Dr. Jan Christoph Bentz

Biography:

Dr Jan C. Bentz was born in Germany and completed high school in St. Louis, Missouri, as a foreign exchange student. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, with additional Master’s degrees in Sacred Art, Architecture, and Liturgy, as well as in Church, Ecumenism, and Religious Studies. His published doctoral dissertation focuses on the metaphysical thought of Gustav Siewerth in dialogue with Thomas Aquinas and Hegel.

Dr Bentz lectures at Blackfriars Studium in Oxford, where he teaches courses on Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of History. He also teaches for Memoria College, a U.S.-based Great Books programme rooted in the classical tradition, offering online courses in philosophy and the humanities. He has previously taught at the Catholic University of America’s Rome campus, Christendom College’s Rome Program, and for IES Abroad. He is also a member of Faculty at Memoria College (KY, USA) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the MCC (Budapest, Hungary).

His areas of expertise include Metaphysics, History of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Thomism, and the Philosophy of Art. Alongside his academic work, Dr Bentz is active as a writer and journalist. He has reported and commented for outlets such as EWTN, Catholic News Agency, Inside the Vatican, The European Conservative, and Jüdische Rundschau. His regular interview series Reality Check, features leading scholars and cultural critics discussing metaphysics, religion, and the crisis of modernity.

He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and three children.

Research Area(s):

Christian and Religious Ethics, Historical and Systematic Theology, History of Christianity, Philosophical Theology, Science and Religion, Study of Religions.

Research Interests:

Dr. Jan C. Bentz’s research focuses on the history and development of metaphysical thought, with particular attention to the intersection of medieval and modern philosophy. His work explores the ontology of being in the Thomistic tradition, especially as interpreted and developed by Gustav Siewerth, and the repercussions of this metaphysical trajectory through thinkers such as Duns Scotus, Suárez, Cusanus, Hegel, and Heidegger. He is interested in Catholic anthropology, the theological foundations of ethics, and the engagement of Catholic metaphysics with contemporary philosophical questions. Additional areas of interest include philosophy of art & aesthetics, political philosophy, and the critique of transhumanism from a theological and metaphysical perspective.

Research Centres and Projects:

I have been leading reading groups through the Thomistic Institute (Blackfriars). I am a member of the Oriel College Metaphysical Club. Faculty member of the St. Basil Institute of Creation Theology.

Current Projects:

Dr. Jan C. Bentz is currently engaged in several major research and editorial projects at the intersection of philosophy, theology, and contemporary cultural critique. He is co-editing a forthcoming volume on the thought of Thomas Molnar, to be published by Arouca Press, which brings together a diverse group of international scholars and includes his own contribution on Molnar’s metaphysical realism and critique of modernity. In parallel, he has completed a full English translation of Romano Guardini’s seminal work Der Gegensatz, which is scheduled for publication in 2025. This project contributes to the renewal of interest in Guardini’s dialectical theology and anthropological vision.

He is also editing a book with Wael Taji Miller on Transhumanism as a Modern Gnostic Ideology compiling contributions from more than 10 projected scholars in different fields. It wants to offer a philosophical, theological, historical, and scientific critique of the transhumanist ideology.

He is preparing more studies on Gustav Siewerth’s critique of John Duns Scotus, analysing the metaphysical implications of Siewerth’s work for the trajectory of modern thought. Another scholarly text, The Analectic Method in Philosophical Pedagogy, reflects on classical modes of instruction and their relevance to contemporary Catholic education and the cultivation of intellectual virtue.

Dr. Bentz is also preparing a revised version of his essay Act and Subsistence—first presented at the Oriel Metaphysical Society—for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

He is further developing a manuscript titled Einführung in politisches Denken (für Christen), a primer in political philosophy from a Christian perspective, which is intended for eventual publication either as a short monograph or a series of extended essays.

Beyond academic publishing, Dr. Bentz continues to direct the Reality Check interview series, where he engages leading thinkers in philosophy, theology, and cultural criticism. He is also active in public discourse surrounding the challenges posed by modernism, transhumanism, contributing interviews, essays, and public lectures that articulate a robust Christian response to emerging ideological threats.

Courses Taught:

Introduction to Philosophy (8 lectures)

History of Medieval Philosophy (16 lecture series)

History of Modern Philosophy (8 lectures)

History of Contemporary Philosophy (8 lectures)

Philosophy of Art (8 lectures)

Philosophy of History (8 lectures)

Political Philosophy (8 lectures)

The History of Platonism (8 lectures)

Recent Publications:

• (in preparation) Analectics: Analogy as Method in Bernhard Lakebrink and Beyond
• (forthcoming 2025) “André de Muralt’s Interpretation of John Duns Scotus in a Historical Perspective”, conference paper, Paris (October 2023)
• (forthcoming June 2025) “The Ipsum Esse in the Thought of Gustav Siewerth”, in: Alain Contat (ed.), Atti del Convegno della Cattedra Marco Arosio dedicato al’ipsum esse nel pensiero di San Tommaso d’Aquino (Rome, 19–20 April 2023)
• (forthcoming 2025) “Eine Frage der politischen Ethik: Das christliche Menschenbild als Grundlage einer Politik des 21. Jahrhunderts – die Katholische Sichtweise”, in: Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Orthodoxe Theologie (VIOTh), Eos Verlag, Sankt Ottilien (from KAS Conference “Politik und Religion”, Cadenabbia 2024)
• (forthcoming 2025) Translation of Romano Guardini, Der Gegensatz, into English (working title: The Polarity)
• “Homo Deus as Utopian Myth: Yuval Noah Harari’s Transhumanism Contested”, in: Journal of Religion, Culture & Democracy DOI: 10.54669/001c.129465
• “Thinking as Engaging ‘Divine Ideality’: Gustav Siewerth’s Critique of John Duns Scotus’ Philosophy”, in: Noesis, no. 42 (Spring 2024), pp. 209–240 (ISSN: 1275-7691)
• Einer der nicht nach Utopia wollte – Thomas Molnar zum Gedächtnis, ed. Jan C. Bentz & Jochen Prinz, Patrimonium Verlag, Aachen 2022.
• “‘Satanic’: An Atheistic Doctrine of Woman” – review and translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, in: Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, vol. 49, no. 3 (2023), pp. 411–422
• “Einheit, Gleichheit, Geschwisterlichkeit: Utopie als politisches Instrument”, in: Die Neue Ordnung, vol. 76, no. 4 (2023), pp. 283–291
• “Liturgy of the Body” – New translation and commentary on Romano Guardini, in: Adoremus Bulletin, XXVIII, no. 2 (September 2022)