A native of Saskatoon, Canada, Dr. Topping earned an MA in Philosophy from the University of Manitoba as well as an M.Phil. and a Doctorate in Theology from the University of Oxford. He is Professor of Theology and serves as Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for the New Evangelization at Newman Theological College, in Edmonton, Canada, where he also previously served as Academic Dean. He has taught at Thomas More College in New Hampshire, held the Pope John XXIII Chair of Studies in Catholic Theology at St. Thomas University, Canada, and served in posts at Walsh University, in Ohio, and Thomas More College, in Saskatchewan. Dr. Topping has published on a variety of Catholic themes and figures, from St. Augustine, to Dante, to G.K. Chesterton in academic and popular journals such as First Things and The Catholic Register. To date he has published ten books on Catholic culture and education, including Rebuilding Catholic Culture: How the Catechism Can Shape our Common Life (2012), The Case for Catholic Education (2015), Renewing the Mind: A Reader in the Philosophy of Catholic Education (2015), and The Elements of Rhetoric (2016). His latest book is Thinking as Though God Exists: Newman on Evangelizing the Nones (2023). Dr. Topping and his wife have ten children.
Dr. Topping’s popular talks can be found here, and his academic CV, here.
