Meet Samuel B. Johnson, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Theology

The story below was originally published in The Athenaeum, MTSM’s bi-annual magazine. The Athenaeum is published twice a year for alumni, patrons and friends of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology. To be added to the mailing list, contact: Heidi Walsh at 513.233.6159 or hwalsh@athenaeum.edu.

More than 1,600 years ago, St. Ephrem the Syrian wrote that reading from Scripture is like drinking from a vast fountain that we are grateful for the gifts that it continually gives those who read and study it. For Samuel B. Johnson, Ph.D., who took over as the Dean of the School of Theology on January 1, 2025, that continued drinking from the vast fountain of Scripture both brought him to the Catholic Church, into the academic world and eventually to MTSM.

“I grew up in a very faithful household that was devoted to the Bible,” Dr. Johnson said. “So that love of the text was always there. Once I stepped into more formal education, I became fascinated by the history of interpretation, the problems of interpretation and the sheer vastness of the diverse library of texts that I was encountering. That engaged and called to me.”

Raised in Lansing, Michigan in a protestant family, Dr. Johnson went into his undergraduate studies at Hillsdale College thinking his future was in evangelical ministry. After completing a double major in Classics and English, he was unsure what was next.

“When I left Hillsdale, I had just gotten married and was preparing to enter a protestant seminary but was having a crisis of vocation,” Dr. Johnson said. “What I knew I still had was a love for the history of the faith, and a love of my own faith. At the time, I did not know what that meant, but I had a love for this text [of Scripture]. So I went to graduate school.”

Dr. Johnson’s next stop was the University of Notre Dame, where he would receive his Master in Theological Studies and his Ph.D. in Theology, steps which along with converting to Catholicism also helped him rediscover his vocation.

“From one perspective, my vocation has zigged and zagged,” Dr. Johnson remarked. “In another sense, I knew very early on that I had the sense that I wanted to give my life to the Church and to teach the Scriptures. Now I get to teach the Bible first and foremost and that is the mode I serve the Church in. Those were always my two deepest desires.”

Following the completion of his Ph.D. work, Dr. Johnson joined MTSM as an Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies. The engagement of the student population, both seminarians and lay people, have been among the highlights of his professorship.

“This is a peaceful place to work, it is a unified place to work,” Dr. Johnson observed. “Your students want to be in your class and at so many other places getting the students to want to be there and care is half the battle. When your students care and want to be there, you can speak to that care and cultivate it together and that is a huge gift as a teacher. It allows you to start from a depth you would not have elsewhere.”

Being the Dean of the School of Theology comes with balancing the needs and challenges with the students along with application beyond the walls and campus of MTSM. However, Dr. Johnson believes that the School of Theology has the foundation and resources to continue to offer that under his guidance.

“A lot is changing about higher education, in theology and in the humanities more broadly, but what has not changed is the desire of people to be formed in their faith, to be formed in their minds and to be formed in their hearts,” Dr. Johnson said. “A place like this is uniquely positioned to speak to those needs and desires at every level, whether you are a teacher, a director of religious education, various leadership positions within parishes or even as families, husbands and wives, parents and men and women invested in the growth of their faith.”

When the opportunity to become the Dean of the School of Theology presented itself to him, Dr. Johnson felt it was part of his vocation to take the opportunity.

“If I did not try to put my hand to the plow and see how we can meet that challenge, I would see it as a personal failure,” Dr. Johnson said. “I do not see why this place cannot be deeply successful and step into the moment of need that there is.”

While Dr. Johnson has a new office, a new title and new responsibilities, he sees that as parallel to his work as a researcher and a teacher of the Scriptures who continues to go to the fountain to quench his thirst.

“I love my work as a teacher, and that is what I am first and foremost,” Dr. Johnson concluded. “My work as the Dean is a flowering of that identity. Evangelization is at the heart of the Church’s mission, and to evangelize you have to have some sense of what the Gospel even is, and that is what Scriptures are. That is at the heart of my teaching.”