Education:

Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts; B.A., 1977 : double major in philosophy and politics

Immaculate Conception Seminary of Seton Hall University; M.A., 1992 : systematic theology

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; Ph.D., 1992 : philosophy

Philosophical/theological research interests:

Augustine; the influence of Augustine’s Contra Academicos; Milanese Neoplatonism in the Fourth Century; Benedict of Nursia and the Benedictine tradition; political philosophy

Historical research interests:

Irish in Essex County; anti-Catholicism in New Jersey; New Jersey Catholic history

Selected Publications:

"Neglected Historical Riches—Cemetery Inscriptions." New Jersey Catholic Records Newsletter,14:2 (Winter 1995), pp. 3-4

Augustine's Critique of Skepticism: A Study of Contra Academicos (New York: Peter Lang, 1996)

"Some Tombstone Inscriptions with Irish Places of Birth in Roman Catholic Cemeteries of Essex County." Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, 72: 3 (September 1997), pp. 105-108.

"Cicero: influence on Augustine" in Saint Augustine through the Ages: an Encyclopedia, ed. Allan Fitzgerald. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1999.

New Jersey Catholicism: An Annotated Bibliography. South Orange: New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission, 1999. (Published with a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission.)

Review of Augustine of Hippo, Vingt-six Sermons au Peuple d'Afrique, ed. François Dolbeau. Journal of Early Christian Studies, 7:1 (Spring 1999)

"Essex County Gravestones: Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Belleville." Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, 76:3 (September 2001), pp. 119-129.

Numerous book reviews in:

Bestsellers

New Oxford Review

Journal of Church and State

Review for Religious

Library Journal

The Jurist

Journal of Early Christian Studies

My reviews of the following books can be read at The Reviewers' Consortium website:

Boessenecker, John. Gold Dust and Gunsmoke: Tales of Gold Rush Outlaws, Gunfighters, and Vigilantes. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1999.

Cambell, John Q.A. The Union Must Stand: The Civil War Diary of John Quincy Adams Campbell, Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Ed. Mark Grimsley and Todd D. Miller. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2000.

Cole, Garold L. Civil War Eyewitnesses: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles, 1986-1996. University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

Dever, Mark E. Richard Sibbes: Puritanism and Calvinism inn Late Elizabethan and Early Stuart England. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2000.

Everdall, William R. The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicanism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Harper, William T. Origins and Rise of the British Distillery. Lewiston: Edwin Melen Press, 1999.

Henry, Brian. Dublin Hanged: Crime, Law Enforcement and Punishment in Late Eighteenth-Century Dublin. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1994.

Holter, Darryl. Workers and Unions in Wisconsin: A Labor History Anthology. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1999.

Jaffee, David. People of the Wachusett: Greater New England in History and Memory, 1630-1860. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.

James, Simon. The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? Madison: The University of Wosconsin Press, 1999.

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. The Complete Civil War Journal and Selected Letters of Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Edited by Christopher Looby. Chcago: The Univesity of Chicago Press, 1999.

Hucke, Matt and Ursula Bielski. Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 1999.

Lapp, Rudolph M. Blacks in Gold Rush California. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996 (c1977).

Ludwig, Allen I. Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and Its Symbols, 1650-1815. 3rd. edition. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press/ University Press of New England, 1999.

Maier, Bernard. Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture. trans. by Cyril Edwards. Rochester: The Boydell Press, 1998.

The Union Preserved: A Guide to Civil War Records in the New York State Archives. Edited by Harold Holzer. Compiled by Daniel Lorello. Introduction by Harold Holzer and Hans L. Trefousse. Foreword by James McPherson. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 1999.

Professional papers presented:

"Christian and Pagan Esotericism: Cicero and Augustine" - PMR Conference, Villanova University, 1993

"Augustine the Christian and Neoplatonist at Milan" - PMR Conference, Villanova University, 1994

"Medieval and Renaissance Interpretations of the Contra Academicos" - PMR Conference, Villanova University, 1995

"Augustine the Preacher, Augustine the Exegete: Teaching the Few and the Many" - PMR Conference, Villanova University, 1996

"The Idea of Nature in Augustine's Dialogues" - PMR Conference, Villanova University, 1997

"American Benedictinism: Ancient Wisdom for a New Land" - Newark Abbey Lecture Series, Spring 1997

"Monks and History" - Newark Abbey Lecture Series, Summer 1997

"Monks as Transmitters of Culture" - Newark Abbey Lecture Series, Summer 1998

"Saint Mary's Church and the Anti-Catholic Know-Nothingism Attacks of 1854" - Third Annual William Noé Field University History and New Jersey Catholicism Lecture Series, Seton Hall University, March 25, 2003

"'You Cannot Bear Them Now': Patristic Commentary on John 16:12" - Fourteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, 18-23 August 2003

Positions in historical organizations:

New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission, Publications Chair

Board of Trustees, Advocates for New Jersey History