LATROBE, PA – Saint Vincent College’s Department of Theology is getting another boost after Dr. Christopher McMahon, a longtime professor of theology, was recently named the next president-elect of the College Theology Society (CTS).
McMahon will serve as president-elect and sit on the executive board beginning at this year’s convention, scheduled for May 28-31, at Villanova University. After a year as president-elect, he then takes over for two years as president, then will serve one year as immediate past president.
McMahon, who joined Saint Vincent College as an assistant professor of theology in 2007, has long been a fixture with the College Theology Society. He first joined the CTS when he was pursuing his doctorate and has been active with CTS since the late 1990s. He previously served the CTS as its treasurer from 2005-2010 and was also a book review editor for its journal, “Horizons.”
McMahon is looking forward to getting to work in his new CTS leadership role, noting that he is searching for ways to renew an organization that is at a critical juncture for the discipline and for the Society.
“We must search for ways to be more expansive and inclusive while at the same time remaining focused on our mission,” he said, “which is to promote the study of theology, especially in undergraduate-oriented institutions.”
As an avid annual CTS convention attendee, McMahon has been able to utilize the event as a means for presentation, publication and deep thought, oftentimes bringing that knowledge back to his students at the College. For instance, the theme of the 2024 convention in Denver, Colorado, at Regis University, was “Vulnerability, Abuse, and Flourishing.”
“I took a look at Christology in Mark and John’s Gospels, and I took some time to identify what I saw as an anti-monarchical Christology, which seems sort of counterintuitive in some ways,” McMahon said. “I did a bunch of work on that, and I wound up publishing an article in the ‘Irish Theological Quarterly’ coming out of that presentation and research. So, that was very helpful, and most of the time I’ve been able to utilize the conference as a springboard for publication. It’s a great avenue for me, and it all comes back to the classroom.”
He served as the local coordinator for the annual convention when it met in 2014 at Saint Vincent and will do so again in 2027 as the CTS convention returns to the College.
McMahon has authored four books and published dozens of articles and essays in academic books and journals. He also has a wide range of book reviews to his credit and has delivered dozens of academic and community presentations.
He won the College’s 2011 Quentin Schaut Faculty Award for pre-tenured faculty excellence and later received the 2017 Thoburn Excellence in Teaching Award at Saint Vincent. McMahon’s basic interests revolve around the intersection of Christology and ecclesiology and the mediation of redemption in history. Additionally, he enjoys writing about the intersection of film and theology.
After serving in the US Army, McMahon earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1992 from the University of Scranton before earning a master’s degree in theology in 1996 from Saint Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed his doctoral studies in religion in 2003 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
Before coming to Saint Vincent College, McMahon served on the faculty of two other Benedictine institutions: Mount Marty College (now University) in Yankton, South Dakota, from 2000 to 2003, and the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, from 2004 to 2007.
