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Dr. Michele Saracino has been a faculty member at Manhattan University for 23 years. She now serves as the Executive Director of the James Patterson Honors Program (JPHP), after serving as the Associate Dean of the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences during the 24-25 academic year.
RELS 110H JPHP The Nature and Experience of Religion
RELS 152 First Year Seminar
RELS 213 Catholic Thought
RELS 216 Saints and the Catholic Imagination
RELS 219 Self and Other
RELS 225 Contemporary Catholicism
RELS 226 Contemporary Catholic Theologians
RELS 300 Empathy as Spirituality (Writing Intensive)
RELS 300 Empathy & Self-Compassion
RELS 314 Hinduism
RELS 375 Religion and the Body
RELS 470: Majors Seminar
RELS 480/481: Honors Thesis
Her research focuses on the intersections among theological anthropology, contemporary continental theory, psychologies of the self, and expressions of religiosity in everyday life. Currently, she is working on questions of empathy, self-compassion, and hope.
Dr. Saracino is the author of four books. Her most recent book is Christian Anthropology: An Introduction to the Human Person (Mahwah: NJ; Paulist Press, 2015). This latest book is a textbook for undergraduate and seminary students and deals with the important and sacred relationship between human and non-human animals. Clothing: Christian Explorations of Daily Living (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012) examines the spiritual and emotional anxiety we negotiate through our adornment practices, and has recently been published in a Chinese edition. In her book Being about Borders: A Christian Anthropology of Difference (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2011), she focuses on the theological implications of the borders of self, religion, and place. She is also the author of the book, On Being Human: A Conversation with Lonergan and Levinas (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2003).
She has recently coedited Enfleshing Theology (Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, 2018) with Robert Rivera. This volume is a collection of essays on the distinguished Catholic theologian, M. Shawn Copeland.
In addition, Professor Saracino has published various academic essays. A few recent ones include: “Antennae In: Manifesting a Christian Anthropology of Self-Compassion,” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 39 (May 2023): 68-81; “Intimate Wilderness: A Spirituality of Empathy,” Spiritus 21 (2021): 173-192; and “Into the Blue: Swimming as a Metaphor for Revelation,” in The Enigma of Divine Revelation: Between Phenomenology and Comparative Theology, eds. Jean-Luc Marion and Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer (New York: Springer Press, 2020), 177-195.
She also publishes on issues related to theology and difference, specifically gender. Two essays on that topic include: “Moving Beyond the ‘One True Story,” in Shoulder to Shoulder: Frontiers in Constructive Catholic Feminist Theology, eds. Susan Abraham and Elena Procario-Foley (Fortress Press, 2009), and “Feeling through the Limits of Conversation,” in Prophetic Witness: Catholic Women’s Strategies for the Church, ed. Colleen Griffith (Crossroad, 2009).
Dr. Saracino is a member of the American Theological Society and acts as program chair. She also is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, currently serving on their Centennial Committee, and formerly serving as a board member for the Society. She has also served on the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for the American Academy of Religion.