The Church in Quarantine: Thinking Theologically About The Covid Crisis

Dr. Chad Pecknold received his PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2005 and since 2008 he has been a Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology in the School of Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Pecknold has authored or edited five books, each relating the thought of St. Augustine to modern philosophical and theological reasoning, including, Transforming Postliberal Theology (2005), The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning (2006), Time, Liturgy, and the Politics of Redemption (2008), Christianity and Politics (2010) and the T&T Clark Companion to Augustine and Modern Theology (2014).

He teaches in the areas of fundamental theology, Christian anthropology, and political theology. In fundamental theology he brings Augustine’s rejection of skepticism and embrace of metaphysical accounts of causality to bear on modern skepticism and metaphysical agnosticism. In Christian anthropology, Pecknold focuses especially on 20th century nature-grace disputes, and the relationship between Augustinian and Thomistic distinctions between natural and supernatural orders. In political theology, Pecknold is principally concerned with close readings of Augustine’s masterwork, The City of God, as a fundamental and transcendent vision that inspires, and has the power to critique and correct, the dynamics of Western civilization.

Professor Pecknold is also a frequent contributor to debates in the public square. He writes weekly columns as the U.S. Contributing Editor to The Catholic Herald, one of the oldest Catholic magazines in the world, and also writes regularly for other publications, such as First Things, Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and National Review on a range of timely topics related to the importance and impact of Church teaching on social and political questions.

Professor Pecknold is frequently sought after for his opinion on current events, and has been quoted in hundreds of news outlets around the world such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He has appeared as an invited guest on radio and television shows from NPR’s “All Things Considered” to EWTN News Nightly offering his clear analysis and expert opinion on the Catholic Church, the papacy, and the relationship between the Church and politics in American culture.

Pecknold serves on the Editorial Board of The Catholic University of America Press, and also co-edits with Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., their celebrated Sacra Doctrina series. He serves as an Associate Editor for the English Edition of the international Thomistic journal of theology, Nova et Vetera. He serves as Chairman of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and has the honor of serving as a Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at Catholic University.

Fr. Petri was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Madisonville, Kentucky. He initially studied to be a priest for the Diocese of Owensboro and entered Saint Meinrad College Seminary in 1996 before moving to the Pontifical College Josephinum in 1997 where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He then received a Baccalaureate of Sacred Theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Chicago in 2002. Entering the Order of Preachers in 2004, Fr. Petri was ordained a priest in 2009. He has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The Catholic University of America. Prior to his appointment as Vice President and Academic Dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in 2013, Fr. Petri was an Assistant Professor of Theology at Providence College in Rhode Island. He is a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and is the secretary/treasurer of the Academy of Catholic Theology. He has published articles in Nova et Vetera and in The National Catholic Bioethics Quaraterly. He is also a contributor to Catholic News Agency and The National Catholic Register. His book, Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II’s Anthropology, was published by CUA Press in 2016.

In 2012, Fr. Petri was named a clergy-Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. On February 10, 2016, Pope Francis commissioned him a Papal Missionary of Mercy for the duration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Then on November 21, 2016, the Holy Father confirmed Fr. Petri’s ministry and faculties as a Missionary of Mercy donec aliter provideatur.

He is currently a co-host of The Church Alive on EWTN Radio which airs on Saturdays at 7am and 1pm Eastern Time. The Church Alive provides an insightful weekly review through the liturgical calendar and an analysis of happenings within the Church and the world, keeping an eye to Jesus Christ and His saving power which is the source of the Church’s life.