Education
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
- J.D., Hofstra University
- M.A., University of Notre Dame
- M.A., Boston College
- B.A., Fairfield University
Courses
- Foundations of Reflection: God
- Catholic Social Ethics
- Contemporary Catholic Moral Life
- Theological Perspectives on Violence and Peace
- Civic Engagement and Social Action
- Christian Social Ethics (graduate-level)
Biography
James Ball, Ph.D., J.D., began his professional life as a legal aid attorney with Keystone Legal Services in Pennsylvania representing low-income people in civil cases. His work as a moral theologian/Christian ethicist responds to a desire to explore and apply the gospel call for love and justice in our world. Ball’s research interests include Catholic social teaching, grassroots movements for social change, inter-religious dialogue, and the ethics of non-violence and war. He was Graduate Program Director of the Master of Arts in Theology and is a Marianist Educational Associate committed to the educational ideal of serving the whole person for personal and social transformation.
Publications
“St. Mary’s Professor Says Reactions to Pope’s Encyclical Often Off-Base.” Today’s Catholic, July 24, 2015
“What College Catholics Don’t Know ― And Why it Matters: A View from the Classroom.” Momentum: Journal of the National Catholic Education Association. November/December 2014 Volume XLV no. 4, pp. 46-47
“Pope Francis’ Overlooked Sentence: An Important Statement on Islam and Violence.” U.S. Catholic. online.
“Why Don’t They Love Jesus?” U.S. Catholic 78, no. 2 (February 2013): 31-32
“Inter-religious Dialogue with the Fethullah Gῡlen Movement.” In Flying with Two Wings: Interreligious Dialogue in an Age of Global Terrorism, edited by Virginia Burnett and Yetkin Yildirim. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, pp. 33-45
“Catholic Social Teaching: Addressing Globalization in Catholic Business Education” (with Zaida Martinez and Brian Toyne). Journal of Catholic Higher Education 28.1 (2009): 63-81
“A Second Look at the Industrial Areas Foundation: Lessons Learned for Catholic Social Thought and Ministry.” Horizons 35.2 (2008): 271-297
Presentations
“William Ferree, SM, Social Justice, and the Formation of our Marianist Social Habits.” Paper presented at the Association of Marianist Universities Symposium: Right Relationships in Marianist Universities.” St. Louis, MO. June 13, 2016. Available at marianistuniversities.org.
“Nonviolence: Theological Roots and Contemporary Possibilities.” A six hour adult education course presented for the interfaith Sol Center at University Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, TX. Fall 2015
“Why is our Parish the Way it Is? Lumen Gentium and the Seeds of the Modern Church.” Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church 2014 Theology Café lecture series. November 4, 2014
“Pope Francis’ Church in the Postmodern World.” Paper presented at the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies 2014 Meeting, Dallas, Texas, March 8, 2014