Michael A Romero

Michael Romero is the Director of the Pastoral Institute at the University of the Incarnate Word. He completed his Ph.D. in Theology at the University of Dayton in Ohio in Spring of 2022, defending his dissertation with distinction. His dissertation studied the evangelization of Mesoamericans by the sixteenth-century Spanish friars with a focus on their teaching of Marian devotion. Dr. Romero's areas of research interest are the Catholic Church of colonial New Spain, Mariology, and Franciscan spirituality and history.

Michael is originally from El Paso, Texas. He lived there until he moved to San Antonio to complete his undergraduate studies at St. Mary's University where he majored in English and Philosophy. He also earned his MA in English from St. Mary's. He taught English and writing courses in San Antonio for many years at campuses such as Northwest Vista College before returning to school to study Theology. He completed his MA in Theology in 2016 at the University of Dayton with a thesis on the roots of the Catholic Charismatic Movement in the US and the laying on of hands. After completing his doctoral studies, he taught in the Religious Studies department and as a Research and Instruction Librarian at the University of Dayton. Michael is happily married to his wife Angela, a San Antonio native, and they have one daughter, Celeste.

• 2022 - Ph.D. Theology, University of Dayton
• 2016 - MA Theology, University of Dayton
• 2003 - MA English, St. Mary's University
• 2000 - BA English and Philosophy

• "Mary Mother of the Lord, the non plus ultra in the 1681 panegyric of Fray Antonio de Ezcaray, OFM, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception," Mariological Society of America Annual Meeting, Irondale, AL (May 2023)
• "Mary 'Mother of the Lord' in the 1986 Collectio and a Seventeenth-Century Homily on the Immaculate Conception: a study," Theologians of Ohio Annual Gathering, University of Dayton (Jan 2023)
• "The Immaculate Conception of Mary in Seventeenth-Century Homiletics in New Spain," Stander Symposium, University of Dayton (April 2022)

• "Sin and Synodality in New Spain," Religions special issue "Church, Ecumenism and Liturgy: Unfolding Synodality" (work in progress, 2023)

• Reading the Desert Fathers and Mothers
• Taking walks with his wife
• Watching the Cowboys

• Graduate Student Summer Fellowship, University of Dayton, 2021. Research Project: "The Immaculate Conception in Seventeenth Century Homiletics of New Spain"
• Susan G. Perry Award for Best Graduate Student Essay, College Theology Society, 2021. "The Male-Female Polarity in Hans Urs von Balthasar's Reading of Genesis 1-2: Critique and New Analysis"

• Spanish Missions in the Americas
• Theology of Ministry
• Franciscan History and Spirituality
• Catholicism and Native American Cultures
• Mariology
• Medieval Spanish Catholicism
• Catholic Church in New Spain
• Luke-Acts
• Theological Anthropology
• Patristic Hermeneutics
• Catholic Charismatic Movement

• Introduction to Religious Studies and Theology
• Cultures in Collision: Catholic Missionaries in the Americas
• Theology of Humanity, Sexuality, and Marriage
• Ethics
• English Composition