Dr. John Sehorn, academic dean of the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, joins the Catholic Morning Show to explain why rigorous theological formation matters for clergy, lay leaders, and anyone who feels like an infant in their knowledge of the faith. He describes the Institute's St. Louis campus, its fully online master's programs, and how courses train students not just to learn the faith but to hand it on faithfully. Dr. Sehorn also shares his own conversion story — how studying Scripture with new eyes led him to seek full communion with the Catholic Church in 2007.
Dr. John Sehorn, academic dean of the Graduate School of Theology at the Augustine Institute and an associate professor of theology there since 2015, sits down with Deacon Mark Campbell to talk about theological formation for a changing world. Dr. Sehorn begins where every baptized Christian begins — sharing in the Church's missionary mandate to bear witness to the Gospel — and explains why the need for deep formation is especially urgent now, given challenges Pope Leo has highlighted that are less about technology than about what it means to be human.
He describes the stability and reliability of God's Word as the anchor amid so many cultural crosscurrents, and walks through the Institute's programs for serving the Church in parishes, Catholic schools, families, workplaces, and neighborhoods. The St. Louis campus is now in its third year and has been transformative for on-campus students who live, study, pray, and take meals together. Three of the Institute's four master's programs are fully available online with no residential requirement, and Dr. Sehorn explains that distance education is designed not just to push content out, but to invite remote students into the life of the campus community.
Asked how classroom theology becomes real-world ministry, Dr. Sehorn answers simply: if God revealed it, it matters for our lives — and the first reason to study theology is to know God. Courses are built so students learn not only what they've been taught but how to teach it and hand it on faithfully. The Institute now counts just over 1,100 alumni and about 550 active students serving worldwide as catechists, DREs, K-12 Catholic teachers, Bible study leaders, and as husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers. His hope for graduates is captured in the title of Pope Francis's 2013 apostolic exhortation, which Pope Leo has pointed to as of continuing importance: the joy of the Gospel.
Dr. Sehorn also shares his own story. Raised in a wonderful Christian family and taught to love God's Word, he faced questions and crises in young adulthood that sent him back to ground zero — studying the books of the Bible even as historical documents to find what he could be sure of. Reading the New Testament with new eyes and the Old Testament as sacred background, he came to recognize the Church as the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, and a mother to whom he could submit as teacher. He entered the Catholic Church in 2007.
Learn more about the Graduate School of Theology and its degree programs at the Augustine Institute.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
#AugustineInstitute #JohnSehorn #CatholicTheology #TheologyDegree #CatholicEducation #NewEvangelization #ConversionStory #CatholicPodcast