Fr. John M. McDermott, S.J., S.T.D., Distinguished Fellow of the Principium Institute, was born Nov. 8, 1942, in the Bronx, and attended Boston College for one year before entering the Society of Jesus in 1961.  He completed classical and philosophical studies at Poughkeepsie and Shrub Oak, campus extensions of Fordham University, and achieved an A.B. degree magna cum laude in 1967. After a year teaching at Brooklyn Prep he was sent to study theology at Hochschule Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt am Main, where in 1972 he received a licentiate in theology magna cum laude.  Further studies at the Gregorian University, Rome, resulted in a doctorate in theology magna cum laude with a thesis on Pierre Rousselot (1976). Thereafter he taught theology at Fordham University for eleven years before being transferred to the theological faculty of the Gregorian University where he remained until 1999.  The rest of his life has seen him teaching at American seminaries: Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio (1999-2006) and Sacred Heart Major Seminary (2006-present).  He also served on the Theological-Historical Committee for the Jubilee Year 2000 (1995-99), the International Theological Commission (2004-09), the USCCB Committee on Doctrine (2008-12) and attended as a consultant various Vatican commissions (Brain Death, Inquisition, Indulgences).  He was drafted as a member of the editorial boards of Josephinum Journal of Theology, Sapientia, Irish Theoloigcal Quarterly.  Over the course of his career he has written and edited four books and published more than 150 articles on speculative and historical theology, philosophy, Scriptural exegesis, history, and spirituality.  His main interests are in Christology and Trinitarian doctrine, the quest for the historical Jesus, Thomas Aquinas, and modern speculative theologies.