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Dr Fáinche Ryan

Director, Loyola Institute

Associate Professor in Systematic Theology

e: faryan@tcd.ie

t: +353 1 8964791

fainche-ryan

Fáinche Ryan of the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin, where she lectures in theology. She was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2019. Before taking up her post at Trinity (2013) she lectured at Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University, was Tutor in Theology at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge, and an affiliated lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. She completed her doctorate work in 2007 on sacra doctrina in the theology of Thomas Aquinas at the Angelicum, Rome. Fáinche was President of the Irish Theological Association from 2010 to 2016, and is presently Section President of the Irish Branch of the European Society for Catholic Theology.

Dr Ryan’s current research focuses on the virtue of truth telling, in the context of a so-called 'post-truth' era. A recent article, Truth Matters: Living in Dangerous Times - Aquinas on the Virtue of Truth-Telling is published in the European Journal for the Study of Thomas Aquinas.

In January 2020 Dr Ryan delivered the Aquinas Lecture at the University of Innsbruck.

Dr Ryan works in the area of ecclesiology and ministry. In 2019 she published “2016 On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine” in The Church in Pluralist Society: Social and Political Roles, (Notre Dame University Press).

Since joining the staff at Trinity her research interests have expanded to include an interest in the theology of the early Irish church, in particular of the Book of Kells. With colleagues she developed a four-week online course, “The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece”.

Her research and teaching interests include:

  • - The role of Church in a pluralist society
  • - New thinking in the theology of ecclesial leadership
  • - Eucharistic theology
  • - The theology of Thomas Aquinas
  • - The history of women’s roles and influence in ecclesiastical contexts
  • RESEARCH