Bernard Prusak
Professor
Background
Dr. Prusak is a philosopher with more than twenty-years of teaching experience at several universities. He came to John Carroll in fall 2023 as the Raymond and Eleanor Smiley Chair in Business Ethics. He has published widely in moral philosophy, business ethics, bioethics, and Catholic social thought, and his public scholarship appears often in Commonweal and America magazines. He is also an affiliated scholar of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at U.S.C. Click here for his c.v.
Areas of Expertise
- Moral philosophy (practical and theoretical)
- business ethics
- bioethics
- Catholic social thought
Research Interests
Dr. Prusak's scholarship focuses in moral and social philosophy. Much of his work can be described as public philosophy: he brings the conceptual tools and analytical style of philosophy to bear on questions of public interest and concern. He is currently working on a book for Bloomsbury Press on the Catholic church's sexual abuse scandal.
Education
Ph.D., Boston University, 2003; B.A., Williams College, 1995Courses Taught
Business ethics (undergraduate and graduate); healthcare ethics (graduate)Publications
Books: Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought, edited with Jennifer Reed-Bouley (Paulist Press, 2023); Catholic Moral Philosophy in Practice and Theory: An Introduction (Paulist Press, 2016); Parental Obligations and Bioethics: The Duties of a Creator (Routledge, 2013)Recent articles: “Unshackling the Coffee Supply Chain: An ‘Ethics Project’ for Catholic Colleges and Universities,” Journal of Moral Theology 15, no. 1 (2026): 79–104, co-authored with Kim Lamberty; “Triage and the Patient-Physician Relationship,” in Emerging Issues in Catholic Bioethics, ed. Jason T. Eberl (Springer, 2026), 173–191; “Jointly Committed: Examining the Sexual Abuse Scandal as a Case of Institutional Vice,” in The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis, ed. Catherine Clifford, Kristin Colberg, Massimo Faggioli, and Edward P. Hahnenberg (Liturgical Press, 2025), 129–144; “Distortions of Normativity in the Church’s Sexual Abuse Scandal,” Journal of Moral Theology 13, no. 2 (2024): 136–154
Recent public scholarship: “The Ghost Sacrament,” review essay on For I Have Sinned: The Rise and Fall of Catholic Confession in America, by James M. O'Toole, Commonweal, February 2026, 52–53; “Bad Tidings,” review essay on Unforgivable: An Abusive Priest and the Church That Sent Him Abroad, by Kevin O’Neill, Commonweal, November 2025, 56–58; “More, or Else,” review essay on Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Commonweal, April 2025, 52–54; “All Too Human,” review essay on The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No, by Carl Elliott, Commonweal, March 2025, 58–59; “Investing the Catholic Way: Is There a Better Way to Align Money and Values?" America, September 2024, 33–38
