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Jana Bennett is a moral theologian with a wide range of research interests and well-regarded publications, including a book on marriage and singleness (Water is Thicker than Blood: An Augustinian Theology of Marriage and Singleness, Oxford University Press 2008) and a book on technology use and theology (Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an Internet Age, Bloomsbury, 2012). She also gives public lectures on marriage and sexuality, Christian asceticism, technology use, war and peace, and environmental care. 

For the most recent popular writing she has done, visit the website she co-edits: catholicmoraltheology.com, a website that features work from 20 North American theologians on a range of subjects.

In her spare time, she runs the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at Immaculate Conception Parish in Dayton, Ohio, for ages 3-9 (See cgsusa.org for more information on this wonderful, contemplative, Montessorian religious education program). She is married with three children.

Courses taught

Undergraduate:

• Christian Ethics and Health Care
• Faith Traditions and Gender
• Augustine

Graduate:

• Catholic Moral Theology

Doctoral:

• Bioethics
• Feminist Theology and Ethics

Professional activities

• Co-editor, catholicmoraltheology.com
• Editorial board, Journal of Moral Theology
• Board member, Ekklesia Project

Research interests

• Contemplation as moral theology
• Augustine’s influence on moral theology
• Marriage, singleness, and sexuality
• Bioethics with a focus on disability
• Technology use in contemporary life
• Feminism and moral theology

Selected publications

Single Author Books:

Singleness and the Church: Toward a New Theology of Singleness (Oxford, 2017)

Water is Thicker than Blood: An Augustinian Theology of Marriage and Singleness (Oxford, 2008)

Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an Internet Age (Bloomsbury, 2012)

Co-Author Books:

Free to Leave, Free to Stay: Fruits of the Spirit and Church Choice (Cascade, 2009)

Book Chapters:

“A Gender Roadmap,” in Catholic Social Bioethics: The Praxis of U.S. Catholic Health Care in a Globalized World, eds. M. Therese Lysaught and Michael McCarthy. Forthcoming, 2019.

“Digital Reality and Locality,” in The Local Church and the Place of the Catholic Ethicist, Antonio Autiero and Laurenti Megesa, eds (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2018): 270-281.

“Not So Private: A Political Theology of Church and Family,” in Christian Political Witness, George Kalantzis and Gregory W. Lee, eds. Chicago: IVP Academic, 2014.

“Women, Disabled” in Disability in the Christian Tradition, John Swinton and Brian Brock, eds. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2012.

Peer Reviewed Articles:

“Blessed Silence: Explorations in Christian Contemplation and Hearing Loss,” in Journal of Moral Theology 6.2 (Fall 2017).

“Spiritual But Not Religious: What Faith Formation Means in the Age of ‘Nones’” in Liturgy (July 2015).

“We Do Not Know How to Love: Observations on Theology, Technology and Disability,” in Journal of Moral Theology, 4.1 (January 2015): 90-110.

Work in Progress:

Theological Considerations of Singleness, under contract with Oxford University Press.

Co-editor, Naming the Sins: Reflecting on the Seven Deadlies for Contemporary Catholics.

Silence of Ascent: A Moral Theology of Contemplation.

“Holy Abortion? The Nun of Watton and Medieval Bioethics,” in revision for journal submission.

“Virtue Ethics and Children’s Formation: A Montessorian Approach,” in revision for journal submission.

Selected presentations

Digital Theology and the Sacraments, Invited Keynote Address, Durham University, Durham UK (April 2018)

“The Catholic Vote,” Invited Panel Presentation on the 2016 election, Society of Christian Ethics, New Orleans, LA (January 2017)