Dr. Kevin Clarke is the Dean of the Institute for Lay Ministry and Associate Professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. His research, which intersects with various theological and exegetical themes, has primarily focused upon Biblical interpretation in early Christianity, especially the Church Fathers’ spiritual exegesis of the Old Testament and readings that harmonize both Old and New, more specifically St. Maximus the Confessor and his interpretation of Scripture in the 7th century. He works on Maximus the Confessor and has completed several translations of his works. His translation of Maximus’s Opuscula and the Dispute with Pyrrhus is available in the Fathers of the Church Series (CUA Press, 2026). He has co-edited two collections of essays: Maximus the Confessor and the Latin West, published in Brill’s Studies in Catholic Theology series (2026), and Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God, published in the Studies in Theology and Religion series (Brill, 2022). He also edited and introduced a book for CUA Press on the Fathers of the Church and the capital vices, The Sayings of the Fathers of the Church: The Seven Deadly Sins (May 2018). He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, book reviews, and popular items. He is a member of biblical, theological, and patristic societies, including the Catholic Biblical Association, the Academy of Catholic Theology, and the International Association of Patristic Studies, where he is the national correspondent for the United States. He is the Associate Editor of Patristic Theology, an open-sourced peer-reviewed journal. He has taught for a decade and a half, having served on the faculties of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, Ave Maria University, and John Paul the Great Catholic University. He especially enjoys teaching courses on the Fathers, the Gospel of John, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.

PUBLICATIONS:

Books:

St. Maximus the Confessor, The Opuscula and the Dispute with Pyrrhus: The Theological and Polemical Works, introduction and translation by Kevin M. Clarke, The Fathers of the Church series, vol. 150, Catholic University of America Press. ISBN: 9780813240824 (2026)

Maximus the Confessor and the Latin West, Thomas Cattoi and Kevin M. Clarke, eds., Brill’s Studies in Catholic Theology series, vol. 15 (Leiden: Brill, 2026), doi:10.1163/9789004749955

Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God, Don W. Springer and Kevin M. Clarke, eds., Studies in Theology and Religion series, vol. 30, Jan Willem van Henten, Mandy Robbins, et al., eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2022), doi:10.1163/9789004526983

Sayings of the Fathers of the Church: Seven Deadly Sins, edited and introduced by Kevin M. Clarke (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, May 2018), 240 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8132-3021- 4

Academic Journal Publications:

“The Literal Sense in the Thought of Maximus the Confessor,” Studia Patristica (in press, 2026).

“A Patristic Synthesis of the Word Enfleshed: The Christology of Maximus the Confessor,” Religions 16.5 (2025): 591 (In a special issue, Christology: Christian Writings and Reflections of Theologians). doi.org/10.3390/rel16050591

“The Spiritual Senses and the ‘Complete Act’ of Scripture: Henri de Lubac’s Recovery of the Mystical in Serious Exegesis,” Angelicum Journal 101.2 (2024), 153–77.

“Patrology Beyond Suspicion: Hermeneutics, Holiness, and Hope,” Patristic Theology 1 (2024), 65–100.

“Abraham the Indiscriminate Almsgiver in John Chrysostom’s Exegesis of the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 27.3 (2024), 66–85. doi:10.1353/log.2024.a932881

“Words in the Word: Maximus on Christ the Creator,” Saint Anselm Journal 19.1 (2023), 57–81.

"Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas on Delayed Hominization: Similarity and Difference,” Angelicum Journal 99.3 (2022), 519–37.

“‘Born from a Woman’: Unveiling the Marian Mystery beneath Paul’s Allegory in Galatians 4,” Irish Theological Quarterly 87.4 (2022), 19 pp. doi:10.1177/00211400221127113

“Προοικονομία in Melito: Allegorical Biblical Exegesis in the Early Christian Liturgy,” Scrinium: Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography 18 (2022), 1–23. doi:10.1163/18177565-bja10063

“The Assent of Faith and the Unity of the Form in Biblical Exegesis: Balthasar’s Response to Rahner,” Heythrop Journal LXI.6 (2020), 989–97. doi:10.1111/heyj.13041

“Moses’s Dark Cloud, Teresa’s Dark Night, and the Soul’s Entrance into the Divine Presence” LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 22.1 (2019), 131–46. doi:10.1353/log.2019.0004

“Preserving the Whole Theological System: Maximus the Confessor’s Dyothelitism as a Bulwark for Trinitarian Theology, Christology, and Soteriology,” Vox Patrum 37, vol. 68 (2017), 479–500.

“‘Being Bishoped’ by God: The Theology of the Episcopacy According to St. Ignatius of Antioch,” Nova et Vetera, 14.1 (2016), 227–43.

“The Mother of Fair Love: The Beauty of the Ever-Virgin for the Vocations of Christian Life,” Marian Studies, LXVI (2015), 185–226.

Academic Book Chapters:

“Smelling of Garlic, Hungry for More Mystical Food: Maximus and Select Correspondents: Elpidius, Polychronius, and Theopemptus,” Discourses of Holiness and the Education of the Soul in Late Antique Christian Monasticism, Andrew Cain and Daniel Lemeni, eds. Vigiliae Christianae Supplements vol TBD (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming, 2026)

“Maximus in the Latin West: Maximus and Augustine in Conversation,” Maximus the Confessor and the Latin West, Thomas Cattoi and Kevin M. Clarke, eds., Brill Studies in Catholic Theology series, vol. 15 (Leiden: Brill, 2026), 15–40, doi:10.1163/9789004749955_003

“Recovering the Story of the Fathers: Maximus the Confessor and Western Theology,” an introduction co-authored with Thomas Cattoi, Maximus the Confessor and the Latin West, Cattoi and Clarke, eds., BSCT 15 (Leiden: Brill, 2026), 1–12, doi:10.1163/9789004749955_002

"Maximus the Confessor’s Anti-Severan Polemics in the Opuscula,” Studies in Maximus the Confessor's Opuscula theologica et polemica: Papers Collected on the Occasion of the Belgrade Colloquium on Saint Maximus, 3-4 February 2020, Vladimir Cvetković and Alex Leonas, eds., Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia, vol. 89 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 105–126, doi:10.1484/M.IPM-EB.5.131019

“Biblical Love, Insatiable Satisfaction, and Deification in Maximus the Confessor,” Patristic Spirituality: Classical Perspectives on Ascent in the Journey to God, Springer and Clarke, eds., Studies in Theology and Religion series, vol. 30, Jan Willem van Henten, Mandy Robbins, et al., eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 376–401, doi:10.1163/9789004526983_022

“The Patristic Understanding of Ascent in the Economy of God,” an introduction co-authored with Don Springer, Patristic Spirituality, Springer and Clarke, eds., STAR 30 (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 1–9, doi:10.1163/9789004526983_002

“Divinely Given ‘Into Our Reality’: Mary’s Maternal Mediation according to Pope Benedict XVI,” De Maria Numquam Satis: The Significance of the Catholic Doctrines of the Blessed Virgin Mary for All People, Judith Marie Gentle and Robert Fastiggi, eds. (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2009), 157-176.