Dr. Eric Manchester, Ph.D., B.A. - Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary

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Dr.

Eric Manchester

Full-Time Professor, Department of Philosophy

• Phone: (610) 785-6548

• E-mail: emanchester@scs.edu

Dr. Manchester joined the faculty in Fall 2014. He teaches in the College Division, primarily in the Pre Theology and the MA in philosophical Studies program, along with a course for the Permanent Diaconate Program for the School of Theological Studies. His courses include electives on free will, the philosophy of family, and philosophical assessment of miracles, as well as courses in epistemology, logic, modern philosophy, and ethics. He has taught at two other Catholic colleges, including 10 years at Caldwell College (now University) in New Jersey, serving as chairperson of the department of theology and philosophy for three years. His training is broadly in the history of philosophy, with specialization in early modern philosophy, as well as ethics and political philosophy.

Ph.D. (Philosophy) Marquette University (1999)
B.A. (Social Science & Philosophy) Northwest Nazarene University (1989)

Professor of Philosophy - St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (2014- )
Professor of Philosophy - Caldwell College (2012-2014)
Associate Professor of Philosophy - Caldwell College (2008-2011)
Associate Professor of Philosophy - Caldwell College (2004-2008)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy - Viterbo University (1998-2004)

The Disabled in Locke and Aquinas: Impediments to Economic Liberty, or Contributors to the Economy of Salvation?” in Life and Learning (Proceedings for the University Faculty for Life), 2019)
“Distinguishing Secular and Theological Justifications of the First Amendment: Implications for Pro-Life Legislation,” in Life and Leaning (Proceedings for the University Faculty for Life), 2011
“Eternal Beatitude as the Foundation of Freedom: Re-Reading the First Amendment Through Maritain,” in Human Nature, Contemplation, and the Political Order: Essays Inspired by Jacques Maritain's Scholasticism and Politics, ed. Peter Koritansky.
Washington, D.C.: American Maritain Association Publications in cooperation with Catholic University Press of America), 2014.
“Creation and the Probability (But Not Necessity) of Evil,” in Aquinas and Maritain on Evil: Mystery and Metaphysics, ed. James Hanink.
Washington, D.C.: American Maritain Association Publications in cooperation with Catholic University Press of America), 2014.
“Pro-Life Philosophy,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy, vol. 3. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. 4 vols.,
“Fichte’s Idealism and Natural Rights: A Key to Understanding Seemingly Inconsistent Arguments for Abortion and Euthanasia,” in Proceedings for the Nineteenth University Faculty for Life and Learning Conference, ed. Joseph Koterski, S.J. Washington, D.C.: University Faculty for Life, 2013.
“Modern Philosophy and the Economic Subversion of Natural and Ecclesial Personhood,” in Gift and Economy: Ethics, Hospitality, and the Market, ed. by Eric Severson. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
Critical review essay, followed by author’s response, of Salvaging Wesley’s Agenda: A New paradigm for Wesleyan Virtue Ethics, by Kevin Twain Lowery (part of the Princeton Theological Monograph Series, republished through Pickwick Publications), in Conversations in Theology and Religion, 44-54 (author’s response 55-60) Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2010.
“Defending God’s ‘Decision’ To Create a Suffering World: A Thomistic Analysis of Evil, Privation, and Foreknowledge,” in I More than Others, ed. by Eric Severson (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishers in 2010), 152-166.
“Political Philia and Sacramental Love,” in The Many Facets of Love, ed. Thomas Oord (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) · Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishers, 2007.
“Locke on Bodily Rights and the Immorality of Abortion: A Neglected Liberal Perspective,” 16th Proceedings of the Life and Learning Conference (University Faculty for Life), ed. Joseph Koterski, S.J. · Washington, D.C.: University Faculty for Life, 2006.
“A Catholic-Orthodox-Wesleyan Exploration of Sacrament and Ecclesiology,” in Wesleyan Theological Journal. · Kansas City: Beacon Hill Books, 2006.
“Trinitarian Stewardship and the Limits of Capitalism and Socialism” in Analytic Teaching: A Community Journal of Inquiry, vol. 25, no. 1., 2005.
“Immortality and the Afterlife,” in Philosophy of Religion: Introductory Essays, ed. Thomas Oord., 2003.
“Preserving Hospitality Through Faith-Based Funding,” in Analytic Teaching: A Community Journal of Inquiry, vol. 23, no. 1., 2002.
“Why Evangelism is Important Even if Salvation is Possible without the Gospel,” in Wesleyan Theological Journal, vol. 37, no. 1., 2002.

June 2024, presentation, “Understanding the ‘Fittingness’ of Creation Through God’s Understanding His Own Undefinable Being,” Sacra Doctrina Conference on Creation, St. Paul Catholic Seminary (St. Paul, MN)
April 2022, presentation, “Maritain’s Critical Realism as an Ex-Huming of the Critique of Causality as Necessary Connection,” American Maritain Association meeting, hosted by Des Sale University.
June 2022, presentation, “Can Nestorianism Provide Insights for Reconciling Human Beatitude and Divine Simplicity While Avoiding Pantheism?” Sacra Doctrina Conference, Eastern campus of Thomas Aquinas College (Northfield, MA),
June 2019, presentation, “The Disabled in Locke and Aquinas: Impediments to Economic Liberty, or Contributors to the Economy of Salvation,” for the University Faculty for Life, held at Mundelein Roman Catholic Seminary (Archdiocese of Chicago)
Fall 2017, presented paper at the annual Society of Catholic Social Scientists Conference, at Franciscan University (Steubenville, OH), entitled “A Critique of Calebresi’s Originalist Defense of Same Sex marriage in Light of Loving v. Virginia.”
Spring 2016, invited speaker for Aquinas Lecture, Conception Seminary, MO. Paper was entitled “How to Be a Conservative Progressive Libertarian Thomist.”
April 2016, presented a paper, “Defending Supernatural Revelation Through the Principle of Falsifiability,” for the Southwest Regional Evangelical Philosophy Society conference at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Fall 2016, invited and presented the St. Maura Campbell Lecture for the Department of Theology and Philosophy, Caldwell College
October 2014, presented paper, “Creaturely Freedom as a Reflection of Indeterminate Infinite Divine Nature and Activity: A Thomistic Exploration,” at the Randomness and Foreknowledge conference, co-sponsored in part by the Templeton Foundation and the Calvin College Divine Foreknowledge and Providence Project, in Dallas, TX
June 2014, presentation on the Catholic teaching on the relationship between faith and reason for Theology on Tap, for Metanoia Young Adults of Montgomery County, at Appalachian Brewing Company, Phoenixville, PA
March 2014, presentation, “Keeping Aristotle’s Family Off Locke’s Property and Marx’s Collective: Exploring Distributism in a Declining Democracy,” at the 2014 Wesleyan Philosophical Society, Northwest Nazarene University (Nampa, ID).
March 2014, presented paper, “Leibniz’s Supreme Monad and Aristotelian Substance: A Philosophical Reflection on Atonement,” at the 2014 Wesleyan Theological Society (philosophical theology section), Northwest Nazarene University (Nampa, ID).
Spring 2012, presented paper, “Epistemic and Personalist Implications of Rejecting and Accepting the Possibility of Revelation,” Wesleyan Philosophical Society Conference (theme on philosophy and religious experience), Trevecca Nazarene University (Nashville, TN).
June 2011, presented paper, “Distinguishing Secular and Theological Justifications for the First Amendment: Implications for Pro-Life Legislation,” at the annual Life and Learning conference (University Faculty for Life), at Notre Dame University (South Bend, IN).
April 2011, presented paper “Untangling Secular and Faith-Based Distinctions of Church and State: A Chalcedonian Approach to Christian Political Life” at Viterbo University Ethics and Leadership Conference on the Virtues (LaCrosse, WI).
October 2010, presented paper “Beatitude as the Foundation for Freedom: Re-Reading the First Amendment in Light of Maritain,” at the American Maritain Association meeting, Walsh University (Canton, OH). The conference featured presentations on Maritain’s Scholasticism and Politics.
October 2009, presented paper, “Creation and the Probability (but not Necessity) of Evil,” at the American Maritain Association Meeting, University of St. Thomas (Houston, TX). The 2009 conference featured papers responding to Maritain’s work St. Thomas and the Problem of Evil.
October 2009, presented paper, “Chalcedon and America: Solovievan Reflections on the Church-State Relation” at the Society of Catholic Social Scientists conference, at University of Mississippi School of Law (Oxford, MS).
June 2009, presented paper, “Fichte’s Idealistic Shift for Natural Rights: A Key for Understanding Seemingly Inconsistent Arguments for Abortion and Euthanasia,” for the 19th Life and Learning conference (University Faculty for Life), University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis, MN).
April 2009, invited keynote speaker for DeSales University Division of the Social Sciences annual banquet for the 2008-09 academic year. I presented a paper entitled “Chalcedon and America.” (A revised version of this was later presented at the Society of Catholic Social Scientists 2009 conference).
October 2008, presented paper, “‘De-Naturalizing’ Personhood and Rights in Fichte and Locke: A First Amendment Response,” at the Society of Catholic Social Scientists conference, DeSales University (Center Valley, PA).
March 2008, presented paper, “Constant Conjunction and the Critique of Miracles In Hume: An Exercise in Inconsistency?,” at the Society of Pentecostal Studies (philosophy section), Duke Divinity School (Durham, NC).
March 2007, presented paper, “Healing vs. Payment of Debt: Reconciling Images of Atonement in St. Anselm and St. Maximus the Confessor,” at the Wesleyan Theological Conference (ecumenical studies section), Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbannois, IL), March 2007.
March 2007, respondent to keynote speaker Dr. Stephen Long of Garrett Theological Seminary (Methodist), now of Marquette University, for the Wesleyan Philosophical Society conference on Themes in Wesleyan and Catholic Thought, Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbannois, IL).
June 2006, presented paper, “Locke on Bodily Rights and the Immorality of Abortion: A Neglected Liberal Perspective,” Life and Learning Conference (University Faculty for Life) at Villanova University (Villanova, PA).
2006, invited speaker for Theology on Tap, Montgomery County Young Adult Catholics; presented “Why Christianity is an Eastern Religion,” Jenkintown, PA
March 2006, presented presidential address for the Wesleyan Philosophical Society, “Political Philia and Sacramental Love,” Presidential Address for Wesleyan Philosophical Society, at Nazarene Theological Seminary (Kansas City, MO.)
April 2005, presented paper, “Toleration in Locke and Hobbes: A Look at the Advantages of Theistic Dualism over Reductionistic Materialism,” at the Society of Christian Philosophers Conference (Upper Central Region), Lincoln Christian College (Lincoln, IL).
March 2005, presented paper, “A Catholic-Orthodox-Wesleyan Exploration of Sacrament and Ecclesiology,” at the Wesleyan Theological Society conference (ecumenical studies section), Seattle Pacific University (Seattle, WA).
March 2005, served as the philosophical participant on an interdisciplinary panel discussing “monism” (also included theologians and clinical and experimental psychologists), for a joint meeting of the Wesleyan Philosophical Society and the Society for the Study of Psychology and Wesleyan Theology, Seattle Pacific University (Seattle, WA).
March 2004, presented paper, “Becoming Icons of Christ: Wesley’s Moral Law and Liturgy as a Foundation to Holiness,” at the 2004 Wesleyan Theological Society Conference, at Roberts Wesleyan University (Rochester, NY).
Spring 2003, presented paper, “Lockean-Wesleyan Personhood: Implications for Deification and Mariology,” Midwest regional conference for the American Academy of Religion, Luther Seminary (St. Paul, MN).
March 2003, presented paper, “Lockean-Wesleyan Personhood: Implications for Deification,” joint conference for the Wesleyan Philosophical Society and Society of Pentecostal Studies (Lexington, KY, in cooperation with Asbury [Methodist] Theological Seminary).
Fall 2002, presented paper, “Lockean-Wesleyan Personhood: Implications for Trinity and Deification,” at the Society of Christian Philosophy Conference (Upper Central region), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN).
March 2001, presented paper “Why Ex Corde Ecclesia Expands Academic Freedom,” at the Society of Christian Philosophers Conference (Upper Central Region), University of Dubuque (Dubuque, IA).
March 2001, presented paper, “Why Evangelism Is Important Even if People Can Be Saved Without the Gospel,” Wesleyan Philosophical Society, Indiana Wesleyan University (Marion, IN)
Spring 2001, presented paper, “The Centrality of Theism in Defending the Rights of Marginalized Persons,” Viterbo University Ethics and Leadership Conference on Hospitality, (La Crosse, WI).
Fall 2000, presented paper, “Personal Identity and the Unification of Religious Liberty and Property Rights in Locke,” Evangelical Philosophy Society Conference (Danvers, MA).
Spring 2000, presented paper, “Ebeneezer Scrooge as a Model of the Trinity: Locke and Wesley on the Possibility of Multiple Persons ‘Residing within’ a Single Substance,” Wesleyan Theological Society (philosophical theology section), Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA).
Spring 1999, presented paper, “Reconciling Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom: A Lockean Approach,” Society of Christian Philosophers, Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI).

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