Dr. John Bequette

Bio

I earned my Ph.D. in historical theology at Saint Louis University, specializing in pre-scholastic medieval theology. My dissertation examined Thomas of Celano’s Life of St. Francis through the lens of the Latin rhetorical tradition. Currently, my research is in the early medieval tradition, particularly the writings of Bede (672-735). I am a convert to Catholicism, having entered the Church in 1997. I consider myself a ‘traditional’ Catholic in that I am rooted in the Catholic theological and intellectual tradition.  I am also married to my wife Nancy and together we have six children. 

Areas of Interest

• Christian thought in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Period
• Christian humanism
• Christian-Jewish relations
• Christian spirituality

Selected Publications

• Bede the Theologian: History, Rhetoric, and Spirituality (Catholic University of America Press, 2022).
• Christian Friendship: Engaging the Tradition, Transforming the Culture (Cascade Books, 2019).
• A Companion to Medieval Christian Humanism, ed. John P. Bequette (Brill Academic Publishers, 2016).
• “Narrative Theology in Bede’s Lives of the Abbots.” American Benedictine Review 70:1 (2019).
• “The Eloquence of Communio: Rhetoric in Gregory of Tours’ Life of the Fathers.” American Benedictine Review 67:3 (2016).
• “Monasticism, Evangelization, and Eloquence: Rhetoric in Bede’s Life of Cuthbert.” Cistercian Studies Quarterly 48:3 (2013). 

Selected Presentations

• “Bede the Proto-Scholastic? Theology and the Liberal Arts in Bede.” 54^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2019.
• “The Holocaust in Theological Perspective.” Presentation delivered to Theology on Tap, Huntington, Indiana, February 2018.
• “The Venerable Bede: What can he teach us today?” Public Lecture Series, Department of Philosophy and Theology, University of Saint Francis, January 2015.
• “Bede as a Christian Humanist: The Six Ages of History and the Human Person as Microcosm in Bede’s Homilies.” 49^th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2014.
• “The Venerable Bede: Prototype of Christian Humanism?” First Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University, 2013. 
• “Christians, Jews, and Nostra Aetate.” Presentation delivered at Congregation Acduth Vesholom, October 2013.
• “Christian Humanism and the Transformation of Desire in the Rule of Saint Benedict.” 46^th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2011.