Joseph Koterski,
S.J. (November 28, 1953 – August 9, 2021) was an American
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
priest, philosopher, author, and professor at
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
Biography
In 1976, Koterski graduated with a
H.A.B. degree in
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
from
Xavier University
Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 studen ...
in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. In 1980, he earned a
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
from
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...
with a thesis titled ''Aristotle's Ethics and Reflective Equilibrium'', and then two years later a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
from the same school, while there on a
Danforth Fellowship
The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed.
Background
Establishe ...
. His dissertation, mentored by
James Collins, was titled ''Truth and Freedom in Karl Jasper’s Philosophy of Science''.
Immediately, after obtaining his degree in 1982, Koterski taught at the
University of St. Thomas St. Thomas University or University of St. Thomas may refer to:
*Saint Thomas Aquinas University, Colombia
*Saint Thomas Aquinas University of the North, Tucumán province, Argentina
*St. Thomas University (Canada), Fredericton, New Brunswick
*St. ...
in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. At the time, he was also discerning a vocation to the religious life. After two years of teaching, he applied to the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. His studies continued and as a Jesuit Koterski earned his Masters of Divinity and License in Sacred Theology from
Weston School of Theology
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (STM) is a Society of Jesus, Jesuit school of graduate theology at Boston College. It is an Ecclesiastical university, ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and re ...
in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
with a thesis titled ''Natural Law and the Book of Wisdom''. From 1986 to 1988, he was Assistant Professor of Philosophy,
Loyola College in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.
Koterski was ordained a priest in 1992. Soon afterwards, he was assigned as a professor at Fordham. In the late 1990s he also began teaching philosophical courses at the minor seminary of the
Archdiocese of New York
The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroug ...
. From 1996 to 2001, he was director of the MA program in philosophical resources at Fordham. From 1994, he has served as chaplain for Queens Court Residential College Freshmen. He was a pillar of the University Faculty for Life, serving on the Board of Directors since 1993, Treasurer 1997-2006, and Secretary since 2006. In 2008, Koterski was elected president of the
Fellowship of Catholic Scholars
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
.
Koterski died on August 9, 2021, while on a retreat on
Enders Island
Enders Island is an 11-acre island located within the town of Stonington, just off the coast of the Mystic section of the town, in the U.S. state of Connecticut.Tamulevich, Susan (June, 2013)"Discover peaceful Enders Island off of the coast of My ...
,
New London County
New London County is in the southeastern corner of Connecticut and comprises the Norwich-New London, Connecticut Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut Combined Statistical Area. There i ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.
Publications
Koterski was the editor or author of numerous articles and reviews.
Since 1992, he served as the editor of ''Life and Learning,'' the peer-review proceedings of the University Faculty for Life. In 1994, he began serving as the editor-in-chief of ''
International Philosophical Quarterly
The ''International Philosophical Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal edited by a group of academics at Fordham University, with the collaboration of the Université de Namur in Belgium. The journal was established in 1961 to provide a ...
.'' Since 1999, he was co-editor of the Fordham University Press Series in Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology. In 2016, he began editing the ''Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly.'' He was also an associate editor for the ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (Gale-Cengage).
Books
*''An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy: Some Basic Concepts'' (Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
Co-edited books
*(with
Graham Oppy
Graham Robert Oppy (born 1960) is an Australian philosopher whose main area of research is the philosophy of religion. He currently holds the posts of Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Research at Monash University and serves as CEO ...
), ''Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments In Philosophy'' (Farmington Hills MI: Cengage Gale, 2018).
*(with Ron Begley), ''Medieval Education'' (Bronx NY: Fordham University Press, 2005).
*(with John Conley, S.J.), ''Culture and Creed'' (Philadelphia PA: St Joseph's University Press, 2004).
*(with David Ruel Foster), ''The Two Wings of Catholic Thought: Essays on Fides et Ratio'' (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003).
*(with Raymond J. Langley), ''Karl Jaspers on Philosophy of History and History of Philosophy'' (Amherst, NY: Humanity Press, 2003).
* (with John J. Conley, S.J.), ''Prophecy and Diplomacy: The Moral Teaching of Pope John Paul II'' (New York: Fordham Univ. Press, 1999).
Selected articles
*"A Reading Guide to Natural Law Ethics" in Ressourcement Thomism: Essays in Honor of Romanus Cessario, O.P., edited by Matthew Levering and Reinhard Hutter (forthcoming).
*"The Status of Personalism in Catholic Moral Thinking Today" - Dunwoodie Review (forthcoming).
*"Memory and The Tempest" in Tolle lege: Essays on Augustine and Medieval Philosophy in Honor of Roland J. Teske, S.J., edited by David Twetten et al. (forthcoming).
*"Society and the Formation of Free Persons" in Yves R. Simon: The Call of Philosophy (Texts with Commentaries), edited by John W. Carlson (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, forthcoming).
*"Jaspers on Truth and Freedom" in Companion to Karl Jaspers, edited by Gregory J. Walters (Amherst NY: Humanity Press, forthcoming).
*"Aquinas on the Sacrament of Marriage" in Rediscovering Aquinas and the Sacraments, edited by Mtthew Levering and Michael Dauphinais (Chicago IL: Hillenbrand Books, 2009), pp. 102–13.
*"Theological Reflections on Natural Family Planning" in Nova et Vetera 6/4 (2008): 765-77.
*"Calderon's La vida es un sueno" in St. Austin Review 8/1 (2008): 15-17.
*"More's Reflections on Complicity with Evil in The History of King Richard III" in Thomas More Studies 2 (2007): 53-62.
*"Non-Negotiable Principles of Christian Politics" in Inside Fordham 29/15 (June 29, 2007): 5.
*"The Four Senses of Scripture" in The Brandsma Review 16/2 (2007): 14-16.
*"The Use of Philosophical Principles in Catholic Social Thought: The Case of Gaudium et Spes" in The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies (St. John's University Law Review) 45/2 (2007): 277-92.
*"The Doctrine of Participation in Aquinas's Commentary on St. John" in Being and Thought in Aquinas, edited by Jeremiah Hackett, William Murnion, and Carl Still (Binghamton NY: Global Academic Publ., 2004), pp. 109–21.
*"Boethius and the Theological Origins of the Concept of Person" in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 78/2 (2004): 203-24.
*Thomas More on Conscience" in Thomas More: Spiritual Writings (New York NY: Vintage Press, 2003), pp. xi-xxix.
*"The New IGMR and Mass versus populum" (co-authored with Christopher Cullen, S.J.) in Homiletic and Pastoral Review 101/9 (June 2001): 51-54.
*"Response to Robert P. George: Natural Law, The Constitution, and the Theory and Practice of Judicial Review" in Fordham Law Review 69 (2001): 101-04.
*"How Jefferson Honored Religion in Crisis 19/3 (March 2001): 35.
*"On the Aristotelian Heritage of John of Damascus" in The Failure of Modernism: The Cartesian Legacy and Contemporary Pluralism, edited by
Brendan Sweetman
Brendan Sweetman (born 1962 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish philosopher whose research interests are in philosophy of religion, contemporary European philosophy, and political philosophy. He is a specialist on the work of French philosopher, Ga ...
(Washington, D.C.: The American Maritain Association and Catholic University of America Press, 1999), pp. 58–71.
*"Jaspers on Realism and Idealism" in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Karl Jaspers Gesellschaft 11 (1998): 58-69.
*"C. S. Lewis and the Natural Law" in CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society 26/6 #306 (April 1995): 1-7.
*"Certain Essentially Human Aspects of Intelligence," paper and discussion in the Proceedings of the ITEST Workshop on Artificial Intelligence (St. Louis MO: March 1984), pp. 38–43 et passim.
*"A Mystic's Epistemology: Truth and Freedom in the Thought of St. Bernard of Clairvaux" in the Proceedings of the Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference 8 (1983): 47-52.
*"Secularization or Christian Culture?" in The Dawson Newsletter 1/2 (1981): 1-4.
*"St. Augustine on the Moral Law" in Augustinian Studies 11 (1980): 65-77.
*"Aristotle on Signifying Definitions" in The New Scholasticism 54 (1980): 75-86
Multimedia
The Teaching Company
The Teaching Company, doing business as Wondrium, is a media production company that produces educational, video and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, series under two content brands - Wondrium and The Great Courses. The compa ...
has employed Koterski for several lectures in its Great Courses series, namely:
*Biblical Wisdom Literature
*Ethics of Aristotle
*Natural Law and Human Nature
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koterski, Joseph
1953 births
2021 deaths
Xavier University alumni
Saint Louis University alumni
20th-century American philosophers
American educational theorists
American Roman Catholic priests
20th-century American Roman Catholic theologians
21st-century American Roman Catholic theologians
Fordham University faculty
Writers from New York City
Aristotelian philosophers
Catholic philosophers
20th-century American Jesuits
21st-century American Jesuits
21st-century American non-fiction writers