Joseph Grabau

Dr. Grabau is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, TX. At UIW, Dr. Grabau also serves as Lecturer for the Pastoral Institute’s collaborative programs, where he regularly teaches courses for the PMIN Major Core as well as the concentration in philosophy.

In his current research and teaching, Dr. Grabau integrates the Catholic intellectual tradition with contextual approaches to theology and ministry. Thanks to a series of institutional grants from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., Dr. Grabau and colleagues at MACC have most recently launched three new interdisciplinary courses on urgent topics in Pastoral Studies: children’s spirituality, grief and trauma-informed pastoral care, and rural parish ministry.

With his wife and two sons, Dr. Grabau is a member of St. Matthew Catholic Church in San Antonio.

• Ph.D./S.T.D., M.A. Catholic University of Leuven
• M.A. University of Kentucky
• M.A. Villanova University
• M.A. The Catholic University of America

Postdoctoral Researcher, History of Church and Theology, Catholic University of Leuven, 2019-2020

Publications

2023 “Historical-Phenomenological Experiences of Negative Theology in Christos Yannaras and the Corpus Areopagiticum.” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 67, no. 3–4 (2023): 199–221.

2022 “Methodological Approaches for Comparative Theological Research on Augustine and the Gospel of John.” Cuestiones Teológicas 49, no. 112 (2022): 1–17.

2021 “The Limits of Grief in Augustine of Hippo’s Sermones 172-173 & Sermo 396.” Vox Patrum 78 (2021): 293-310. https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.12259.

2021 “Libelli pacis (libellatici).” In: D. Hunter, P. van Geest, B. Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (eds), Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Leiden: Brill, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00001947.

2021 “Jn. 1:17 and Gal. 4:4-5 in Augustine of Hippo’s Anti-Donatist Polemics and Preaching: Johannine and Pauline Perspectives on Grace.” In: M. Vincent (ed), Studia Patristica CXIX, vol. 16: Augustine the Theologian and Polemicist, 97-108. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.

2021 “Anti-Donatist Polemic and Biblical Hermeneutics: Questions of Ecclesiology in Augustine of Hippo’s De doctrina christiana.” In: T. Nisula, A. Laato, & P. Irizar (eds), Religious Polemics and Encounters in Antiquity: Boundaries, Conversions and Persuasion (Studies on the Children of Abraham, 8), 144-163. Leiden: Brill, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466845_009.

2021 “Pastoral Hermeneutics and Polemical Exegesis: Reflections on Method in Augustine of Hippo’s Io. eu. tr. (406-407).” In: A. Dupont, W. François, & J. Leemans (eds), ‘Nos sumus tempora’: Studies on Augustine and his Reception Offered to M. Lamberigts (Biblioteca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensum, 316), 95-111. Leuven: Peeters, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1q26x87.9. Spanish trans., “Hermenéutica pastoral y exegesis polémica: reflexiones sobre el método en el Io. eu. tr. de Agustín de Hipona (406-407).” Augustinus 63, no. 250-251 (2018): 385-399.

2019 “‘On the Way to Truth and Peace’ ( ep. 33, 6): Augustine’s Anti-Donatist Readings of John 14, 27a.” In: A. Dupont, E. Bendímez, & C. Vargas (eds), Augustine as ‘Doctor Pacis’: Inquiries on Peace for People Living Today, vol. 2, 41-68 . Bogotá: Uniagustiniana Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.28970/9789585498235.1.

2019 “Cristología y exégesis en el Tratado XV In Iohannis Euangelium de Agustín de Hipona,” trans. Enrique Eguiarte Bendímez, Augustinus 64, no. 252–253 (2019): 145–52.

2018 “Hermenéutica pastoral y exegesis polémica: reflexiones sobre el método en el Io. eu. tr. de Agustín de Hipona,” trans. Enrique Eguiarte Bendímez, Augustinus 63, no. 250–251 (2018): 385–99.

Presentations

2021 “Augustine of Hippo’s Preaching on 1 Thess 4:13-14 and 1 Cor 15:32b-34.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, “Contextualizing North African Christianity” program unit; San Antonio, TX; 20-23 November (abstract accepted, paper withdrawn).

2021 “Augustine of Hippo on Christ’s Emotions & Human Mortality.” North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting; 24-28 May (virtual event).

2020 “‘To grieve with a sorrow that will let itself be assuaged’ ( s. 172.3): Purifying Emotion in Augustine of Hippo’s s. 172-173 & s. 396.” International Patristic, Medieval, & Renaissance Conference; Villanova University, 16-18 October (virtual event).

2019 “Jn 1:17 & Gal 4:4-5 in Augustine of Hippo’s Anti-Donatist Polemics & Preaching: Johannine & Pauline Perspectives on Grace.” 18 ^th International Conference on Patristics Studies; University of Oxford, 19-24 August.

Book Reviews

2023      Review of Augustine as Preacher: Living as the Body of Christ, by J. Patout Burns. Augustiniana 73.2 (2023): 369-372.

2023      Review of Friendship as Ecclesial Binding: A Reading of St. Augustine’s Theology of Friendship from his In Iohannis Euangelium Tractatus, by Phillip Brown. Plekos 25 (2023): 585–91.

2023      Review of Augustine & Tradition: Influences, Contexts, Legacy, David G. Hunter and Jonathan Yates, eds. Offerings 17 (2023): 91–93.

2022      Review of The Late (Wild) Augustine, Susanna Elm and Christopher M. Blunda, eds. Augustinian Studies 53.1 (2022): 96–97.

2021      Review of Moment of Reckoning: Imagined Death & its Consequences in Late Ancient Christianity, by Ellen Muehlberger. Augustiniana 71.3-4 (2021): 440–44.

• North American Patristics Society
• Association Internationale d’Études Patristiques
• Society of Biblical Literature

• Practical Theology and Contemporary Ministry
• Catholic Intellectual Tradition

• Philosophy in the Catholic Tradition
• Ancient Philosophy
• Philosophy of Nature and Being
• Theology of the Creed: The Faith Professed
• Jesus Christ: God and Man
• Natural Theology
• Ecclesiology
• Grief and Trauma for Ministry
• Rural Contexts for Ministry
• Parish Ministry and Contemporary Children’s Spirituality