D.T. Sheffler

• Dean of Academics and Professor of Philosophy, Memoria College.
• Associated Scholar, Hildebrand Project.

Specialization and Competence

Specialization: Ancient Philosophy and Catholic Personalism.

Competence: Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, History of Ideas, Ethics, and Political Philosophy.

Education

• PhD, Philosophy, University of Kentucky, 2017.
• M.A., Philosophy, University of Kentucky, 2012.
• M.A., Classics, University of Kentucky, 2010.
• B.A., Philosophy and Classics, University of Kentucky, 2010.

Scholarly Publications

Plato and Christian Personalism, Hildebrand Press (forthcoming).

“Is the True Self God at Alcibiades 133c?” The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, June 2022. Available here.

“Ethics by Dietrich von Hildebrand” (review), The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 75, Number 2, December 2021. Available here.

“Morality and Situation Ethics, by Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Graven Images, by Dietrich von Hildebrand” (double review), American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 94, Issue 4, Fall 2020. https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq2020944213

“Editor’s Introduction” to Contemporary Engagement with the Philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand, a special issue of Quaestiones Disputatae, Volume 10, Number 1, Fall 2019. Available here.

“Hildebrand, Hypostasis, and the Irreducibility of Personal Existence,” Quaestiones Disputatae, Vol 10, Number 1, Fall 2019. Available here.

“Bite-Sized Philosophy,” review of The Art of Living, by Dietrich von Hildebrand, Touchstone, June/July 2018. Available here.

“Worship Becomes Us,” review of Liturgy and Personality, by Dietrich von Hildebrand, Touchstone, May/June 2017. Available here.

“The Metaphysics of Personhood in Plato’s Dialogues” (doctoral dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2017), doi: 10.13023/ETD.2017.142. Available here.

Popular Publications

“The Cultivating Animal,” Meliora, 2024.

“Use Your Nice Things,” The Classical Teacher, Summer 2024.

“Libraries and Laboratories,” The Classical Teacher, Summer 2023.

“The Mind of a Gentleman,” The Classical Teacher, Summer 2022.

“C.S. Lewis on Why We Should Read Old Books,” The Classical Teacher, Spring 2022.

“Curing the Disease of the Soul,” The Classical Teacher, Late Summer 2021.

“On Vulcans and Androids,” The Classical Teacher, Summer 2021.

“Reading for Wisdom,” The Classical Teacher, Spring 2021.

“The Surprising Logic of the World,” The Classical Teacher, Winter 2021.

“Raising Statesmen,” Voegelin View, August 2019. Available here.

“A Vocabulary for Worship,” Touchstone, January/February 2019. Available here.

“Community in the Wasteland,” The Imaginative Conservative, July 2019. Available here.

Invited Talks

“The Socratic Method,” Memoria College Conference, July 2024.

“The Shining World: Introduction to the Philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand,” Immaculata Classical Academy, Louisville, October 2023.

“Mediating Institutions and Hildebrandian Value Response,” Dallas Willard and Dietrich von Hildebrand Colloquium, Santa Barbara, June 2023.

“The School of Regrets: Getting the Education that You Missed,” Midwest Homeschool Convention, Cincinnati, April 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

“Hero Knight Saint: The Development of Virtue,” Midwest Homeschool Convention, Cincinnati, April 2021, 2023.

“Blood Sacrifice and Idolatry: Why Include the Pagans in a Christian Curriculum,” Midwest Homeschool Convention, Cincinnati, April 2021.

“Growing Up in Church: Development of the Person in the Presence of the Holy,” Hildebrand Colloquium on the Sacred, Catholic University of America, 2021.

“Latin Orders Language,” Sodalitas, Louisville KY, July 2021.

“Jesus as Lord,” Lexington Christian Fellowship, Lexington KY, September 2019. Audio

“Platonic versus Christian Conceptions of the Self,” Athens and Jerusalem Conference, Lawrenceburg KY, April 2018.

“Overview of the Gospel of John,” Jessamine Christian Fellowship, Wilmore KY, January 2018. Audio.

“The Suffering of Job,” Lexington Christian Fellowship, Lexington KY, December 2017. Audio and Text.

“Gratitude,” Mars Hill Christian Academy Graduation Address, Lexington KY, May 2017. Text.

“Living Latin at the University of Kentucky,” Immaculata Classical Academy, Louisville KY, November 2016.

“The Book of James,” St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Versailles KY, 8 week series September through November 2016. Audio.

“CS Lewis and Imagination,” Jessamine Christian Fellowship, Wilmore KY, May 2014. Video.

Presentations and Professional Activity

“Hildebrand’s Free Personal Center,” Hildebrand Project Summer Residency (2019).

“Is the True Self God at Alcibiades 133c?,” Alcibiades Symposium, Cambridge, September 2018. Program here.

Director of Christian Training School at Lexington Christian Fellowship (an eleven-week intensive summer program for college-age students) 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. Website here.

Participant in the Hildebrand Project Summer Seminar, 2015–2017, 2019. Section discussion coordinator for 2017 Summer Seminar.

“Why Molinism Does Not Help with the Rollback Argument,” Society of Christian Philosophers, Trinity College, March 2014. Available here.

“The Sun and the Good: the Allegory of the Sun in Republic VI,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University, October 2013. Available here.

“A Complex Eternity,” Society of Christian Philosophers, Georgetown College, April 2013. Available here.

Awards

Outstanding Teaching Award in University of Kentucky philosophy department, April 2016.

Best graduate student paper ($500) awarded by Society of Christian Philosophers for “A Complex Eternity,” April 2013.

Greek student of the year in University of Kentucky classics department, May 2009.

Accepted into University Scholars program at the University of Kentucky for classics, 2008–2010.

Research grant from University of Kentucky Eureka fund ($2,000), 2006.

Teaching

Memoria College

The Education of a Free Man: Introduction to the Liberal Arts, Fall 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

Mind and Reality: Metaphysics and Epistemology, Fall 2022, Spring 2024

The Gadfly of Athens: The Character of Socrates, Fall 2023.

Man in Society: The Development of Political Theory, Spring 2021, 2023.

Get the Wisdom: The Virtues and Methods of Learning Summer 2021, 2022, 2023.

The Existence of God, Summer 2022.

Ethics, Spring 2022.

Introduction to the Great Books, Summer 2021.

Church Fathers, Spring 2021.

Georgetown College

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Spring 2016–Spring 2020.

Logic, Fall 2018–Spring 2020.

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Philosophy, Spring 2018.

Ethics (on-line course), Spring 2018.

Latin I and III, Fall 2017.

Business Ethics, Spring 2017.

Ethics, Fall 2016.

Asbury University

Introduction to Philosophy (on-line course), Fall 2015.

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Spring 2015.

Philosophy of C.S. Lewis, Spring 2014.

Social and Political Philosophy, Fall 2012, Fall 2014.

Introduction to Philosophy, Fall 2013–Fall 2014.

University of Kentucky

Introduction to Philosophy, Fall 2013–Spring 2017.

Business Ethics, Spring 2013–Fall 2013.

Introduction to Ethics, Spring 2012–Fall 2012.

Symbolic Logic, Fall 2010–Fall 2011.

Latin 1 and 2, Fall 2009–Spring 2010.

Medical Terminology (on-line course), Summer 2010.

Memoria Press Online Academy

Christian Latin (reading course). 2021–2025.

Latin I and II. 2021–2025.

Classical Studies. 2021–2025.

Immaculata Classical Academy

Writing and Composition, 2018–2019.

Latin 4, 2018–2019.

19th and 20th Century History, 2018–2019.

Mars Hill Christian Academy

Traditional Logic, 2008–2020.

Latin years 3 and 4, 2009–2020.

Language

Advanced ability in Greek with extensive reading experience in Homeric, Attic, Ionic, Hellenistic, Koine, Late Antique, and Patristic authors.

Advanced ability and teaching experience in Latin with extensive reading experience in Early, Augustan, Late Imperial, Christian, and Medieval authors.