Profiles

Karla J. Bellinger has a passion for God and for preaching. She is the executive director of the Institute for Homiletics at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, which she founded to bring a vision of what effective preaching can do for the renewal of the church and the renewal of faith.

Bellinger is also the current president of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics (CATH). Previously she was the associate director of the John S. Marten Program for Homiletics and Liturgics at the University of Notre Dame. She earned her doctorate in preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology and her master’s degree in systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame. She also has a bachelor’s degree in forestry from North Carolina State University. She and her husband, Daniel, have five adult children and nine grandchildren. When not working on homiletics, she can be found digging and planting in her large organic garden. Bellinger is the author of Connecting Pulpit and Pew: Breaking Open the Conversation about Catholic Preaching (Liturgical Press) and coauthor of Remembering Why We Preach (Ave Maria Press). She also has written a book of Year A lectionary reflections called Living the Word: Scripture Reflections and Commentaries for Sundays and Holy Days (World Library).