Professor Stephen Lahey specializes in medieval theology and philosophy, and does research on the Oxford theologian John Wyclif (d.1384) and the Hussite movement in 15th Century Bohemia. He has published several works on Wyclif, including Philosophy and Politics in the Thought of John Wyclif (Cambridge, 2003), John Wyclif (Great Medieval Thinkers, Oxford, 2009), and a full translation of Wyclif’s Trialogus (Cambridge 2013), as well as translations of Wyclif’s commentary on the Decalogue and several of his sermons (Wycliffite Spirituality, with Fiona Somerset and Patrick Hornbeck, Classics in Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, 2013).
He is studying the reception of Wyclif’s philosophical theology at Charles University in the period leading to the death of Jan Hus. His present project addresses the question, Why did the Bohemians embrace Wyclif’s thought? This requires attention to the thought of Mattej of Janov, whose Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamentum shaped Bohemian conceptions of the relation of God to creation, and of the nature of the church. It also involves investigating the thought of Stanislaus of Znojmo and Stepan Paleč, two Bohemian masters who taught Hus, Jerome of Prague, and Jakoubek Střibro, the leaders of what would become the Hussite movement.
Professor Lahey regularly teaches courses on Augustine, Dante, medieval theology, the relation of rational and religious thought, European culture before 1000 C.E.,and an introductory course on Religious Studies. He has taught courses on Thomas Aquinas, Classical Muslim philosophy, Death and Dying, and on his area of research, and conducts an Education Abroad trip to National University of Ireland Maynooth every other year.