Jared Ortiz joined Hope College in 2012. He teaches Catholic theology in the Department of Religion and is founder and executive director of the Saint Benedict Institute, the Catholic spiritual and intellectual center that serves Hope College.

Dr. Ortiz teaches courses on the mysteries of Christianity, church history, Catholicism, the theology of the human person and early Christianity. He recently co-authored a commentary on the Nicene Creed and is researching Augustine’s City of God.

Areas of expertise

Dr. Ortiz specializes in early Christian theology, especially St. Augustine. He has scholarly interests in liturgy, Patristic theology and disability.

Education

• Ph.D., historical theology, The Catholic University of America, 2012
• M.A., historical and systematic theology, The Catholic University of America, 2009
• M.A., liberal arts, St. John’s College, 2005
• B.A., fundamentals: issues and texts, University of Chicago, 2000

Honors, grants and awards

• Jacob E. Nyenhuis Individual Faculty Research Grant for “Commentary on the Nicene Creed,” Hope College, 2021
• Commencement Speaker, selected by Hope College graduating class, 2020 (address delivered May 2021)
• Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award, selected by the Hope College graduating class, 2020
• Jacob E. Nyenhuis Student/Faculty Collaborative Research Grant for “Sex in the City of God,” a faculty-student collaborative project Hope College, 2020

Selected publications

• The Nicene Creed: A Scriptural, Historical, and Theological Commentary, co-authored with Daniel Keating, Baker Academic (forthcoming April 2024)
• With All theFullness of God: Deification in Christian Tradition, editor, Lexington Press/Fortress Academic, 2021
• “Intellectual Disability and the Sabbath Structure of the Human Person,” in Evil and Creation: Historical and Constructive Essays in Christian Dogmatics, edited by George Kalantzis, Matthew Levering and David Luy, Lexham Press, 2020
• Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition, editor, The Catholic University of America Press, 2019
• “You Made Us for Yourself”: Creation in St. Augustine’s Confessions, Fortress Press, 2016
• “Creation in the Confessions” in St. Augustine, The Confessions: Ignatius Critical Editions, 2016
• “Deification in the Latin Fathers,” in Called To Be Children of God: Deification in the Catholic Tradition, edited by Fr. David Meconi, S.J. and Carl E. Olson, Ignatius Press, 2016
• “The Deep Grammar of Augustine’s Conversion,” in Studia Patristica vol. 70, 2013

Popular Articles

• “Education for Eternity,” Catholic World Report, May 29, 2021 (slightly revised Hope College Commencement address)
• “Why and how to read Augustine’s Confessions,” Catholic World Report, February 6, 2021 (on the spiritual value of reading the Confessions and tips for approaching it)
• “What translation of Augustine’s Confessions should I read?” Catholic World Report, January 25, 2021 (on eight good translations of the Confessions)
• “Augustine on True Worship and the Ecclesial Heart,” Catholic World Report, February 18, 2020 (on Augustine’s rich and integral understanding of worship)
• “Augustine, Consolation after Rape, and the Reshaping of Society,” Catholic World Report, November 25, 2019 (on Augustine’s reconceiving rape and reshaping the values of Christian Roman society)
• “Saint Augustine Contra Suicide,” Catholic World Report, September 29, 2019 (on Augustine’s arguments against suicide)
• “Spectacles for the People,” Catholic World Report, August 25, 2019 (on sexual confusion, the coercion of conscience, and how Augustine teaches us to respond)
• “Sex in the Garden,” Catholic World Report, August 5, 2019 (on Augustine’s view of sex)

Outside the College