ASTRID M. O’BRIEN

EDUCATION

B. S., 1956, College of Mount Saint Vincent, Bronx, N. Y.
            Major: Biology, minor: Chemistry
M. A., 1959, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Ph.D., 1975, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.
            Dissertation: “Resolutio as a Metaphysical Method in the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas”
            Mentor: W. Norris Clarke, S. J.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:  TEACHING

1958, General Science teacher, New York City Board of Education
1959–1960, Teacher of General Science, Health, and Biology, Notre Dame Academy, Staten Island, New York
1950–1960, Adjunct Instructor, Philosophy Department, Fordham University School of Business
1960–1965, Instructor, Philosophy Department, Fordham University School of Business
1965–1968, Instructor, Philosophy Department, Fordham University School of Education
1968–1974, Instructor, Philosophy Department, Fordham University College at Lincoln Center
1975–1989, Assistant Professor, Philosophy Program, Humanities Division, Fordham University College at Lincoln Center
1989–1996, Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, Fordham College at Lincoln Center
1997–present, Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, Fordham University, Fordham College at Lincoln Center

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: ADMINISTRATION

2005–2006, Acting Director, Peace and Justice Program
2001–2005, Assistant Director (L. C.), Peace and Justice Program
1984–1990, Director of the Master of Arts in Philosophical Resources Program

SCHOLARLY WORK

1. “Lucie  Christine: Nineteenth-Century Wife, Mother and Mystic” in Mapping The Catholic Cultural Landscape, ed. Sister Paula Jean Miller, FSE and Richard Fossey (Sheed and Ward [Rowman & Littlefield], 2004). 
2. “Contemplation along the Roads of the World: the Reflections of Raissa and Jacques Maritain”, in Lay Sanctity:Medieval and Modern, ed. Ann Astell (Notre Dame Press, 2000).
3. “Preface,” new edition of Journal spirituel de Lucie Christine (Paris: Tequi, 1999).
4. “A Note on the Translations”, in Sigrid Undset on Saints And Sinners; New Translations and Studies, ed. Deal Hudson (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994).
5. “Raissa’s Hasidic-Catholic Spirituality,” in Maritain and the Jews, ed. Robert Royal (Notre Dame Press, 1993).
6. “Metaphysics as a Spiritual Journey,” in Conflict and Community: New Studies in Thomistic Thought, ed. Michael Lukens (Peter Lang Press, 1992).
7. “Platonic vs. Aristotelian Perceptions of the Church,” The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 1: 218-225.

BOOK REVIEWS   

From 1978 to 1985, brief reviews of 30 books for The Library Journal

Zen and Western Thought by Masao Abe
The Humiliation of the Word by Jacques Ellul
Reflections on Gender and Science by Evelyn Fox Kelly
C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion by John Beverslius
The Man of Reason: “male” and “female” in Western Thought by Genevieve Lloyd
Christian Mysticism Today by William Johnston
From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again by Etienne Gilson
The Confirmation of Otherness in Family, Community and Society by Maurice Friedman
Simone Weil by Dorothy Tuck McFarland
Three Outsiders: Pascal, Kierkegaard and Simone Weil by Diogenes Allen
The Heart of Philosophy by Jacob Needleman
Personhood, Creativity and Freedom by Eliot Deutsch
Spiritual Pilgrims: Carl Jung and Teresa of Avila by John Welch
Religion and the One: Philosophies East and West by Frederick Copleston
The Common Experience by J. M. Cohen and J. F. Phipps
The Zen Environment by Marian Mountain
Towards a Reformulation of Natural Law by Anthony Battaglia
The Mirror Mind. Spirituality and Transformation by William Johnston
How Brave a New World. Dilemmas in Bioethics by Richard A. McCormack
Structure of Human life: a Vitalist Ontology by Michael A. Weinstein
Novitas Mundi: Perception of the History of Being by D. G. Leahy
The Possibility of Naturalism by Roy Bhasker
Nicholas of Cusa on God as Not Other by Jasper Hopkins
Mind and Nature by Gregory Bateson
Life and Death with Liberty and Justice by Germain Grisez and Joseph M. Boyle, Jr.
Aquinas: God and Action by David Burrell
Lectures on Philosophy by Simone Weil
Women of Spirit. Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions by Rosemary Reuther and Eleanor McLaughlin, eds.
The Heart of Matter by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Thou Shalt Not Kill. The Christian Case against Abortion by Richard L. Ganz, ed. 

SCHOLARLY ADDRESSES

1. April 19, 2002: “Mathilde Boutle, Wife, Mother and Mystic” at the Catholic Studies Conference, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas.
2. March, 1994: “Contemplation along the Roads of the World: The Reflections of  Raissa and Jacques Maritain” for the Society for Philosophy and Theology, meeting in conjunction with the American Catholic Philosophical Association.
3. May, 1993: “Lucie Christine: Wife, Mother, Mystic” for a session sponsored by Mystics Quarterly in the 28th International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI.
4. October, 1992: “Contemplation along the Roads of the World: the reflections of Raissa and Jacques Maritain” in the conference “Towards a Lay Spirituality for the Postmodern Era”, Schoenstatt Center, Waukesha, WI.
5. October, 1992: Moderator, session “Postmodernism and Mysticism” in the same conference.
6. October, 1991: “Raissa’s  Hasidic-Catholic Spirituality”, American Maritain Association Conference, Washington, DC.
7. May, 1991: Slide Lecture on Skta. Birgitta of Sweden in celebration of the 600th anniversary of her canonization, 26th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI.
8. March, 1991: Slide Lecture on Skta. Birgitta, conference on Medieval Spirituality, Fordham University.
9. February, 1991: Slide Lecture on Skta. Birgitta, Brigittine Convent, Darien, CT.
10. September, 1990: Moderator: “Jewish and Catholic Expressions of Spirituality”, Workshop in Conference on Nostra Aetate, Fordham University.
11. May, 1988: Chairperson/Presider of Session I on St. Thomas Aquinas. 23rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo.
12. April, 1998: “Platonic vs. Aristotelian Perspectives on the Church” for the Society of Philosophy and Theology, meeting in conjunction with the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Louisville, KY (invited paper).
13. May, 1986: “Metaphysics as a Spiritual Journey: Thomas’ Aquinas Doctrine of Resolution”, 21st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI.
14. March, 1985: “Aquinas’ Love of Truth”; the Medieval Institute, Fordham University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Joseph O’Callaghan, Director.