Biography
James Greenaway holds degrees in philosophy and a certification in education. He was awarded a Ph.D. for his dissertation in the field of medieval political philosophy by University College Dublin. Following a year of further research, his book entitled, The Differentiation of Authority: The Medieval Turn toward Existence (Catholic University of America Press, 2012), explores some of the philosophical foundations of Western society, especially the emergence of the human person in the late medieval period as a source of authority and dignity. He co-wrote and edited Human Dignity, Education, and Political Society: A Philosophical Defense of the Liberal Arts (Lexington Press, 2020). He is the author of A Philosophy of Belonging: Persons, Politics, Cosmos (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).
Greenaway currently holds the St. Mary’s San José-Lonergan Chair in Catholic Philosophy. The work of the Chair aims to enhance the Catholic intellectual dimension of St. Mary’s University, and partners with St. Mary’s Center for Catholic Studies. As Chair, he facilitates interdisciplinary seminars for faculty, administration and professional staff across campus, using Bernard Lonergan’s work on interiority as a foundation.
Aside from regular academic responsibilities, Greenaway has also taught philosophy courses in TDCJ prisons that aim at restoring and cultivating a reverence for human dignity among inmates. He has also promoted awareness of human trafficking in south Texas with public events that have allowed victims and survivors of trafficking to tell their own stories.
Selected Publications
Selected Books
The Sacramentality of Grief (manuscript under review)
The Mythos of Belonging: Political and Religious Symbolism (book proposal under review)
A Philosophy of Belonging: Persons, Politics, Cosmos. Notre Dame, IN: The University of Notre Dame Press, 2023
Human Dignity, Education, and Political Society: A Philosophical Defense of the Liberal Arts. Lanham: Lexington Press, 2020
The Differentiation of Authority: The Medieval Turn Toward Existence. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2012.
Books
Selected Essays
“Eric Voegelin as Philosopher of Belonging.” In Voegelin-Gesellschaft, Eric Voegelin Jahrbuch IV. Leiden: Brill Fink, 2025
“Belonging as the Antidote to Ideological Unbelonging.” In Philosopher of Reality: Essays in Honour of Eric Voegelin. Budapest: MCC Press, 2025
“Foreword.” In Glenn Hughes, Inherent Human Dignity: A Philosophical Meditation. Edited by James Greenaway. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 2025
“Love and Sacramentality in the Work of David Walsh, Personalism and Catholic Political Thought: Essays in Honor of David Walsh.” Edited by Richard Avramenko and Thomas Holman. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2025
Love and Sacramentality in the Work of David Walsh, Personalism and Catholic Political Thought: Essays in Honor of David Walsh, ed. Richard Avramenko and Thomas Holman. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press (2025)
“Prudence and the Absence of a Legal Duty to Rescue: The Political Anthropology Sustaining a Liberal Politics of Responsibility.” In International Political Anthropology Journal. Vol. 17, 2 (2024), 187–203
“Eric Voegelin’s Philosophy of History: Universal Humanity and the Tension of Historical Consciousness.” In Science et Esprit. Vol. 75 (2023), 319-336.
“Civility as Political Love: Likemindedness in a Time of Polarisation.” In International Political Anthropology Journal. Vol. 15, 2 (2022), 101-114.
“Foreword”, in Tilo Schabert, The Figure of Modernity: On the Irregularity of an Epoch, trans. Javier Ibáñez-Noé, foreword, James Greenaway. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020
Essays
Selected Reviews
“Reluctant Mystics: Remarks on Glenn Hughes’s From Dickenson to Dylan: Visions of Transcendence in Modernist Literature.” In Political Science Reviewer, forthcoming Spring 2022.
“Searching for History: A Review Essay of Wherefrom Does History Emerge? Inquiries in Political Cosmogony.” In Voegelinview.com, January, 2022.
“David Walsh’s The Sacramentality of the Person.” Perspectives in Political Science. Vol. 50, 4 (2021), 224-228.
Marder, Michael, Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 75, 2 (2021), 386-88.
Reviews
Selected Opinion
“Inclusion and Recognition: The Ancillary Values of DEI.” Public Discourse, November 2023. thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/11/91787/