Biography

Dr. David Cloutier is ordinary professor of theology, and joined the STRS faculty in 2016 after spending ten years at Mount St. Mary’s University (MD), where he held the Knott Professorship of Catholic Theology. He is the author of four books, including the award-winning The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age, which received an honorable mention in the 2015 PROSE Awards for academic press and a third place in the 2016 Catholic Press Association awards. His previous book, Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith, took second place in the 2015 CPA awards for Best Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith. He is particularly interested in connecting Catholic moral theology to the best research about human behavior from the social sciences, and received a $40,000 grant from The Happiness and Well-Being Project at Saint Louis University to collaborate on publications on the ethics of virtue and human agency with psychologist Anthony Ahrens of American University. He teaches moral theology, with particular interests in economic ethics, sexual ethics, and the environment, and received the College Theology Society’s 2018 Monika Hellwig award for teaching excellence. Dr. Cloutier is active in traditional and web-based media, having been published in Commonweal, the Washington Post, U.S. Catholic, and other publications. He also serves as editor for the group blog, catholicmoraltheology.com, and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Society of Christian Ethics in 2019.

He received his B.A. with a double major in chemistry and religion from Carleton College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in religion (theology & ethics) from Duke University. A native of Chicago (the city, not the suburbs), Dr. Cloutier resides in Hyattsville with his wife, Melissa, who teaches ethics in CUA's philosophy department. They share a love of music ministry, hiking, baseball, and her father's Italian cooking. Dr. Cloutier also served for 10 years (8 as president) on the Board of Directors of the Common Market, Frederick, Maryland's local consumer food co-operative.