Readiness to Change: Conversion & the Christian Life

Cajthaml studied philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague from 1991-1993. He went on to study philosophy and psychology at the International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Lichtenstein (IAP). In 2000, he earned his PhD in philosophy at the IAP with the dissertation Kritik des Relativismus. In 2000-2007 he worked as assistant-professor at the IAP. He is a full professor and the Head of the Department of Philosophy and Patrology at the Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology of Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Palacký University Olomouc

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Philosophical Ethics; Intellectual and Spiritual Roots of European Culture; Value Theory

Beth. A. Rath is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland, OH. Her first formal experience with philosophy was as a teenager. She heard a lecture on Descartes, and from there she was intrigued by the sorts of questions philosophers ask. Beth went on to study philosophy and theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she first encountered the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and personalism. There she heard a lecture by Alice von Hildebrand that changed the trajectory of her life and inspired her to pursue graduate studies in philosophy. She completed her doctorate in philosophy at Saint Louis University, with an emphasis on the nature of the human person, moral philosophy, and themes at the intersection of philosophy and theology. At Borromeo, Beth teaches a wide variety of philosophy courses to both seminarians and lay students, and she co-teaches Tolle Lege, a Catholic ‘nerd camp’ for high school seniors in the Diocese of Cleveland.

Borromeo Seminary

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Philosophical Anthropology, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics,
and the work of Thomas Aquinas (Thomism)

DT Sheffler is a philosopher who specializes in the history of the concept of the person. He was profoundly touched by reading Martin Buber’s I and Thou as a teenager and, a few years later, Christian personalists, especially Dietrich von Hildebrand and Karol Wojtyła. This combined with a passionate interest in Ancient philosophy and patristic thought to produce an investigation into the origins of personalism and the foundations for the insights achieved in the twentieth century. This led to doctoral work on Plato’s conception of the self and the soul as a way to understand the pre-Christian background of early Christian thought. He has also continued his research of personalism, especially the thought of Dietrich von Hildebrand and has participated in the Hildebrand Project in various ways since 2015. Dan lives in Louisville with his wife and three children where he teaches philosophy at Memoria College.

Memoria College

Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Ancient Philosophy, Platonism, Early Christianity, Christian Personalism, Philosophy of Religion

James Beauregard PhD is a Lecturer in the Psy.D. and Ed.D. programs at Rivier University, Nashua, New Hampshire, USA where he teachers Biological Bases of Behavior, Neuropsychology, Educational Neuroscience and Aging. His research interests are in the fields of neuroethics and personalist philosophy, including the intersection of these two areas as they impact our understandings of personhood. He is a member of the International Neuroethics Society, where he serves as a neuroethics expert, the Spanish Personalist Association and the International Conference on Persons (where he serves on the board of directors). His recent publications include Philosophical Neuroethics: A Personalist Approach, Vol. 1, Foundations and the forthcoming Philosophical Neuroethics, Vol. 2: Practical Neuroethics. He is currently working on an educational project in conjunction with a Catholic high school to bring the ethical thought of Dietrich von Hildebrand, as well as other personalist philosophers, into the high school curriculum through writing of a high school Catholic Ethics text and instructional materials. He is also editor of the forthcoming Internet Encyclopedia of Personalism, an online, open access peer-reviewed resource on personalist thought to be launched in 2021. His interest in personalist thought was sparked early in his college days when he first read Karol Wojtyla/Pope John Paul II’s The Acting Person and Redemptor Hominis.

Rivier University

Lecturer, Psy.D. and Ed.D. Programs

Research Areas:

Contemporary European personalist thought, neuroethics, bioethics, personalist psychology, and the ethical vision of Dietrich von Hildebrand

Elizabeth Shaw is assistant director for special academic programs at the Arthur & Carlyse Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship and a lecturer in the School of Philosophy and the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. For several years she has assisted in the preparation of new releases from the Hildebrand Press. Dr. Shaw teaches online for the Catholic Distance University and is also associate editor of The Review of Metaphysics and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly. For eight years she was research assistant to Catholic intellectual Michael Novak. She has a B.S. in mathematics from Georgetown University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from Catholic University.

Catholic University of America

Assistant Director, Special Academic Programs, Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship; Lecturer, School of Philosophy

Research Areas:

American Philosophy, Ethics, Personalism, Catholic Social Thought

Dr. Wolter graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Theology, and History from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She pursued her M.A. in Philosophy, as well as her STB, M.A., and STL in Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven (KUL), Belgium, where she also received her Ph.D. in Philosophy. An Austrian-American national, she returned to Austria upon receiving her present appointment at Franciscan University of Steubenville at its Study Abroad Program in Gaming, Austria, in 2007.

Franciscan University, Austria Program

Instructor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Phenomenology, Modern and Renaissance Philosophy, Axiology, Personalism, and Ethics.

Robert is an Associate Professor of Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he teaches philosophy and theology, an associate member of faculty of the International Theological Institute and the Maryvale Institute, an Associated Scholar of the Hildebrand Project, and a founding member of the Aquinas Institute of Ireland, for which he currently holds the position of secretary. Robert was educated at the National University of Ireland Galway, where he studied physics and applied science, Maynooth University and St. Patrick’s College, where he studied philosophy and theological studies, the International Theological Institute, where he received a master’s degree in the theology of marriage and family, and Liverpool Hope University, where he completed a doctorate of philosophy detailing Edith Stein’s engagement with the thought of Thomas Aquinas in her mature philosophy of the human person. Robert is originally from Galway, Ireland.

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Ethics, Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics, Personalism, Edith Stein, Thomas Aquinas (Thomism)

Elisa Grimi is Executive Director of the European Society for Moral Philosophy and the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Philosophical News. On May 30, 2014, she received the Paolo Michele Erede Foundation First Prize with a work on “Politics and Network”. She has studied and worked at various universities throughout the world, in countries including Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, France, and the United States. She is the author of numerous publications.

The European Society for Moral Philosophy

Executive Director

Research Areas:

Ethics, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Analytic Philosophy

Hrvoje holds a BA in Business and MA in Economics from the University of Zagreb. He also holds a second BA and MA in Philosophy, also from the same University. Currently he is pursuing the PhD in Philosophy at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, where he is preparing a dissertation on Dietrich von Hildebrand’s political philosophy. He is also working as Director of Partnerships for World Youth Alliance Foundation based in New York, an organization with more than 1 million members worldwide, committed to promote human dignity, solidarity and right to life in policy, education and culture. In the past he worked as a business consultant. He is an author of the book Amoris Laetitia: Faithfulness or Break? From Wojtyła to Pope Francis and co-author of The Textbook of Catholic Religious Education for the 2nd Grade of High School in Croatia. He published articles in peer-reviewed journals on political philosophy, bioethics and philosophy of the human person. He is happily married and has one child.

John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin

Doctoral Student

Research Areas:

Political Philosophy, Ethics, Bioethics, Philosophy of the Human Person, Phenomenology