Professor Maeve Louise Heaney
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, School of Theology
Areas of expertise: music and/as theology; fundamental theology; theological aesthetics; Lonergan; method in theology; theological formation; theology of mission and preaching; spirituality; theology of leadership.
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0808-1701
Phone: +61 07 3623 7297
Email: maeve.heaney@acu.edu.au
Location: Brisbane Campus ACU
Professor Maeve Louise Heaney VDMF is a consecrated member of the Verbum Dei Community and Xavier Chair for Theological Formation at Australian Catholic University. She completed a Licentiate and Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where she taught for two years, as well as at the Rome base of the Catholic University of Dallas. She was Bannan Fellow at Santa Clara University for the academic year 2011-2012, and a visiting Fellow at the Lonergan Institute at Boston College in 2019. She has been President of the Australian Catholic Theological Association (ACTA) and the International Network of Societies of Catholic Theology (INSeCT: Connecting Catholic Theology Worldwide). She is the current Director of the Xavier Centre for Theological Formation and a formator at Holy Spirit Provincial Seminary.
Professor Heaney has extensive experience in the area of ministry and theological formation. A theologian, musician and composer, Maeve has worked in Spain, England, Ireland, Italy and Australia. She writes, presents, and teaches on themes of theological aesthetics, music, spirituality, ministry, and Catholic leadership (with foci on women, ministerial priesthood, and Catholic organisational culture). She currently leads research projects into Theologies of Priesthood and Inclusive Governance in a Synodal Church, as well as Creative Research Outputs in the form of original music compositions and co-designed performances with ACU members of other faculties and external partners.
Select publications
Monographs
- Music as Theology: What Music Says about the Word, (Oregon: Princeton Theological Monograph Series of Pickwick Publications, 2012).
- Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Faith (London: Bloomsbury, 2022)
Spirituality Booklet
- Light from Within: Lenten Program 2020 (Mulgrave: Garratt Publishing, 2020).
Articles
- “The Eloquence of Music in Contemporary Culture”, Theology, Volume 114 Issue 3, May 2011
- “Ascending Grace: A Movement Back into the World” in ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2, published on April 28, 2014.
- “When the Studio Becomes the Study: Conflicting Patterns of Consciousness”. ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2, (July 2016).
- “Music and Theological Method: A Lonerganian Perspective. Theological Studies (September 2016).
- “Music and Theological Method: A Lonerganian Perspective. Theological Studies (September 2016).
- “Music’s Multilayered Subversion of the Word”, Literature and Theology (2017) 31 (2): 200-214. Written in collaboration with Dr Roger Hillman.
- “Openness to Faith as a Disposition for Teachers in Catholic Schools” with Robyn Horner*, Didier Pollefeyt, Jan Bouwens, Teresa Brown, Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer, and Michael Buchanan, International Journal of Practical Theology, 2020; 24(2): 231–251
- “A Hermeneutical Exploration of The Revelatory Text of John 4:1–42, In Performative Key”, Theological Studies (June 2020).
Chapters
- “De la Palabra Cantada a la Palabra Musical: Música en el Carisma Verbum Dei” in Karl, Katharina/ Kurz, Ann-Kathrin (ed.), Teología y Carisma, (Burgos: Monte Carmelo, 2013)
- “Musical Space: Living ‘In-between the Artistic and Christian Callings” in Tom Beaudoin (ed.) Secular Music and Sacred Theology, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013)
- “Mercy, Music, and the Prophetic Voice of Theology: Jon Sobrino’s Extra Pauperes Nulla Salus”, in O'Connor, Michael, Hyun-Ah Kim, and Christina Labriola. Music, Theology, and Justice (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2017).
- “From the Particular to the Universal: Musings of a Woman Theologian” in Catholic Women Speak Network (ed.). Shared Visions: Women Responding to God's Call (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, July 2018).
- “New Styles” in Carlos Alberto Moreira Azevedo, Richard Rouse (ed.) Chiesa e compositori; Parole e Suoni (Rome: Aracne editrice, 2019);
- “Women’s Leadership in the Church: A Question of Imagination” in Sandie Cornish and Andrea Dean (ed.), in Still Listening to the Spirit: Woman and Man Twenty Years Later (Office for Social Justice of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference: Sydney, 2019
- “Writing a National Ratio: When Principle and Process Meet” in For a Fundamental Theology of the Priesthood: Complementary Studies (Vatican Publishing House (LEV): Vatican City, 2023).
- “Spiritual Subjects: Musicking, Biography, and the Connections we Make”, in Music and Spirituality: Theological Approaches, Empirical Methods, and Christian Worship edited by George Corbett and Sarah Moerman (Munich: OpenBook Publishers, 2024).
- “Creative Arts and Solitude” in The Bloomsbury Cultural History of Solitude, vol. six edited by Peter Scharff Smith (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2026).
- “Epistemology: Musicking and Faith in the Complex Understanding of Understanding” in The Oxford Handbook of Music & Christian Theology, Volume 1: Method (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2027).
Projects
Research Projects
- Theologies of the Priesthood
- Inclusive Governance in a Synodal Church
- Theology, Music and Education: Advancing Theological and Liturgical Literacy through Music
- Music as an Exercise in Foundations: From Theory to Interiority
- Music as embodied theological thought: a performative exploration
- Theo-poetic and theo-logic: an investigation into the contribution of artistic creativity and musical composition to theological research and methodology
Collaborative Research Projects
- Called to Marriage: An empirical-theological analysis of church marriage preparation
Accolades and awards
Appointments and affiliations
Academic Associations
- Australian Catholic Theological Association (ACTA)
- The Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (SARTS)
- The Catholic Theological Association of America
- The European Society of Catholic Theology (ESCT)
- Music Theology: an international network for those working in the research of both areas spearheaded by Durham University
Academic Institutions
- Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Instituto Teológico Verbum Dei San Pablo Apóstol, Madrid
- Past-President and current Advising member of the Executive of The International Network of Societies of Catholic Theology (INSeCT. Connecting Catholic Theology Worldwide).
Editorial roles
- Member of the editorial board of Asian Horizons.
- Co-editor in Oxford University Press Handbook for Music and Christian Theology for publication in 2023.
