Rate My Professor Owen Vyner

Dr. Owen Vyner serves as Associate Professor of Theology and Chair of the Theology Department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Prior to joining Christendom College in 2018, he taught at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia. His academic qualifications include a B.A. from the University of Western Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Notre Dame (Australia), an M.Theol. and Ph.D. from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family (Melbourne), and an S.T.L. from the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary.

Dr. Vyner teaches a range of undergraduate courses in theology, including Fundamentals of Catholic Doctrine I and II, Introduction to the Old Testament, Introduction to the New Testament, Sacraments of Healing: Penance and Anointing of the Sick, The Domestic Church: The Future of Humanity and the Christian Family, The Sacraments and Sacramentality, and The Second Vatican Council. His scholarly expertise lies in sacramental theology, with particular emphasis on the Sacrament of Penance, as well as theology of marriage and the family, and theological anthropology. He has made significant contributions through peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, including “Disembodied Conversion or Gift of Mercy?: Confession by Videoconference” (2022), “Water Becoming Wine: The Sacrament of Penance and Conjugal Spirituality” (2019), and “Recontextualization or Revitalization? A Sacramental Approach to Postmodernity and Pluralism” (2018). Other notable works encompass “The Sacrament of Baptism as a Participation in the Death of Christ” in Homiletic and Pastoral Review (2011), “Whoever Receives One Such Child: A Theology of Adoption” in Anthropotes (2008), and book chapters like “The Family in the Life and Mission of Church” in God and Eros: The Ethos of the Nuptial Mystery (2015) and “Friedrich Nietzsche: Eros, Christian Morality, and the Death of God” in Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue with Philosophical Traditions: From Plato to Vattimo (2023). Dr. Vyner has also authored articles for Homiletic and Pastoral Review, The Adoremus Bulletin, and What We Need Now Substack. In addition to his academic output, he has delivered lectures such as “Sacramental Penance and the Triumph Over Sin” and participated in podcasts like Christendom Conversations, discussing family theology and the thought of Pope St. John Paul II.