We are pleased to announce that Joseph M. McMeans joined the Triertium reseach group in January 2026 as a postdoctoral researcher. He will participate in the activities of the research team while also pursuing his own individual research project.
Joseph received his PhD in philosophy at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland (2024). His research revolves around the intersection of phenomenology, or Continental philosophy of religion, and the Byzantine philosophical tradition. For his doctoral studies, Joseph offered a focused study on Christos Yannaras’ response to Martin Heidegger’s onto-theological critique of metaphysics, which seeks to promote the trinitarian philosophy of the Greek Church Fathers as an adequate means of overcoming the impasse of post-Nietzschean nihilism. He is the co-editor of Finitude’s Wounded Praise: Responses to Jean-Louis Chrétien (Eugene, OR: Wipf&Stock Publishers, 2023).
“Joseph’ research focuses on the philosophical tradition of the Early Church Fathers. In relation to the Triertium project, his work will be dedicated to offering a historical study on the Church Fathers’ unique gnoseology, or trinitarian theory of knowledge,” added Eduard Fiedler, coordinator of the Triertium project.
Following the insights of Pierre Hadot, Joseph’s methodology seeks to re-read the literature of the Church Fathers as a continuation of Ancient Greek philosophy, which understands philosophy more wholistically as a “way of life” (in contrast to the modern definition, wherein philosophy is primarily reduced to philosophical discourse). By employing this alternative methodological framework, Joseph wishes to help create an expanded grid of visibility that will allow the modern reader to grasp the inherently philosophical nature of Patristic writings and practice; furthermore, he hopes to reveal how this alternative conception of philosophy might be relevant for contemporary debates concerning the boundaries of theological and philosophical discourse.
In addition to his own research, Joseph will also coordinate the creation of an international online course introducing philosophy as a “way of life” inspired by the Church Fathers and contemporary Trinitarian ontology at the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology, Palacký University Olomouc.
