Craig Ford

Dr. Craig A. Ford, Jr., joined the Candler Faculty in Fall of 2025. He explores topics at the intersection of moral theology, queer theology/queer theory, and Black studies. In addition to publishing numerous articles in popular outlets like Commonweal and National Catholic Reporter, Dr. Ford is the author of a number of widely-cited academic essays, including “Transgender Bodies, Catholic Schools, and a Queer Natural Law Theology of Exploration” (Journal of Moral Theology, 2018), and “Our New Galileo Affair” (Horizons, 2023), which received the 2022 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for Best Essay by a young scholar from the Catholic Theological Society of America. His current book project, Works of Art: Gender and Sexuality in Liberative Natural Law Perspective is being published by Fortress Press.

Sought out as a workshop leader on issues of racial, sexual, and gender justice, Dr. Ford has worked not only with Catholic parishes but also with other colleges, universities, and professional bodies, including most notably with the Association of Catholic College and Universities (ACCU) as its 2022 inaugural speaker for its Consortium for Senior Diversity Officers in Catholic Higher Education.

Dr. Ford is also on the faculty at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS), where he teaches courses in Black theology, Moral Theology from a Black Perspective, and Theological Anthropology . Located at Xavier University of Louisiana, the IBCS is hosted at the only Catholic Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the United States.

“A Sketch of a Liberative Natural Law Anthropology,” In What It Means to be Human. Edited by Elsie M. Miranda and Cristina Traina. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. Forthcoming.

“Transgender Bodies, Catholic Schools, and a Queer Natural Law Theology of Exploration.” Updated and Reprinted. In Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today. Edited Nicolete Burbach and Lisa Sowle Cahill, 303-335. New York, NY: T&T Clark, 2024.

“Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge in a Racist and Hetero/Sexist World.” In Bothering to Love: James F. Keenan’s Retrieval and Reinvention of Catholic Ethics. Edited by Kate Ward and Christopher Vogt, 197-210. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2024.

“Natural Law in Catholic Family Teaching.” In Catholic Family Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations. Edited by Jacob M. Kohlhass and Mary M. Doyle Roche, 20-28. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2024.

“Our New Galileo Affair.” Horizons 50.2 (December 2023): 255-592.

2024-2025 Lund-Gill Chair (Dominican University; Chicago, IL)

2022 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award Recipient (Catholic Theological Society of America)