Brother Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., Ph.D.

Brother Michael joined the full-time faculty of the Religion Department in 1984, after having taught for five years at the Washington Theological Union and for many summers in La Salle’s graduate program in the summers. From 1984 to 1994, he taught courses in  both the undergraduate and graduate programs and in the University’s Honors Program.  His undergraduate teaching has included courses on Modern Catholicism, Modern Religious Thought, Contemporary Moral Problems, Justice and Peace and Christian Traditions, and in the graduate program, Ecclesiology, Theology of the Second Vatican Council,  Pastoral Ministry in Local Churches and Parishes, and honors courses on topics in religion and society.  In 1994, he was elected as President of Christian Brothers University (CBU) in Memphis, TN and began a 20-year career in university administration at CBU until 1999 and then at La Salle from 1999 to 2014.   Throughout his years in administration, Br. Michael continued to teach at least one course a year at both CBU and then at La Salle.

Education

• B.A.- La Salle University, 1970
• M.A. – University of Notre Dame, 1978
• Ph.D. – University of Notre Dame, 1981

Areas of Expertise

• Ecclesiology
• Pastoral Theology
• Contemporary Spirituality
• Religion and Social Justice
• Religion and Society

Teaching

• Catholicism in the Modern World
• Peace, Justice and the Christian Tradition
• Contemporary Moral Problems
• Modern Religious Thought
• Making Moral Decisions
• The Catholic University: An Oxymoron?
• Believing in a Culture of Choice
• The Parish as a Local Church

Publications and Professional Activities

Contributing author and series editor of the Christian Brothers Spirituality Seminar Series in the late 1980s. This series produced a yearly collection of articles on ministry and spirituality as lived by men’s lay religious groups.

Book reviews in several publications, notably Theological Studies.

Active member of the Catholic Theological Society of America and past member of its Pastoral Theology Section and past Secretary of the society.

Service and Governance Activities

Current trustee of Manhattan College, Riverdale, N.Y.; St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, Winona and Twin Cities, Minn.; The American University of Rome

Current trustee of La Salle College High School, Wyndmoor, Pa.

Current member of the District Council for the Christian Brothers District of Eastern North America

Former trustee of Christian Brothers University and La Salle University

Past member and North American Director of the International Association of Lasallian Universities

Former board member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce

Former board member of the Brooks Memphis Museum of Art, Memphis, Tenn. and of Christian Brothers High School, Memphis, Tenn.