Rate My Professor Erik van Versendaal

University of St. Thomas - Houston

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5.05/4/2026

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About Erik

Erik van Versendaal serves as assistant professor of humanities and core fellow at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, where he also holds the positions of Director of the Core starting in 2025 and Associate Division Dean. His academic appointments reflect a commitment to the classical tradition of liberal learning within the university's Core Curriculum program, which emphasizes synthesis across disciplines such as philosophy, theology, English, and political science. Previously, he was professor of philosophy at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts and adjunct professor of philosophy at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry. These roles underscore his expertise in integrating philosophical inquiry with theological insights in educational settings.

Van Versendaal earned his Ph.D. in 2019 from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America. His dissertation, 'Letting Be: Ferdinand Ulrich on Freedom as the Substance of Creation,' examines the communal character of human freedom through the lens of Ferdinand Ulrich's anthropology. His research specializations center on the fruitful exchange between Catholic philosophy and theology, engaging key figures including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, Maurice Blondel, and Karol Wojtyła. Central themes in his work include the nature of being, the human person, and divine revelation in Christ, often explored through metaphysical, phenomenological, and biblical perspectives.

Van Versendaal has an extensive publication record in prominent Catholic intellectual journals. In Communio: International Catholic Review, he has authored 'Man the Measured: The Socratic Exemplar of the Teacher’s Calling to Magnify' (vol. 52.2, 2025), 'The Delivering Word: Dialogue as Coauthorship of Reality' (vol. 50.3, 2023), 'The Whole in the Fragment: The Vocations of Philosopher and Poet for the Salvation of the World' (vol. 49.4, 2022), 'Memory Eternal: Fruitful Death as the Form of Personal Mediation' (Parts I and II, vols. 48.1 and 48.3, 2021), 'Plenitudo Fontalis: Love’s Groundless Yes and the Grateful Originality of Nature' (vol. 46.1, 2019), and 'Reason for Being: Festivity, Perfection, and the "Very Good"' (vol. 44.3, 2017). He contributed 'I in Them, Thou in Me: The Agapeic Community as Exceedingly Whole' to A Heart of Flesh: William Desmond and the Bible (2024). Additional works include online essays 'Bearers of Communion: Reality Remembered in the Home' (Humanum, 2022) and 'Many Tongues, One Spirit: How Language is Natively Catholic' (Humanum, 2020), as well as a book review of Jean-Louis Chrétien's The Call and the Response (Humanum, 2020). He has translated significant texts, such as Hans Urs von Balthasar's commentary on John Paul II's Dominum et Vivificantem (Communio, 2020) and Ferdinand Ulrich's essays on time and spatio-temporality (Communio, 2016).

Active in the academic community, van Versendaal has presented at conferences including the American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA), the Philosophy of Man and Religion (PMR), and the Gilson Society. His presentations address topics such as Dante's Paradiso, Augustine and Hegel, Anselm and Nietzsche, Plato and Desmond on family, and the kingliness of a child at play. He has also chaired sessions at ACPA meetings and contributed to symposia on human freedom and divine omnipotence.