Dr Jan Bentz
Lector
Dr Jan C. Bentz lectures at Blackfriars Studium in Oxford, where he teaches courses on Medieval, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Philosophy of Art, Political Philosophy and Philosophy of History. He is an Associate Member of the Theology Faculty, University of Oxford. Jan also teaches in the online Great Books programme at Memoria College (KY, USA), where he is a member of the faculty, and serves as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Budapest. He is a member of the Oriel College Metaphysical Club, the St. Basil Institute of Creation Theology, and the political think tank Europa Aeterna. He has worked with the Thomistic Institute as a guest lecturer and leading reading groups, and has previously taught at the Catholic University of America’s Rome campus, Christendom College’s Rome Program, and for IES Abroad.
Dr Bentz was born in Germany and completed high school in St. Louis, Missouri, as a foreign exchange student. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, with additional Master’s degrees in Sacred Art, Architecture, and Liturgy, as well as in Church, Ecumenism, and Religious Studies. His published doctoral dissertation, Das Sein und die Geschichte des Seins bei Gustav Siewerth (Patrimonium, 2019), explores the metaphysical thought of Gustav Siewerth in dialogue with Thomas Aquinas and Hegel.
Jan’s academic interests include Metaphysics, History of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Thomism, and the Philosophy of Art. In addition to his teaching and research, Dr Bentz is active as a journalist and public intellectual. He hosts the interview series Reality Check, featuring conversations with leading scholars and cultural critics on religion, metaphysics, and the crisis of modernity. His writing has appeared in The European Conservative, Touchstone Magazine, National Catholic Register, The Catholic Herald, and Jüdische Rundschau.
Jan lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and their three children.
Select Publications:
Homo Deus as Utopian Myth: Yuval Noah Harari’s Transhumanism Contested, in Journal of Religion, Culture & Democracy, March 2025: Read online; ‘Thinking as Engaging ‘Divine Ideality’: Gustav Siewerth’s Critique of John Duns Scotus’ Philosophy’, in Noesis 42 (Spring 2024), pp. 209–240; ‘The Ipsum Esse in the Thought of Gustav Siewerth’, in Alain Contat (ed.), Atti del Convegno della Cattedra Marco Arosio, April 2023 (forthcoming 2025); Contra Deum, Contra Mundum: Transhumanist Ideology Contested, ed. Jan C. Bentz & Wael Taji Miller (forthcoming 2025); Translation of Romano Guardini’s Der Gegensatz (forthcoming 2025); Einer der nicht nach Utopia wollte: Thomas Molnar zum Gedächtnis, ed. Jan Bentz & Jochen Prinz, Patrimonium Verlag, (2023); ‘Einheit, Gleichheit, Geschwisterlichkeit: Utopie als politisches Instrument’, in Die Neue Ordnung, vol. 76, no. 4 (2023), pp. 283–291.
Email: jan.bentz@english.op.org