Walter Kasper's Reading of the Roman School,” in The Roman School Then and Now, eds. Levering, Pidel, and Anderson (Brill, 2024).
  • “Modernity and Postmodernity,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Catholicism, 2nd edition, eds. Bauerschmidt, Buckley, Martin, and Pomplun (Wiley-Blackwell, 2024).
  • “Schleiermacher’s Influence on Roman Catholic Theology,” in Oxford Handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher, eds. Dole, Poe, and Vander Schel (Oxford University Press, 2023), 557–74.
  • “The Catholic Tübingen School in its First Generation,” in Oxford History of Modern German Theology. Volume 1: 1781–1848, eds. Grant Kaplan and Kevin Vander Schel (Oxford University Press, 2023), 422–38.
  • “René Girard,” in The New Apologetics: Defending the Faith in a Post-Christian Era, ed. Matthew Nelson (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire, 2022), 101–5. 
  • “Theology as Wissenschaft in the Catholic Tübingen School: J.S. Drey and J. Kuhn,” in Theology, History, and the Modern University, eds. Michael DeJonge and Kevin Vander Schel (Mohr Siebeck, 2021), 115–34.
  • (with Holly Taylor Coolman) “The Development of Doctrine: The Tübingen School and John Henry Newman” in Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology, eds. Lewis Ayres and Medi Volpe (Oxford University Press, 2019): 612–29.  


Public Theology (Selections from Last Decade)

  • “Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and the Communion of Saints,” in America Magazine Online (7 February, 2025).
  • “The Quest for the Catholic Beethoven,” in Compact: (28 March, 2025).
  • “No Excuse to Forget Chenu,” in America Magazine 234:2 (February 2026), 62–3.
  • “A Crisis in Catholic Theology” in America Magazine 224:7 (June 2021), 20–25.
  • Interview: Cesar Chavez’s Lawyer on the Faith and Nonviolence That Led to the Best Labor Law in the Country” America Magazine Online
  • “Girard, Scapegoating, and the Antidote to Annihilation” Interview in Word on Fire Blog (22 April, 2021)
  • René Girard: The Last Nietzschean,” in Church Life Journal (23 December, 2020)
  • “Secularism as Sexism,” in First Things (August/September, 2020): 59–61.
  • “What 19th-Century German anti-Catholicism Can Teach Us about Our Own Church,” in America Magazine 221:7 (30 September, 2019): 36–39.
  • “Celebrating 200 Years of Catholic Theology’s Oldest Journal,” in Church Life Journal (4 March, 2019).
  • “From Tübingen to the Tiber: An Interview with Peter Hünermann,” in Commonweal 143 (7 October, 2016): 25–29.
  • “Celibacy as Political Resistance,” in First Things 239 (January, 2014): 49–54. 

Honors and Awards

  • Humboldt Foundation, Experienced Researcher Grant, eleven months (2015–2016)
  • Humboldt Foundation, Renewed Research Stay, three months (Berlin, summer 2019)
  • National Institute of Newman Studies, Experienced Scholar Grant, two weeks (2018, 2023)

Professional Organizations and Associations

  • American Academy of Religion
  • Catholic Theological Society of America
  • Colloquium on Violence & Religion