Michael Joseph Buckley SJ (October 12, 1931 – July 25, 2019) was an American Jesuit priest and philosophical theologian. He was the Bea Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University.^[1] He also served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.

Buckley was born on October 12, 1931, in San Francisco, California,^[2] the son of Eleanor (née Fletcher) and colonel Michael Buckley Jr. He graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory.

He studied philosophy at Gonzaga University, receiving a BA and MA. He graduated from Santa Clara University with a Master of Sacred Theology and received a PhD in 1967 from the University of Chicago, studying under Richard McKeon.^[3][4] He received two honorary doctorates.^[3] He died on July 25, 2019, in Los Gatos, California.^[2]

Publications

• Motion and Motion's God: Thematic Variations in Aristotle, Cicero, Newton and Hegel (Princeton, 1971).
• At the Origins of Modern Atheism (Yale, 1987).
• Papal Primacy and the Episcopate: Towards a Relational Understanding (Herder, 1998).
• The Catholic University as Promise and Project (Georgetown, 1998).
• Denying and Disclosing God: The Ambiguous Progress of Modern Atheism (Yale, 2000).
• What Do You Seek? The Questions of Jesus as Challenge and Promise (Eerdmans, 2016).

Activities

• President, Catholic Theological Society of America, 1991–1992^[5]
• Advisory Committee, Princeton Center of Theological Inquiry, 1999–2000
• Chair, Jesuit International Theological Commission
• Executive Director, Committees on Doctrine and Pastoral Research and Practices at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
• Consultant Board Member, Herder/Crossroad Press
• Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge University