Christopher D. Tirres
Christopher Tirres is the Michael J. Buckley, S.J. Endowed Chair at SCU. Within the College of Arts and Sciences, he also serves as Strategic Advisor to the Dean for Mission Integration. A native of El Paso, Texas, he holds degrees from Princeton University, Harvard Divinity School, and Harvard University.
Through his writing and teaching, Tirres explores how liberating spiritualities in the Americas can emerge not only through prophetic articulations of organized religion, but also as organic expressions of human creativity and everyday forms of knowing. He pursues these lines of inquiry through multiple disciplinary lenses, including philosophical pragmatism, Latin American liberation theology, US Latine theology, ritual studies, decolonial thought, women of color feminism, and critical pedagogy.
Professor Tirres is a widely published author, an award-winning teacher, and an engaging public speaker. Before coming to SCU, he taught for seventeen years at DePaul University in Chicago, where he served as the Inaugural Endowed Professor of Diplomacy and Interreligious Engagement. In recent years, Tirres has delivered a number of distinguished lectures, including the John Dewey Memorial Lecture and the Westervelt Lectures at Austin Seminary, which illuminate the healing power of borderlands spirituality in a time of political and cultural crisis.
Tirres is an active member of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP), the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the U.S. (ACHTUS), where he currently serves as president-elect.
- US Latine Religious Experience (RSOC 92)
- Religion in Latin America (RSOC 136)
- Faith and Philosophy: Latine Perspectives (RSOC 161)
- US Latine Theology and Ministry (LATM 220 - GPPM)
- Liberation Theology (THEO 252 - GPPM)
Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas (Fordham University Press, 2025)
Religion in the Américas: Tran-hemispheric and Transcultural Approaches (University of New Mexico Press, 2025), co-edited with Jessica L. Delgado
The Aesthetics and Ethics of Faith: A Dialogue between Liberationist and Pragmatic Thought (Oxford University Press, 2014)
“Religion, Custom, and Habit: Reimagining Dewey for the 21st Century.”The Cambridge Centennial Handbook of John Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct. (Cambridge University Press, 2026), 338-347
“Author’s Response.” (Review Symposium of Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas). Horizons (Cambridge University Press), vol. 52:2 (2025), 291-297
“Spiritual Healing at the Border: Lessons in Art, Culture, and Education" (2022 John Dewey Memorial Lecture). Education & Culture, 38:2 (2022), 91-126
“A Liturgy that Heals: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Mexican-American Ritual,” in Deep Inculturation: Global Voices on Christian Faith and Indigenous Genius, ed. Antonio Sison (Orbis, 2024)
“Popular Ritual as Liberating Pedagogy,” in Latino/a Theology and the Bible: Ethnic-Racial Reflections on Interpretation, ed. Fernando Segovia and Francisco Lozada (Lexington Books, 2021), 189-206
“Faith in Action and Community Engagement: Realizing Mission through Immersion Experiences,” co-authored with Melanie C. Schikore, in Community Engagement in Christian Higher Education: Enacting Institutional Mission for the Public Good (Routledge, 2021), 140-160
“Witnessing the Seeds of Liberation: Immigrant Detention and Pedagogical Encounter.” ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, vol xx: 2 (2021)
“Spiritual Activism and Praxis: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Mature Spirituality.” The Pluralist, vol 14:1 (2019), 119-140
“Suffering and Hope in the Enchanting Garb of Poetry.” CrossCurrents, vol. 66:2 (2016), 162-172
“Conscientization from within lo Cotidiano: Expanding the Work of Ada María Isasi-Díaz.” Feminist Theology, vol. 22:3 (2014), 312-323
“Do coração e da mente: uma carta aberta a Ivone Gebara” (From the Heart and Mind: An Open Letter to Ivone Gebara) in Querida Ivone, Amorosas cartas de teologia & amizade, ed. Cláudio Carvalhaes e Nancy Cardoso. (CEBI & EST, 2014), 83-89
“Theological Aesthetics and the Many Pragmatisms of Alejandro García-Rivera.” Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal, vol. 16:2 (2013), 59-64
“Decolonizing Religion: Pragmatism and Latina/o Religious Experience,” in Decolonizing Epistemologies: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy, ed. Ada María Isasi-Díaz and Eduardo Mendieta (Fordham University Press, 2012), 226-246
“John Dewey: A Common Faith?” in Beyond the Pale: Reading Christian Theology from the Margins, ed. Miguel de la Torre and Stacy Floyd-Thomas (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 134-141