About the Contributors
Aaron Matthew Weldon lives with his wife, Lindsay, and son, Elijah, in Washington, DC, where he is a PhD student in Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America. He received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary, focusing on Anabaptist theology. Aaron and Lindsay were received into the Catholic Church in 2009 at Boston College. His primary research interests are the relationship of the Church to “the world,” vicarious suffering, theological language, and the nature-grace debates. Aaron likes exploring the city, particularly if it involves partaking of the city’s beer offerings. On fall Saturdays, he enjoys cheering for the Texas Aggies.
Brett Salkeld is a doctoral student in Theology at Regis College, Toronto. He is married with two wonderful children (so far). Outside of theology, his interests include the Toronto Blue Jays, rock’n'roll music and cookware with a lifetime warranty. Brett is the author of two books, the award-winning How Far Can We Go? A Catholic Guide to Sex and Dating (Novalis, 2009; co-author actually) and Can Catholics and Evangelicals Agree about Purgatory and the Last Judgment? (Paulist Press, 2011). The second is a version of his Master’s thesis. From these titles, the careful observer will discern his interests in sex and ecumenism. The link? Where is the Church’s credibility at stake? Brett is writing his doctoral dissertation on the question of Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist as a topic of ecumenical dialogue.
David Cruz-Uribe, SFO is a professor of Mathematics at Trinity College, happily married for 24+ years with three teenage sons. He is a member of the Secular Franciscan Order and an anti-death penalty activist. He frequently described himself to his confessor as a “wretched sinner” since he is a) a sinner, and b) not very good at it. On the American political spectrum and in the Catholic Church he tends to break either left or right, depending. He is interested in the philosophy of Slavoj Zizek, anarchism and the personalism of the Catholic Worker movement.
James Nicholas is a Canadian with interest in film, literature and religion.
Julia Smucker is a Mennonite Catholic, or a Mennonite who has come into full communion with the Catholic Church, or a Catholic profoundly and gratefully shaped by her Mennonite heritage – take your pick. She regularly brings the various harmonies and dissonances of this biecclesial identity into her coursework at St. John’s School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota, where she is working on a Master of Theology (ThM) degree after earning her MA in Systematics. She is enthused by finding big-picture connections and relishes her title as the reigning Anti-Dichotomy Queen.
Kari J. (Lundgren) Tremeryn is a doctoral candidate in Rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she also received her MA in Rhetoric. She did her undergraduate work in Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. Her research focuses on the legitimation of political structures through religious language, with an emphasis on the rhetorical mechanisms of contemporary Catholicism. Kari is co-founder of Religious Rhetorics. In addition, her commentary on contemporary Catholicism and abortion politics was featured on The Huffington Post during the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election.
Kelly Wilson lives in the United States as he completes a program of formation crafted for those discerning the priesthood. He write at Musings on Film.
Kyle R. Cupp is an independent writing and editing professional. He was born in California, lived many years in Iowa, attended college at Franciscan University in Ohio, and now lives with his wife, son, and daughter in North Texas. He has a BA in English and an MA in Philosophy. His philosophical interests include phenomenology, hermeneutics, and political theory. Kyle enjoys bicycling to work, slaying dragons with his son, playing videogames, and diagramming sentences. He also blogs at Journeys in Alterity. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Mark DeFrancisis, a regular commenter here at Vox Nova, earned a BA in philosophy from the University of Toronto, St. Michael’s College. He’s done extensive graduate studies in philosophy, English and education at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, PA. Mark has worked in Catholic education and youth and young adult ministry. He is a classical music junkie (Bach, Mozart, Bruckner and Mahler are among his favorite composers) and die-hard Pittsburgh Pirates fan.
Mark Gordon was reconciled to the Church in 1997. He is a partner in a consulting firm which assists communities and organizations to become more resilient through the application of whole-systems thinking. Mark is the former associate director of evangelization at St. Edmund’s/Enders Island (Mystic, CT), where he co-founded the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art. Mark has written for various publications, including National Catholic Register and Mars Hill Journal, and for seven years he was the host and producer of Abound in Hope, a nationally syndicated Catholic radio program. Mark is the author of 40 Days, 40 Graces, a reflection on his journey into the Catholic Church and the unexpected graces that followed.
Matt Talbot, a regular commenter at Vox Nova, blogs over at The Hopeful Populist and lives in Berkeley, California. He describes himself as an ordinary sinner who believes “a saint is a sinner who keeps trying.”
Nate Wildermuth belongs to the Catholic Worker movement, and lives in an undercover house of hospitality in Maplewood, Missouri. He and his first wife, Angela, house and feed their two young sons John Paul Pax and Leo Francis, as well as a wonderful not-quite-as-homeless-woman, Tahesia. Nate is a former soldier and conscientious objector, and likes board games. He is also a non-practicing luddite and full-time web developer. God help him.
Tim Muldoon (Ph.D., Catholic Systematic Theology, Duquesne) is a regular witness to the epiphanies of marriage (17+ years) and adoptive fatherhood (of two exquisite women in fieri from China). He clings tenaciously to dreams of athletic glory, living vicariously through his coaching experiences (basketball and rowing) while musing on Homeric and Aristotelian notions of virtue. In his spare time he teaches in the Honors Program at Boston College and writes books (five monographs and two edited, on themes of spirituality, marriage and sex, and the contemporary Catholic Church). His weekly column “Culture at the Crossroads” appears on Tuesdays at Patheos. more
