Thomas O'Brien is a social ethicist by training, and more narrowly, a student of Catholic social theory and public theology. He has also recently done some work in business and professional ethics, as well as GLBTQ issues. Dr. O'Brien is the co-editor of a series of books on Religious Perspectives on Business Ethics and the first volume of this series was published in 2006. He is working with Elizabeth Collier from Dominican University on a book in this series on Catholic social theory applied to business and the economy. He has also been seeking opportunities to exploit the success of his recent academic monograph, John Courtney Murray in a Cold War Context, and the Journal of Church and State will be publishing his article "Thinking with Murray about the 'War on Terror'" in March 2009. He is working on a paper that attempts to reconstruct the dialogues Murray had with Reinhold Niebuhr. Dr. Scott Paeth of DePaul University and Dr. O'Brien are working on developing and editing a peer-reviewed academic journal titled, The Journal of Religion and Business Ethics. Their plan is to have the first edition of the journal ready by the end of the Summer of 2009. Within the Religious Studies Department, Dr. O'Brien is spearheading an effort to propose an M.A. in Religious Studies. The plan is to have an approved proposal by the end of Spring 2009.
Articles
Reconsidering the Common Good in a Business Context, Journal of Business Ethics (2009)
In our contemporary post-modern context, it has become increasingly awkward to talk about a good...
Utopia in the Midst of Oppression? A Reconsideration of Guaraní/Jesuit Communities in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Paraguay, The Contemporary Justice Review (2004)
This essay is an examination of the 17th–18th century Guaraní/Jesuit communities in Paraguay, which were...
Options for the Poor in Twelfth and Thirteenth-Century Europe, Horizons (2004)
This essay uses the lens of the "preferential option for the poor" to examine the...
Bibliography of Charles E. Curran, 1990-2000: Another Decade of Catholic Moral Theology, Horizons (2001)
Books
Religious Perspectives on Business Ethics (with Scott R. Paeth), Scott R. Paeth (2006)
In the first anthology of its kind, Thomas O'Brien and Scott Paeth have gathered unique...
A Place of Mercy: Finding God on the Street (2004)
A Place of Mercy: Finding God on the Street
What is it?...
John Courtney Murray in a Cold War Context (2004)
The purpose of this book is to critically examine the Americanist and anti-communist elements of...