Dr. Daniel A. Drain grew up in Toledo, OH and converted to Catholicism at age 17. After initial studies in Philosophy and Theology at DeSales University, he attended the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, earning both an MTS and PhD (Theology, with specialization in Person, Marriage, and Family). A scholar of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology, the themes of his research and publication also include eschatology, the nature of Catholic education, sex and gender issues, and fundamental theology. His first book, Saving Finite Freedom: Hope, Freedom, and Salvation in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theology of Redemption is forthcoming from Wipf & Stock. Locally, he has taught at DeSales University, Immaculata University, and was a full-time faculty member at St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, NY. He lives in Bucks County, PA, with his wife and daughter, and is honored to serve now as the Director of the Office for Life and Family for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and as an adjunct professor at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He is an Ordinary Member of the Sacra Doctrina Project, a peer reviewer for Word on Fire Academic and other scholarly journals of Catholic theology, and was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Featured Recorded Lectures and Podcasts:
Interview with Dr. Larry Chapp on Hans Urs von Balthasar and “Kenosis,” February 2025 – https://youtu.be/tgoDwBzQQOU?si=2tCnrSD6WKqz_Phk
“Can Gender Change?” Sed Contra, A Podcast of the Sacra Doctrina Project, January 2025 – https://www.sacradoctrinaproject.org/sedcontra/episode/24bf09a4/can-gender-change
“Why Should I Care About Balthasar?” Sed Contra, A Podcast of the Sacra Doctrina Project, April 2024 – https://www.sacradoctrinaproject.org/sedcontra/episode/3d2737cc/why-should-i-care-about-balthasar
“”My hosanna has come forth from the crucible of doubt”: Unbelief and the Atonement” – Academic Lecture for St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, December 2023 – https://youtu.be/gCZpvFPAc4I?si=DeaDv3WAHiPQLoDc
Interview with Dr. Larry Chapp on Modern Atheism, August 2023 – https://youtu.be/zobzI-1OHJo?si=w4ri3uqQlHzkBRv2
Interview with Dr. Larry Chapp @ Gaudiumetspes 22.com, January 2023 – https://youtu.be/WtBgZQF3oIA?si=HL5B_2ShHbpucVsV
Conversation w/ Fr. Harrison Ayre on Clerically Speaking, November 2022 – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-episode-fr-harrison-interview/id1429354903?i=1000587997410
My Parents’ Divorce Made Me a Child-Sized Old Soul | Professor Daniel Drain – Restored, May 2022 – https://restoredministry.com/blog/071
- Ph.D. (2024) Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America Dissertation: “Saving Finite Freedom: On the Meaning of Freedom in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theology of Redemption”
- MTS (2016) Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America
- B.A. (2014) DeSales University Philosophy and Theology
- 2024 – present Director, Office for Life and Family, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
- 2024 – present Adjunct Professor of Theology, School of Theological Studies, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Lower Gwynedd, PA
- 2023-2024 Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Coordinator of Academic Operations, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Rochester, NY
- 2022-2023 Lecturer in Pastoral Theology and Coordinator of Academic Operations, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Rochester NY
- 2019 – present Adjunct Professor of Theology, DeSales University, Center Valley, PA
- 2021-2022 Adjunct Professor of Theology, Immaculata University, Immaculata, PA
- 2019-2022 Director of Religious Education, Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church, Buckingham, PA
- Saving Finite Freedom: Hope, Salvation, and Freedom in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theology of Redemption, forthcoming from Wipf and Stock’s Pickwick Publications
- No Easygoing Universalist: A Reader’s Guide to Hans Urs von Balthasar on Hell and Hope, proposal under review at Ignatius Press
- “IVF and the Language of Gift: A Theological Commentary on a Recent Executive Order,” Public Discourse (March 2025) [https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2025/03/97357/]
- (Manuscript) The Catholic Church and the Body: Toward a Theological Anthropology in Light of Contemporary Gender Ideology
- ““What is this that you have done?” (Gen 3:13): A Meditation on Sin as a Denial of Creatureliness,” under review at Lux Veritatis: A Journal of Speculative Theology
- Review of Margaret M. Turek’s Atonement: Soundings in Biblical, Trinitarian, and Spiritual Theology (Ignatius Press, 2022) to appear in The New Ressourcement
- “‘My hosanna has come forth from the crucible of doubt’: Unbelief and the Atonement,” solicited chapter for a forthcoming volume The Mystery of the Atonement, edited by Margaret Turek, for Humanum Academic Press 2025
- “The “Pre-Moral Body” and the Difference of Gender: Identity, Otherness, and Transgenderism,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 27:3 (Summer 2024), 33-43
- “‘Our Inheritance and the Christian Task’: von Balthasar’s Metaphysical Debt to St. Thomas Aquinas” in Restoring Ancient Beauty: The Revival of Thomistic Theology, ed. James Keating (American Maritain Association, Catholic University of America Press, 2023)
- “Generative Integration: Gift, Community, and Creation,” Review of Michael Taylor’s The Foundations of Nature: Metaphysics of Gift for an Integral Ecological Ethic, published at Humanum Review, 2022
- “Drama and the Christological determination of Hell in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar,” panel contribution for the 2025 Sacra Doctrina Project Conference
- “What is this that you have done?” (Gen 3:13): Ratzinger, Balthasar, and von Speyr on Sin as a Denial of Creatureliness, conference paper for June 2024 Conference of the Sacra Doctrina Project
- “Pluralism and Renewal: A Communio Apology for Pastoral Theology,” panel contribution for the 2024 American Maritain Association Conference
- “The ‘Pre-Moral Body’ and the Difference of Gender: Identity, Otherness, and Transgenderism,” conference paper for Human Action and the Drama of Accompaniment: The 30th Anniversary of Veritatis Splendor, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Rochester, NY October 2023
- “For What May We Hope? Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Church’s Ecclesial Task,” conference paper for Catholicity as Gift and Task: The 50th Anniversary of Communio: International Catholic Review, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Rochester, NY October 2022
- “Anima Technica Vacua: Modern Man in Jacques Maritain, Robert Spaemann, and Ferdinand Ulrich,” conference paper for 2022 American Maritain Association Conference
- “Crossing Deepest Hell: Balthasar’s Descensus Theology” conference paper (with respondent) for the Hans Urs von Balthasar Consultation at CTSA 2022
- “The Sacrament of Confirmation (CCC 1285-1321),” Institute for Christian Formation at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, 2024
- “Baptism: The Gateway of Heavenly Life (CCC 1210-1277),” Institute for Christian Formation at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, 2024
- “Respect Life Month: Abortion Is About All of Us,” Catholicphilly.com, September 2024
- “God the Father and the Virtue of Hope,” presented multiple times as part of St. Bernard’s On the Road during AY 2023-24
- “God’s Plan for Human Sexuality,” presented multiple times as part of St. Bernard’s On the Road during AY 2023-24
- “Gender Ideology and the Humanum,” paid speaker along with Dr. Paul Hruz at Catholic Conversations: Gender Medicine and Sex-Gender Identity Discordance, hosted by St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry and the Finger Lakes Medical Guild, January 28, 2023
- Ordinary Member, Sacra Doctrina Project
- Associate Member, Catholic Theological Society of America
- Professional Member, Catholic Psychotherapy Association
- Member, American Maritain Association
- (Nominated) Member, Academy of Catholic Theology
Service to the Church and Academic Profession
Appointed Member, Advisory Council to the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Manuscript Reviewer, Linacre Quarterly (specifically submissions related to sex and gender issues, transgenderism, and anthropological confusion)
Peer Reviewer, Word on Fire Academic
Peer Review, The New Ressourcement
Peer Reviewer, Lux Veritatis: A Journal of Speculative Theology
Conference Committee Member for A Dialogue Renewed: Scholasticism and the Ressourcement Movement on the Nature of Catholic Theology, Conference of the Sacra Doctrina Project, June 12-14, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Co-Chair, presenter, and emcee, Human Action and the Drama of Accompaniment: The 30th Anniversary of Veritatis Splendor, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Fall 2023
Co-Chair and presenter, Catholicity and Gift and Task: The 50th Anniversary of Communio: International Catholic Review, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Fall 2022