ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR of PHILOSOPHY

Email:  rmlemmons@stthomas.edu;
        Webpages: Dr. Lemmons's Home Page; UST Faculty Web Page  

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas, 1988.  Dissertation: "Love and the First Principles of St. Thomas's Natural Law."

M.A. Niagara University, New York, 1982. Thesis: "Degrees of Immateriality in Sense Knowledge: An Exegesis of the Texts of Thomas Aquinas."

B.S. State University of New York at Binghamton, 1979. Majors: Biochemistry; Political Science. Senior Research: "An Assay for Hemoglobin's Antibodies."  
 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

RESEARCH,  PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

I: BOOKS

Ultimate Normative Foundations: The Case for Aquinas's Personalist Natural Law. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield: 2011, pbk 2017 with corrected index.  Corrected index for the 2011 hardback..]
Five arguments frame this work: (1) there are universal and indefeasible moral obligations; (2) these obligations are better explained by Aquinas's natural law than by the alternatives; (3) Aquinas's natural law is personalist insofar as it is based on the naturally known love precepts (God is to be loved above all and neighbors as oneself); (4) Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II's analyses of the moral rights and their legal ramifications update personalist natural law while correcting various medieval misconceptions about, for instance, religious liberty; and (5) personalist natural law is able to refute various objections ranging from Hume's Is-Ought Fallacy to contemporary challenges whether metaethical, noetical, feminist, or juridical.

Woman as Prophet in the Home and World: Interdisciplinary Investigations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books,  2016. Editor & Contributor:
        > Introduction: The Hour of Woman; The Hour of Prophesying Love, xiii-xxvii.
        > The Feminine Genius, Personalist Feminism, and the Call for Women to Prophesy According to John Paul II, pp. 31-44.
         > Prophetic Femininity in the Bible, the Church, and Nature: Reflections on John Paul II's Prophetism of Femininity and Marian Ecclesiology, pp. 79-108.
         > Afterword: Discussion of Key Interdisciplinary Findings and Lessons, pp. 231-250.
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Susan C. Selner-Wright, St. John Paul II on the Genius of Woman; Paul Kucharski, On Women and the 'Seeing' of Others; Deborah Savage, Woman as Prophet: A Feminism for the Twenty-First Century; Christine Falk Dalessio, The New Feminism, Prophetic Bodies, and Freedom; Heidi Giebel, Worthy of Belief: Reflections on Prophecy, Responsibility, and Virtue; Anne King, St. Hildegard: Prophet and Doctor of the Church; Susan J. Stabile, Women Mystics of the Catholic Church; Mary Eberstadt, Women and the Crises of Polarization and Secularization; Anthony T. Flood, The Destructiveness of Lust and Its Cure: Reflections on Dante, Aquinas, and Wojtyla; Richard A. Spinello, The Logic of the Gift: Spousal Love and Marriage in the Thought of Karol Wojtyla/St. John Paul II; Peggy Andrews, How Mothers and Professional Careers Experience the State of Flourishing and Why It Matters for Faith Communities; Meg Wilkes Karraker, Spirit in the Heartland: Catholic Sisters as Servant Leaders for Justice and the Common Good.  

II: ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES

III: EDITORSHIPS

Studia Gilsoniana: A Journal in Classical Philosophy 11:3 (2022). Special Issue Co-Editor-in-Chief.

         Studia Gilsoniana: A Journal in Classical Philosophy 10:3 (2021). Special Issue--Selected Papers of the Society for Thomistic Personalism
CONTENTS: Joshua P. Hochschild, “John Paul II’s Gamble with the ‘Meaning of Life’”; Mirela Oliva, “No Meaning for Believers? A Reply to Joshua Hochschild”; Elliot Polsky, “Thomas Aquinas on Grace as a Mysterious Kind of Creature”; Daniel C. Wagner, “On the Foundational Compatibility of Phenomenology and Thomism”

        Studia Gilsoniana: A Journal in Classical Philosophy 7:3 (2018). Special Issue: Selected Papers of the Society for Thomastic Personalism
CONTENTS: R. Mary Hayden Lemmons, "A Word for the Editor"; Anthony t. Flood, "Love of Self as the Condition for a Gift of Self in Aquinas";  John F. Knasas, "Kantianism and Thomistic Personalism on the Human Person: Self-Legislator or Self-Determiner?"; Catherine Peters: "Personal Participation in the Thomistic Account of Natural Law"; Susan C. Selner-Wright: "Thomistic Personalism and Creation Metaphysics: Personhood v Humanity and Ontological vs. Ethical Dignity"; Daniel C. Wagner, "Penitential Method as Phenomenological: The Penitential Epoche."

IV: ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, BOOK REVIEWS
                    published under married name LEMMONS

“The Metaphysics, Spirituality, and Indispensability of Integral Complementarity Within John Paul II’s Thomistic Personalism: The Contributions of Prudence Allen.” In Gender Complementarity: Essays in Honor of Prudence Allen, RSM. Catholic University Press. forthcoming

Review of The Metaphysical Foundations of Love: Aquinas on Participation, Unity, and Union by Anthony T. Flood," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Vol 95, No. 4 (2021): 745-748.

"Power Dynamics, Chastity, and Enduring Spousal Love.” In Sexual Ethics in a Secular Age: Is There Still a Virtue of Chastity? Edited by Eric J. Silverman. 78-94. New York and London: Routledge, 2021.

"The Personalist Future of American Natural Law,” Lex Naturalism: A Journal of Natural Law. Vol. 5 (Fall 2020): 57-95.

Roadmap to Building the Culture of Life: Reflections on John Paul II’s Culture Wars & Thomistic Personalism.” In Life and Learning: Proceedings of the 30th University Faculty for Life Conference. Edited by Joseph W. Koterski, S.J.. 9-28. Bronx NY: UFL, 2020.

"The Life Lessons of Genesis: Moral Guidelines for Today." In Reading and Living Scripture: Essays in Honor of William Kurz, S.J., edited by Jeremy Holmes and Kent Lasnoski. 145-78. Steubenville: Emmaus Academic Press, 2020.

"Unity, Diversity, and Maritain’s Stages of Civilization: Reconsiderations." In Search of Harmony: Metaphysics and Politics, edited by James Hanink. American Maritain Association Book Series 29. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2019: 261-287.

"Brain Death: From Mistaken Assumptions to Legal Fiction and a Threat to the Living." Life and Learning Journal of the University Faculty for Life, XXIX (2019): 87-105.

"Countering the Crisis of American Democracy with the Thomistic Personalism of Aquinas and John Paul II."  Quaestiones Disputatae, Vol. 9, no. 2 (Spring 2019): 218-249.

"Life and Love: The Mission of Personalist Feminism in Combating the Culture of Death." Life and Learning XXVIII (2018): 121-131. http://www.uffl.org/pdfs/vol28/UFL_2018_Lemmons.pdf.

“A Word from the Editor.” Studia Gilsoniana: A Journal in Classical Philosophy 7:3 (July-September 2018): 409-418. https://DOI: 10.26385/SG.070319.

"Review of An Aristotelian Feminism by Sarah Borden Sharkey," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 92 #1 (2017): 13-15.

"Modes of Re-enchantment: John Paul II and the Role of Familial Love," Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies XXIX (2017): 91-114.

"Ex Corde Ecclesiae and the Family," in  The New Evangelization and the 25th Anniversary of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, ed. Elizabeth C. Shaw (Notre Dame, IN: Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, 2017), 83-101.

Review of Searching for a Universal Ethic: Multidisciplinary, Ecumenical, and Interfaith Responses to the Catholic Natural Law Tradition, edited by John Berkman and William C. Mattison III," Journal of Church and State 58:4 (2016): 759-761 (doi: 10.1093/jcs/csw084). DOI: https://dio.org?10.1093/jcs/csw084.

"Compassion, Assisted Suicide, and the Problem of Suffering," Life and Learning XXV (2015): 209-224.

"Love and the Metaphysics of Being: Aquinas, Clarke, and Wojtyla," Questiones Disputatae, 6:1 (Fall 2015): 58-72.

"Aquinas as Teacher of Humanity: Lessons of Truth and Love." InThomas Aquinas: Teacher of Humanity, edited by John P. Hittinger, Daniel C. Wagner, 360-379. Cambridge Scholars Publications, 2015.

"Keeping Love Alive: A Reflection on Karol Wojtyla's The Jeweler's Shop," Well Read Mom Newsletter 2015

"The Role of the Moral Imagination in Happiness," Well Read Mom Newsletter 2014

**"The Affordable Care Act and Religious Liberty: Principles of Adjudication." In The Affordable Care Act Decision: Philosophical and Legal Implications, edited by Fritz Allholf and Mark Hall, 179-192. Routledge, 2014.

"Review of Thomism and Tolerance by John F. X. Knasas." American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 87 #4 (2013): 788-790.

***Indeterminacy Thesis and the Normativity of Practical Reason," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association Vol. 85 (2012): 265-282.

***"Compassion and the Personalism of American Jurisprudence: Bioethical Entailments," Pp, 59-74 in  Bioethics with Liberty and Justice: Themes in the Work of Joseph M. Boyle. ed. Christopher Tollefson. New York: Springer, 2010.

***"Reason in Context: Does Suffering Defeat Eudaimonic Practical Reasoning?" Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association Vol. 83 (2009): 155-172. DOI: 10.5840/acpaproc20098313

"Terrorism, Defensive Torture and the Crisis in International Rights Law," University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 3 #1 (Spring 2009): 71-79.

***"Juridical Prudence and the Toleration of Evil: Aquinas and John Paul II," University of St. Thomas Law Journal 4 #1 (2006): 25-46.

***"Tolerance, Society and the First Amendment: Reconsiderations," University of St. Thomas Law Journal 3 #1 (2005): 75-91.

***"The True Source of Parental Obligations," Life and Learning XIV: 219-224 [The 2004 Proceedings of the Fourteenth University Faculty of Life Conference] Ed. Joseph Koterski, S.J.]

"Priesthood and the Masculinity of Christ," on-line at http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6586

"On Ordaining Women," Correspondence in First Things 135 (August/September 2003): 2-11.

****"Equality, Gender and John Paul II," Logos 5:3 (2002): 111-130.

"Are the Love Precepts Really Natural Law's Primary Precepts?"  ACPA Proc. LXVI (1992): 45-71.

****"Rediscovering Eudaimonistic Teleology," The Monist 75, 1 (Jan. 1992): 71-83.

V:  ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, BOOK REVIEWS
                    published under maiden name HAYDEN

"The 'Feminism' of Aquinas' Natural Law: Relationships, Love and New Life." In Abortion: A New Generation of Catholic Responses. Ed. Stephen J. Heaney. 237-242. Braintree, MA: The Pope John Center, 1992.

"Aquinas and Natural Human Fulfillment: Inconsistencies?" ACPA Proc. LXV (l991): 215-233.

"Natural Inclinations and Moral Absolutes: A Mediated Correspondence for Aquinas," ACPA Proc. LXIV (l990): 130-50. (The 1990 ACPA Machette Award)

"Love: The Heart of Christian Life." In The Catholic Woman, edited with Preface by Ralph McInerny, 101-124. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990.

"The Paradox of Aquinas' Altruism: From Self-Love to Love of Others," ACPA Proc. LXIII (l989): 72-84.

"Review of Freud, Marx, and Morals by Hugo Meynell." The Canadian Catholic Review 3 (1985): 31.

"A Philosophical Critique of the Brain Death Movement," Linacre Quarterly, 49 (1982): 240-247.

"Make Your Own Man (Possibilities in Genetic Manipulation)," SUNY-Binghamton's Science Journal 1 (1978): 4-5.
 

VI: PRESENTATIONS and BLOGS 
                * Invited presentations

 "Hylomorphism, Brain Death and the Law: New Developments." Paper presented at the Society for Thomistic Personalism, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2019.

* "Sacred Complementarity and the New Evangelization." Presentation at the Festschrift for Sister Prudence Allen, Saginow MI, November 2019.

"Brain Death Developments," Presentation at the University Faculty for Life Conference, Mundelein, IL June 2019.

* "Life and Love: The Mission of Personalist Feminism in Combating the Culture of Death.” Paper presented at the University Faculty for Life Conference, Dallas, Texas, June 2018.

* "The Crisis of Civilization of Civilization and John Paul II’s Prophetic Role of Women." Paper presented at the John Paul II Forum and the University of St. Thomas Workshop on John Paul II and the Feminine Genius, Houston, Texas, June 2018.

*  “Genesis as Prophetic for Oneself.” Paper presented at the John Paul II Forum and the University of St. Thomas Workshop on John Paul II and the Feminine Genius, Houston, Texas, June 2018.

“Marian Spirituality and Ecclesiology."” Paper presented at the John Paul II Forum and the University of St. Thomas Workshop on John Paul II and the Feminine Genius, Houston, Texas, June 2018.

“The Prophetic Dimensions of the Feminine Genius.” Paper presented at the John Paul II Forum and the University of St. Thomas Workshop on John Paul II and the Feminine Genius, Houston, Texas, June 2018.

“Implementing the Feminine Genius Via Merciful Love, Personalist Feminism, and Government Policies." Paper presented at the John Paul II Forum and the University of St. Thomas Workshop on John Paul II and the Feminine Genius, Houston, Texas, June 2018.

“The Contribution of Thomistic Personalism to Christian Natural Law,” Paper presented at the Personalism Conference, Franciscan University of Steubenville, May 2018.

"The Role of the Declaration of Independence in American Bioethics.” Paper presented at the University Faculty for Life Conference. Minneapolis, June 2017.

 “Effective Evangelization and the Indispensability of Women and Marian Ecclesiology.” Paper presented at the 6^th Annual Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization, Benedictine College, Atchison, KS, March 31-April 1, 2017.

“Unity Amidst Diversity: Maritain’s Political Philosophy.” Paper presented at the American Maritain Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 2-4, 2017.

“Pope Francis and the Family as God’s Dream.”  Paper presented at the Symposium on Pope Francis’s Vision for the Renewal of the Church, Franciscan University of  Steubenville, Steubenville, Ohio, November 2016.

 "Familial Love as the Key to Religion's Future According to John Paul II." Paper presented at the VIII International Christian Studies Association World Congress, Pasenda, California, July 2016.

"Compassion, Assisted Suicide and the Problem of Evil." Paper presented at University Faculty for Life, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN,  2015.

"Woman as the Guide to Man: The Prophecies of Femininity,"  Paper presented at a conference sponsored by the Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture. St. Paul, 2014.

"Loneliness and Redemption." Paper presented at the University Faculty for Life Conference, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, June 2014.

"To Be or Not To Be: Can Thomistic Antropology survive the Discoveries of Neuorscience, and the Challenges of Scientific Materialism, and Atheism? Paper presented at Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, John Paul II Forum, and the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas, 2014.

"Why Woman; Why Man?" Paper presented for the Siena Symposium for Women, Family and Culture at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, 2013.

"Personalist Feminism," blog interview, 2010 at http://true-feminism.blogspot.com/2010/personalist-femnism.html

"Wojtyla on the Need for Thomistic Personalism." Paper presented at the annnual meeting of the Society for Thomistic Personalism. Creighton, Nov. 2008.

"The Need for Thomistic Personalism According to Karol Wojtya," UST Philosophy Colloquium, St. Paul, MN, Oct. 2008.

"John Paul II's Universal Call to Personalist Feminism." Paper presented at the Siena Symposium conference on Mulieris Dignitatem and the Church's Social Vision: The Feminine Genius in the Pursuit of the Common Good,  University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, Oct. 2008.

"John Paul II on Women: Reflections on Mulieris Dignitatem." Paper presented at the Quaerentes Veritatem Colloquium, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, Sept. 2008.

* "The War on Terrorism and the Legitimacy of International Human Rights Law." Paper presented at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Sept. 2008.

* "The Contribution of Wojtyla's Personalism to Natural Law." Paper presented at the Humanae Vitae: The Person and the Thought of John Paul II Conference, St. Paul Seminary School of Theology, St. Paul, MN, June 2008.

"The Blessed Mother as the Warrior Philosopher," Theology on Tap, St. Paul, MN, April 2008.

"Reconsidering Capital Punishment from the Catholic Perspective." Lecture at the Good Shepherd Parish, Golden Valley, Feb. 2008.

"Blessed Virgin Mary: The Model of Femininity," Lecture at the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul, MN, on January 2008 and St. Joseph's Parish, West St. Paul, MN, May 2008.

"Fides et Ratio: The Major Points," Paper presented at the Seminar on The Vocation of Teaching Undergraduate Ethics, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, June 2007.

"Contemplation as the Key to Integration," Reclaiming the Integrated Life: How Does Catholic Social Thought Counsel Women in the Professions. Beyond Careers to Callings. St. Paul. June 2007.

"Was Ayn Rand Inconsistent in Upholding a Right to Suicide?" Friday Afternoon Argument Session. St. Paul. April 2007.

"Moral and Practical Rationality." Connecting with the Catholic Philosophical Tradition. St. Paul. January 2007.

"Feminism and Catholic Social Thought," Recasting Catholic Social Thought: Bringing Women's Issues and Contributions to the Forefront. St. Paul. June 2006.

"On Prudence Allen's 'Can Feminism Be Humanism?'" Recasting Catholic Social Thought: Bringing Women's Issues and Contributions to the Forefront. St. Paul. June 2006.

"On Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's 'Equality, Difference, and the Practical Problems of a New Feminism,'" Recasting Catholic Social Thought. St. Paul. June 2006.

"On Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Mary: The Church at the Source," Recasting Catholic Social Thought. St. Paul. June 2006.

* "Juridical Prudence: Wojtyla and Aquinas," Public Policy, Prudential Judgment and the Catholic Social Tradition. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy. Spring 2006.

 * "Suffering and Transcendence," University of St. Thomas Conference in Houston on Suffering and Hope, Fall 2005.

"Towards a Philosophy of Gender,"  Fides et Ratio. UST Catholic Studies Workshop, Summer 2005.

* "Tolerance, Society and the Establishment Clause,"  Fides et Iustitia. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy. Spring 2005.

"Catholics and the 2004 Election," Panel Discussion for Catholic Studies. Fall 2004.

"Pro-life Feminism: A Contradiction in Terms?" Human Life Alliance Conference, Fall 2004.

"Controversial Issue: The Church, Politics and You," St. Joseph's Parish, Fall 2004.

"The Pied Piper of Parental Obligations: Commentary on Dr. Peach's "Parental Obligations," Annual Convention of the University Faculty for Life, 2004.

"Reflections on Centesimus Annus and the Juridical/Political Parameters of Vocation and Feminism." John Paul II and the Vocation of the Professional Woman. Spring 2004.

"Controversial Issue: Suffering, Medicine and the Time to Die," St. Joseph's Parish, Spring 2004.

"Controversial Issue: Sex, God and Virginity," St. Joseph's Parish, Spring 2004.

"Modern Biology Meets Aquinas and Vice Versa," 2003 Summer Workshop: Philosophy in a New Key.

"Pro-Life Feminism,"  Midwest Collegiate Pro-life Conference, 2002.

"Aquinas on the Obligations of Love in Charity and Natural Law," Society of Christian Philosophy, 2002.

"Love and Rights: A Medieval Reconciliation," International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 2001.

"Against the Impossibility and Implausibility of Thomistic Natural Law," Minnesota Philosophical Society, 2000.

"Fides et Ratio: Recovery of Natural Law,"  Diocese of Portland, Oregon, Dec. 1999.

"Discovering Moral Values,"  University of St. Thomas' Philosophy Colloquium, March 1999.

"On the Vocation of  Woman in the Church," Engaging Truth Discussion Forum, Center for Catholic Studies, Dec. 1998.

"Against MacIntyre's Metaethical Perspectivism," Minnesota Philosophical Society, Oct. 1998

* "The Love of God as the Primary Principle of Eudaimonic Happiness," Second Annual Aquinas Lecture, West Liberty State College, April 1998.

* "Natural Law and Love: Transcendent Self-Love and Justice," American Maritain Society. March 1994.

"Self-evidence and the Good," International Medieval and Renaissance Congress. Kalamazoo, May 1994.

"The Logic of Aquinas's Natural Law," Society of Christian Philosophers. California, January 1993.

* Plenary Keynote Paper for the 1992 Annual Convention of the American Catholic Philosophical Association: "Are the Love Precepts Really Natural Law's Primary Precepts?" Also published in ACPA Proc. LXVI (1992): 45-71.

* "Sailing with Aquinas Between the Syclla and Charybdis of Christian Love," International Thomist Society. Boston, Spring 1991.

* "The Just War Theory," Keynote Address for "Christian Perspectives on the Middle East." Sponsored by Flagstaff Ministerial Association, Spring 1991.

* "Love: The Heart of Christian Life." Wethersfield Conference. New York, September l990. Also published in Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute, Vol. 3 (1990): 101-124.

"Personal Identity and the Metaphysics of Death," University of Northern Arizona Colloquium. Flagstaff, Spring 1989.

"Natural Inclinations and Moral Absolutes," University of St. Thomas Colloquium. St. Paul, 1988.

* "The Catholic Challenge in a Sex Oriented Society," St. Helena's Church, Minneapolis, 1987.

"Thomistic Truths Substantiating Empirical Science," Center for Thomistic Studies Colloquium. Houston, l984.
 

VII: ASSOCIATION AND INSTITUTE OFFICES

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Assistant Editor, 2019-- present.

American Catholic Philosophical Association, Executive Committee, 1990-93.

Family Studies, University of St. Thomas, MN, Advisory Board Member, 2017 – present.

John Paul II Institute, University of St. Thomas, TX, Advisory Board Member, 2019 -- present.

Society for Thomistic Personalism, founding president, 2008 -- present.

Siena Symposium for Women, Family, and Culture, Co-founding, co-director, 2003-16.

Studia Gilsoniana, Special Issue Editor 2018 -- present.

University Faculty for Life, president 2016 – present.