Robert Elliot is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Theology Department at Assumption University. Prior to joining Assumption, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Lonergan Institute of Boston College and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Providence College, teaching in the Theology Department and the Development of Western Civilization Program. As a teacher, he is committed to introducing students to the vibrancy and wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition and inspiring them in their human quest to live a meaningful life. In his research, he focuses on the relationship between theology and science. He is working on a monograph entitled Evolution and the Image of the Trinity: A Developmental and Enactivist Approach to Humans as the Image of the Triune God.
Education Background
Ph.D. Systematic Theology, Boston College, September 2023.
Th.M. Systematic Theology, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, May 2019.
Joint-M.A. Philosophy and Theology, Boston College, August 2016.
B.A. Philosophy, Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, May 2014.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Theology
Faith & Reason
Publications
“Resonance, Catholic Studies, and the Integration of the Person through Contemplation,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 29, no. 3 (Summer 2026)
“Joint Attention and the Imago Trinitatis,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 58, no. 4 (December 2023): 860-885.
“Givenness and Hermeneutics: The Saturated Phenomenon and Historically-Effected Consciousness,” Heythrop Journal 57, no. 6 (July 2017): 662-677.
Awards and Accolades
Lacordaire Faculty Fellows Program, Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies, Providence College, 2024-2025.
Boston College, Donald M. White Teaching Excellence Award, 2021-2022.
Marquette University, M. Shawn Copeland Award, 2022.
Ernest Fortin Memorial Foundation Summer Grant, 2019.
Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy, Clough Graduate Fellow, 2018-2019.
Witherspoon Institute at Princeton, Thomistic Seminar, Summer 2019.
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Richard M. Weaver Fellowship, 2019-2020.
Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Salvation History Today Seminar in Jerusalem, Summer 2018.
Witherspoon Institute at Princeton, Church and State Seminar, Summer 2018.
Witherspoon Institute at Princeton, Thomistic Seminar, Summer 2018.
Ernest Fortin Memorial Foundation Summer Grant, 2018.
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Richard M. Weaver Fellowship, 2018-2019.
Presentations
“Evolutionary Development and the Analogy of Evil: Why Some Natural Evils are Worse than Others,” Lonergan Workshop, June 2026.
“4E Cognition and Humans as the Image of God: Enacting What We Share with the Divine,” American Academy of Religion, Cognitive Science and Religion Unit, November 2025.
“Human Freedom as Participation in Triune Shared Intentionality,” American Academy of Religion, Christian Systematic Theology Unit, November 2025.
“The Interpretation of Scripture and Its Role in Human Development: A Catholic Engagement with Recent Evolutionary Anthropology,” The New Ressourcement Conference – Word on Fire, October 2025.
“Resonance, Catholic Studies, and the Integration of the Person through Contemplation,” Catholic Studies Consortium, September 2025.
“Tradition, Forms of Culture, and Cultural Evolution,” International Society for MacIntyrean Inquiry, July 2025.
“The Great Chain of Being Conscious,” Lonergan Workshop, June 2025.
“Ascending and Transcending Animal Consciousness,” Veritas Conference, April 2025.
“Original Justice, Original Sin, and the Emergence of the Capacity for Reflection in Humans,” Lonergan Workshop, June 2024.
“Evolutionary Anthropology, Self-Legislation, and Original Sin,” Catholic Theological Society of America Convention, Theology and Science Session, June 2024.
“Human Freedom as Participation in Trinitarian Shared Intentionality,” Catholic Theological Society of America Convention, God/Trinity Session, June 2023.
“The Nature of Community: Social Ontology and the Higher Integration of Human Living,” M. Shawn Copeland Award Lecture in Contextual Theology, Lonergan on the Edge, September 2022.
“Between God and Chimpanzees: Human Persons as Intentionally Cooperative,” God and the Human Person, Boston College, March 2022.
“Cooperative Grace as Shared Intentionality: The Conforming of Humanity to the Triune God,” Lumen et Vita, Boston College, March 2022.
“Charity Informing Faith: Aquinas on Will Perfecting Intellect,” Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference, Villanova University, October 2021.
“Joint Attention and the Imago Trinitatis,” Lonergan on the Edge, Marquette University, September 2021.
“How Love Patterns Experience,” Lonergan on the Edge, Marquette University, September 2020.