Richard McCarty

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor

Contact Information

OFFICE: Preston 205

PHONE: 814-824-2033

Dr. McCarty engages in ethical inquiry from the perspective of critical realism. This approach seeks to discern and name practical frameworks of morality for the sake of human flourishing—mindful of how critical theories can reveal deficiencies and injustices within existing moral, social, and religious systems. Dr. McCarty joined the faculty of ��Ƶapp University in 2008. He serves the wider community as an ecumenical clergyperson. Dr. McCarty is also the co-founder of two nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, which serve educational and funding needs in the area.

About Dr. McCarty

Ph.D., University of Iowa, Religious Studies
M.Div., Western Theological Seminary, Theology, Ethics, and Pastoral Counseling
B.A. Iowa State University, Religious Studies

What is Religion?
World Religions
Introduction to Ethics
Contemporary Moral Issues
Religion and Biomedical Ethics
Independent Study: Women and Islam; Religion and Politics
Faculty Led Study Abroad, Ireland, France/Italy, Italy/Greece
Religious Perspectives on Human Relationships
Contemporary Folklore, Legends, and Mythology
Senior Capstone Ethics
Peace and Justice
Senior Capstone Religious Studies
Senior Thesis

Virtue ethics and natural law theories from Aristotelian and Thomistic perspectives
Metaethics, moral theory, and applied ethics/social justice
Systematic Catholic moral theology and Protestant theological ethics
The sources and ethics of critical realism
Eschatological influences on Christian ethics
Christian sexual ethics
LGBTQ+ theologies
Religion and the paranormal in North America

The American Academy of Religion (AAR)
Gay Men and Religion Program Unit (AAR)
Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession (AAR)
Mentorship Program Sub-Committee (AAR)
Religion and Monster Seminar (AAR)
The United Church of Christ
Open and Affirmation Coalition
Penn West Conference, Lake Erie Association
The Society of Christian Ethics

Cultural Analyses of Religion, Politics, and Social Ethics: The Writings of Hector Avalos. Co-editor Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2024.
Theology and the Paranormal: Wrestling with Strange Angels. Lexington Books/Fortress Academic (Forthcoming)
Under the Bed of Heaven: Christian Eschatology and Sexual Ethics. State University of New York Press (December 2021; and paperback edition July 2022)
Sexual Virtue: An Approach to Contemporary Christina Ethics. State University of New York Press (February 2015; paperback edition July 2015).
“Critical Realism and LGBTIQ Rights for Africa,” Public Religion and Issues of Homosexuality. Routledge/Ashgate Publishing, 2016.
“Evangelii Guadium, Academic Freedom, and LGBT Scholars and Scholarship,” Journal of Academic Freedom (September 2015).
“Objects of the Inquisition: The Trials of Religion Scholars Who Engage in Sexuality Studies within Catholic Institutions,” Academe. (January 2014).
“Eschatological Sex: Metaphors for the Reign of God,” Theology & Sexuality: Vol. 19, No 2 (2013).
Innocent Ecstasy: How Christianity Gave America an Ethic of Sexual Pleasure by Peter Gardella, Oxford University Press, for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Religion and LGBTQ Sexualities: Critical Essays by Stephen Hunt (Ed.), Ashgate Publishing, for the Journal of Theology and Sexuality.
Do the Gods Wear Capes by Ben Saunders, Continuum Press, for the South Atlantic Review.
“On the Phenomenological Reality of Monsters: Cosmological and Ethical Implications,” American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (November 2022).
“Sex in Heaven? Traditionalists, Utopians, and Reformers on the Afterlife and Sexual Ethics,” Chautauqua Institute, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist House, Chautauqua, NY (July 21, 2022).
Religious Ethics: When the Bible is Used as a Moral Authority,” Wartburg College, Waverly, IA (February 24, 2020).
“An Eschatological Challenge to Homonormativity,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA (November 2019).
“Play and Promiscuity in the Ethics of Sex: New Models for Christian Morality,” Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY (April 4, 2019).
“Christian Eschatology and Sexual Ethics,” Religious Studies Speaker Series, Iowa State University (April 7, 2016).
“Transhumanism, Postmillennialism, and Queer Visions of Eschatology,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA (November 2015).
“The Religious, the Secular, and the New Humanities,” Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (May 6, 2015).
“A New Hope? Pope Francis, the Academy, and LGBT Scholars and Scholarship,” American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 2014 Conference on the State of Higher Education, Washington, D.C. (June 13, 2014).
“Queer Life after DOMA: The Triumph of Gay Marriage in the Age of Family Values,” Panelist, Yale University, New Haven, CT (April 25, 2014).
Carpenter Fellow for the Religion and Sexuality Symposium, Emory University, Atlanta, GA (June 2010); San Francisco, CA (November 2011)

In addition to serving as Professor of Religious Studies, Dr. McCarty also serves the university as the Dean of Faculty; and from 2009 to 2023, he served as the liaison and moderator for the Annual Ethics Symposium (engaging over 1,300 area high school students in the study of ethics)—an event that is sponsored by ��Ƶapp University, the Evelyn Lincoln Institute for Ethics and Society, and the Rotary Club of Erie.

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