Prof. Michael Kirwan
Dr Michael Kirwan
Associate Adjunct Professor at the Loyola Institute,
Trinity College Dublin.
e: kirwanm6@tcd.ie
t: 00353 8964792
Michael Kirwan is Associate Adjunct Professor at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin. He has
lectured for twenty years at Heythrop College, University of London. He is a member of the British
Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which he entered in 1980. His research and teaching interests include:
• The French cultural theorist René Girard, and the implications of his ‘mimetic theory’ of
religion, culture and violence
• Contemporary political theology, and the public role of religion
• Theology and literature
• Jesuit spiritual reflection in a globalising world
His current projects include: an edited collection of essays on Girardian theory and Islam; a book
project exploring aspects of the interface between mimetic theory, political theology and literature;
a project of Jesuit ‘global theology’.
POSITIONS HELD:
September 1998 to 2018: Lecturer in Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Heythrop College,
University of London
2005 to 2015: Head of Department of Theology
Sept 2011-January 2012: Acting Vice-Principal, Heythrop College
2013-2018: Dean of Theology of the Bellarmine Institute (the ecclesial faculty attached to Heythrop
College)
Sept 2015- 2018: Director, Heythrop Institute for Religion and Society.
Sept 2017: promoted to Senior Lecturer and Reader in Theology.
Sept 2017-June 2018: Adjunct Associate Professor, Loyola Institute of Theology, Trinity College,
Dublin.
MEMBERSHIP & COMMITTEES:
2004-2007: Member of Committee of Catholic Theological Association GB
2006-2011: Member of Board of COV&R (Colloquium on Violence and Religion).
2011 to present: Founder and Director of REMUS Research Project: Religion-Mimesis-Society at
Heythrop College.
I have lectured in a number of Systematic and Pastoral Theology programmes at Heythrop,
including sessions on Ecclesiology and Ecumenism, Theology of Ministry, Foundations of Pastoral
Theology, as well as introduction to theology, political and liberation theologies, and soteriology. I
have also been extensively involved in the pastoral and spiritual formation of Jesuits students for
the priesthood.
EXTERNAL EXAMINING:
Luther King House, Manchester; St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill; Beda College in Rome (on
behalf of St Mary’s University College, Twickenham).
RESEARCH STUDENTS:
I have examined thirteen PhD theses, and have supervised the following PhDs to successful
completion:
University of London, theology: Norlan Julia, ‘Towards an Asian Theology of Priesthood’
(2013).
University of London, theology: James Mather, ‘Reclamation of Biblical Concepts: René
Girard and Walter Brueggemann’ (2014).
University of London, theology: Wilbert Gobbo, ‘Critique of the Trinitarian Social Model of
Leonardo Boff: Small Christian Communities of the Archdiocese of Tabora in Tanzania; a
Case Study’ (2016).
University of London, theology: Vicente Fernando Chong Sanchez, ‘A Theological
Aesthetics of Liberation: God, Art and the Social Outcasts’ (2016).
• University of London, theology: Leslie Goode, ‘Re-evaluating the Relationship between
Christian Salvation Event and ‘History of Religions’ Sacrifice: an Appraisal of the
Theological Options’ (2017)
PUBLICATIONS:
1997, ‘The Struggles of Perpetua: Vision, Narrative and the Meaning of Martyrdom’ in Browne,
H.B. and Griffith-Dickson G. (eds.), Passion For Critique: Essays in Honour of F.J. Laishley.
Prague: Ecumenical Publishing House, pp. 177-200.
1998, ‘GC34’S Teaching on Culture: its Significance for Theology’, in Theological Research and
Reflection in Service of the Gospel: IV Conference of European Jesuit Theologians, Bratislava 10th13th September 1998, pp. 29-39.
2001, ‘Refounding and Repeating: Ways to the New’, The Way Supplement 2001/101, 9-19.
2001, ‘Millenial Appetites and the Refusal of Somatocracy’ in Stanley E. Porter, Michael A. Hayes
and David Tombs (eds.), Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. Faith in the Millenium, pp. 348-359.
2002, ‘The Limits of Interpretation: the Gadamer-Habermas Conversation’, in P. Pokorny and J.
Rosovec (eds.), Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Exegesis [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 153]. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.pp. 68-83.
2004, and Anthony O’Mahony (eds.), World Christianity. London: Melisende Press.
2004, ‘Current Theological Themes in World Christianity’, in O’Mahony and Kirwan 2004 (eds.),
World Christianity, pp. 43-62.
2004, ‘The Word of God and the Idea of Sacrament’, in Anthony O’Mahony, Wulstan Peterburs and
Mohamad Ali Shomali (eds.), Catholics and-Shi’a in Dialogue: Studies in Theology and Spirituality.
London: Melisende Press.pp. 263-77.
2004, Discovering Girard. London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
2006, ‘Learning to Say No: Does the Eschatological Reserve Have a Future?’, Political Theology 7:
3 2006, 393-409.
2007, ‘Eucharist and Sacrifice’, New Blackfriars 88: 1014 (March 2007), 213-227.
2008, Political Theology: a New Introduction.
London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
2009, ‘Girard, Religion, Violence and Modern Martyrdom’ in Peter B. Clarke (ed.), The Oxford
Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Oxford: OUP. pp. 909-923.
2009, Girard and Theology. London and New York: T&T Clark, Continuum.
2010, ‘Being Saved from Salvation: Rene Girard and the Victims of Religion’, Communio Viatorum
(LII 2010) no.1: 27-47.
2010, ‘George Tyrrell and Vatican II’, in Oliver Rafferty (ed.), George Tyrrell and Catholic
Modernism. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 131-152.
2010, ‘Reading the Signs of the Times’, in James Sweeney, Gemma Simmonds and David Lonsdale
(eds.), Keeping Faith in Practice: Aspects of Catholic Pastoral Theology. London: SCM Press, pp.
49-63.
2012, ‘Liberation Theology and Catholic Social Teaching’, New Blackfriars, vol. 93:1044 (2012),
246-258.
2012, ‘A Candle in Sunshine: Desire and Apocalypse in Blake and Hölderlin’, Contagion: Journal
of Violence, Mimesis and Culture vol.19 (2012), pp. 179-204.
2012, ‘Spirituality and Politics’, in Richard Woods and Peter Tyler (eds.), Bloomsbury Guide to
Christian Spirituality. London: Bloomsbury Press, pp. 187-199.
2014, ‘William T. Cavanaugh and René Girard: the Myth of Religious Violence’, Political Theology
vol.15.6 (November 2014), 509-521.
2015, ‘A New Heaven and a New Earth: Apocalypticism and its Alternatives’, in Paul Gifford and
Pierpaolo Antonelli (eds.), Can we Survive our Origins? Readings in René Girard’s Theory of
Violence and the Sacred. East Lancing. Mi.: Michigan State UP.pp. 311-30.
2015, ‘Literature and Theology: an Overview’, in Francesca Bugliani Knox and David Lonsdale
(eds.), Poetry and the Religious Imagination: the Power of the Word. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. pp.
9-30.
2015, ‘The Unbearable Humanum: Reflecting Back, Working Forwards’, New Blackfriars vol.
96:1062 (2015), 239-251.
2015, ‘The “Ugly Broad Ditch”; Authority in a Kenotic Church’, in Anthony J. Carroll, Marthe
Kerkwijk, Michael Kirwan, James Sweeney (eds.), Towards a Kenotic Vision of Authority in the
Catholic Church. Christian Philosophical Studies VIII, Cultural Heritages and Contemporary
Change Series. Washington D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. pp. 165-181.
2015, ‘Raymund Schwager und René Girard- ein anthropologisch-theologisches Gespräch’, in
Mathias Moosbrugger und Jozef Niewiadomski (eds.), Auf dem Weg zur Neubewertung der
Tradition: die Theologies von Raymund Schwager und sein neu erschlossener Nachlass. Freiburg:
Verlag Herder GmbH., pp. 86-99.
2015, ‘Se Deus está morto, tudo é permitido? Girard não acieta o veredito de Nietzsche’, in Revista
do Instituto Humanitas Unisinos, no. 479 (2015): 64-68.
2016, Michael Kirwan SJ and Sheelah Treflé Hidden, ‘“Things Hidden, Now Revealed”: Mimetic
Theory and the Child Sex Abuse Crisis’, in Stephen Bullivant, Eric Marcelo O. Genilo SJ, Daniel
Franklin Pilario CM, Agnes M. Brazal (eds.), Theology and Power: International Perspectives.
New York/Mahwah New Jersey: Paulist Press, pp. 175-192.
2016, ‘René Girard’s Mimetic Theory: an ‘Anti-political Theology?’, in Antonio Cerulla and
Elizabetta Brighi (eds.), The Sacred and the Political: Explorations on Mimesis, Violence and
Religion. London: Bloomsbury Press.pp. 127-144.
2016, ‘Goetheho ‚Rímske prázdniny‘: Utopická imaginácia pre teológiu sveta [Goethe’s “Roman
Holiday”: Utopic Imagination for a Theology of the World]’, in Zdenko Š Širka (ed.), Domov jako
most: Festschrift k padesátinám prof. Ivany Noble (‘Home as a Bridge: Festschrift for fiftieth
birthday of Prof. Ivana Noble’]; Studie a texty Evangelické teologické fakulty; vol. 27, pp. 23-36.
Jihlava, Czech Republic: Jan Keřkovský-Mlýn.
2017, and Sheelah Treflé Hidden (eds.), Mimesis and Atonement: René Girard and the Doctrine of
Salvation. New York, London, Oxford, Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic.
2017, ‘“Strategies of Grace”: Mimesis as Conversion in Girard and in Theology’, in Sheelah Treflé
Hidden and Michael Kirwan (eds.), Mimesis and Atonement: René Girard and the Doctrine of
Salvation. New York, London, Oxford, Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic.pp. 115-34.
2017, with Anna Abram and Peter Gallagher (eds.), Philosophy, Theology and the Jesuit Tradition.
‘The Eye of Love’. London: Bloomsbury.
2017, ‘Theology and Education’, in Sean Whittle (ed.), Vatican II and New Thinking About
Catholic Education. London and New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group), pp. 159-170.
2017, ‘“Putting the Facts to Shame”: Eschatology and the Discourse of Martyrdom’, in Lieven
Boeve, Stephan van Erp, and Martin Poulsom (eds.), Grace, Governance and Globalization:
Theology and Public Life. London: T&T Clark. pp. 159-172.
2017, ‘Mimetic Theory and the Katēchon’, in James Alison and Wolfgang Palaver (eds.), The
Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion. New York: Palgrave.pp. 195-213.
2018, ‘René Girard and World Religions’, in Wolfgang Palaver and Richard Schink (eds.), Mimetic
Theory and the World Religions. East Lansing, Mi.: Michigan State UP, pp. 195-214.
2018, ‘The Paraclete and the Nightingale: the Vital Legacy of Friedrich Spee’, The Way 57.1
(January 2018): 25-37.
2018, ‘“Time, the Mercy of the Messiah”: Pope Francis and Johann Baptist Metz’, in John Downey,
Steve Ostovich and Johann M. Vento (eds.), Facing the World; Political Theology and Mercy. New
York: Paulist Press.pp. 57-74.
2018, ‘Catholic Schools as an Expression of Political Theology’, in Sean Whittle (ed.), Researching
Catholic Education: Contemporary Perspectives. Singapore: Singapore Nature. pp. 83-94.
Follow the link below for more details / module descriptors for the above modules: