Cyril O'Regan was born in Ireland, where he received his BA and MA in Philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale, where he taught in the Department of Religious Studies before joining the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in 1999. His work spans systematic theology, historical theology, and continental philosophy, with particular expertise at the intersection of theology and continental thought.

O'Regan has produced substantial scholarship on 19th-century theology and philosophy, postmodern thought, mysticism, apocalyptic literature, Gnosticism, and religion and literature. His research includes major Catholic figures such as Newman, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Benedict XVI, as well as the doctrines of the Trinity and eschatology. He is currently completing two volumes examining the relationship between Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and Martin Heidegger, after which he will return to his Gnosticism in Modernity project with planned volumes on Gnosticism and German Idealism, followed by Gnosticism and German and English Romanticism. O'Regan teaches courses across all levels and is actively engaged in directing doctoral students.

Considering Newman’s elevation as a Doctor of the Church, one way to honor his legacy (or legacies) involves exam­ining critically and appreciatively his life, thought, and sig­nificance from different viewpoints. This paper, therefore, explores the relevance of Newman’s thought for ecumenical relations. However, it is not making the historical claim that Newman was an ecumenist. Instead, it draws attention to a possible constructive link between Newman’s concept of a connected view and the cultivation of an ecumenical habit of mind. Thus, forming an ecumenical habit of mind lies not in making facile connec­tions between the past and present. Instead, it involves unpacking the subtleties of Newman’s thought, deciphering the relevant connections, and engaging in rigorous constructive work. This paper will conclude that gleaning insights from others plays a fundamental role in achieving what Newman stipulated as the aim of a connected view—seeing how things fit together in light of one another.

Frederick D. Aquino is Professor of Systematic Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Some of his publications include Communities of Informed Judgment (Catholic University of America Press, 2004), An Integrative Habit of Mind (Northern University Press, 2012), Receptions of Newman (Oxford University Press, 2015), co-edited with Benjamin J. King, The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology (Oxford University Press, 2017), co-edited with William J. Abraham, The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman (Oxford University Press, 2018), co-edited with Benjamin J. King, and Perceiving Things Divine: Towards a Constructive Account of Spiritual Perception, co-edited with Paul Gavrilyuk (Oxford University Press, 2022), John Henry Newman and Contemporary Philosophy, co-edited with Joe Milburn (Routledge), and John Henry An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent: A Critical Guide, co-edited with Matthew Levering (Emmaus Academic, 2025). He has also published articles and chapters on John Henry Newman, Maximus the Confessor, John Cassian, deification, philosophical receptions of scripture, and religious epistemology. His current project focuses on the relevance of John Henry Newman’s thought for issues in contemporary epistemology.