James Bailey

Dr. Bailey received his B.A. in biology, religion, philosophy, and English at William Jewell College, his master’s degree from the Divinity School at Yale University, and his Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Boston College. The focus of his teaching and research is on social ethics. His publications have addressed a range of moral questions, including economic justice, just war theory, health care ethics, the common good, employee unions, and poverty.

He is the author of Rethinking Poverty: Income, Assets, and the Catholic Social Justice Tradition (University of Notre Dame Press), a book that has been described as: “indispensable reading for students and scholars” (William O’Neil, SJ, Santa Clara University); an “interdisciplinary work with major implications for a reformation of modern social practices,” (Dialogue); “a timely reminder that the Church has much to offer in addressing the social question as it is experienced today,”(Journal of Markets and Morality); a work that “supplies the connections between prophetic but general calls for economic justice and participation, and the concrete policies and practices necessary to advance those ideals as a reality” (Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College); and “a superb, creative, and timely book whose primary audience should be the U.S. Congress” (Shaun Casey, former Director of the US Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs).

Dr. Bailey has presented papers at national and international academic conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Christian Ethics, the College Theology Society, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the Catholic Ethics in the World Church Conference. He has been invited to speak in a variety of contexts, including, most recently, the William H. Furr Dialogue on Religion Series at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, the Bishop Donald Trautman Lecture in Catholic Theology at Gannon University in Erie, PA, and the keynote address at the Inaugural Symposium on Markets and Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Dr. Bailey is Chair of the Theology Department at Duquesne, sits on the Editorial Board of Religious Studies Review, serves as the convener of the Ethics and Political Economy Interest Group of the Society of Christian Ethics, sits on the Advisory Board Member of Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, is member of Duquesne University’s McAnulty College Council, and advisory board member of Duquesne University’s Consortium for Interreligious Dialogue.

• Ph.D., Theological Ethics, Boston College, 1999
• M.A., Religion, Yale University, 1989
• B.A., Biology, English, Philosophy, Religion, William Jewell College, 1984