august 2025

BYZANTINE SEMINARY

In the fall of 2009 I left Villanova University. I had previously been a graduate student there for several years after I finished my undergraduate degree and was looking to determine exactly what my own professional path would be. Originally I had hoped to work on my degree while I remained a teacher within the Archdiocesan system. For various reasons this proved to be untenable, and I found myself in a position where I had to discern an occupation that would fit my personality and also serve as a reasonable means to bankroll my life and ambition. After much thought, and a short stint in the deserts of the American West, I found myself working in the field of behavioral health, and after several years, eventually obtaining the terminal degree of 'Doctor of Psychology'. However, I have never felt entirely at ease with the strict secular materialist reading of the challenge of human suffering, and feel that my own sense of training is incomplete to address the deep existential and spiritual questions that patients are confronted with. The proposition commonly held by various schools of psychological thought lend themselves to terse and at times clumsy assumptions about human nature. I firmly believe that no clinician enters the field to cause psychical distress, but many do inadvertently by being unaware of the deeply rooted ontological needs of their patients. In the era of managed care this is compounded by the drive towards short-term solutions, superficial analysis, and an assembly-line mentality that has become extraordinarily pervasive in American Healthcare. 

My own reading of the fundamental mission of Christ is to act as both healer and educator. I do not think that this would appear as an alien concept to most, as the institutions that the church operates are largely in his domain. I do feel, however, that to be an effective clinician, and one that also maintains a significant intellectual project like the Scriptorium Project, I require additional direction and education. For all these reasons and a few others I have elected to finish my graduate theological education via the Byzantine Seminary in Pittsburgh. I am grateful to those who have supported me over the years and have helped with my eventual return to Theological Studies, and eagerly await engaging with the broader Byzantine community there.