Ryan Marr, MDiv, PhD
Dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor
(515) 643-6679
Ryan.Marr@MCHS.edu

Office Location
SC - 311

Mailing Address

Mercy College of Health Sciences
928 6th Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

Year started at Mercy College: 2014

  • Department: Academic Affairs

Education

  • PhD, Historical Theology, Saint Louis University
  • MDiv, Duke Divinity School
  • BA, Theological Studies, John Brown University

Clinical Field Experience

  • Clinical Pastoral Education as Chaplain at Durham VA Medical Center (Durham, NC): 2007-2008

Research Interests and Professional Projects

  • The theology of St. John Henry Newman, the reception of Vatican II, and liturgy

Recent Publications and Presentations

  • Seeking God with St. John Henry Newman (Our Sunday Visitor Press, 2020)
  • To Be Perfect Is to Have Changed Often: The Development of John Henry Newman’s Ecclesiological Outlook, 1845-1877 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)
  • “Newman and Infallibility.” In The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman (Oxford University Press, 2018)
  • “René Girard and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Re-Assessing the Twentieth-Century Liturgical Reform.” In The Fullness of Divine Worship: The Sacred Liturgy and Its Renewal (CUA Press, 2018)
  • “John Henry Newman on Consulting the Faithful: An Idea in Need of Development.” In Learning from All the Faithful: A Contemporary Theology of the Sensus Fidei (Pickwick Publications, 2016)
  • “Newman’s Mariology: A Model for a Spirituality of Reception.” In Contemporary Perspectives on John Henry Newman’s Spirituality: A Spiritual Theology for the 21st Century (Fortress Press, 2014)

Professional Memberships

  • Academy of Catholic Theology
  • Catholic Theological Society of America
  • St. John Henry Newman Association

Favorite Quote

“Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing dismay you. All things are passing. God never changes. Patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing. God alone suffices.” — St. Teresa of Avila