Education Hahn received his
B.A. degree
magna cum laude in 1979 from
Grove City College in
Pennsylvania with a triple major of
theology,
philosophy and
economics. He obtained his
M.Div. degree
summa cum laude from
Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary in 1982. In May 1995, he was awarded a
Ph.D. degree in
systematic theology from
Marquette University (
Phi Beta Kappa). Hahn's dissertation is titled "Kinship by Covenant: A Biblical Theological Analysis of Covenant Types and Texts in the Old and New Testaments". A version was published by Yale University Press in 2009 as ''Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises''. Harvard professor Jon D. Levenson described it as "a learned and well-written volume interprets covenant as the red thread running through both testaments of the Christian Bible."
Conversion to Catholicism After receiving his education at Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary, Hahn started out as a pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. Since that time, he has held a variety of positions at institutes, seminaries, and universities. As a young man, Hahn was convinced that the Catholic Church was in error and boasted of having converted some Catholics into embracing a purer Christianity. His conversion began when he and his wife became convinced that
contraception was contrary to God's law. He was bothered that the Catholic Church was the only tradition that upheld the ancient teaching of prohibiting contraception that Protestants abandoned in the early 20th century, such as at the 1930
Lambeth Conference. Hahn continued to study various issues relating to salvation, faith, and good works, as well as the Protestant doctrine of
sola scriptura. According to his book
Rome Sweet Home, a key factor behind his conversion is his research on what he saw as the key to the Bible: the
covenant. This is a sacred kinship bond that brought people into a family relationship. God established a series of covenants and the new covenant established by Jesus Christ is an establishment of a worldwide family. He believes that Jesus and the apostles used family-based language to describe his work of salvation: God is Father, Christ is Son and the firstborn among brethren, heaven as a marriage feast, the Church is the spouse of God, Christians as children of God. This new family, according to Hahn, is headed by Christ and the
Pope is his "prime minister" to whom he has given the
keys of the kingdom, a process that he believes is also present in the Old Testament. Hahn writes that the Catholic Church, whose head is called "Holy Father", is the worldwide family described by the Bible and that the Protestant doctrines of
sola fide and
sola scriptura are not biblical because they are not found in the Bible. In his view, the Bible stresses charity and works as necessary for saving
faith,
i.e.,
justification, and, therefore,
salvation. He also points to the Church as "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", quoting 1 Timothy 3:15. Hahn converted to Catholicism at
Easter 1986 in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He came to be called "Luther in reverse", from his wife's words. Hahn's wife, Kimberly, had a similar conversion at a slightly later date, entering the Catholic Church at Easter 1990 in
Joliet, Illinois.
Rome Sweet Home describes their process of conversion together. In
Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, he narrated the influence of
Opus Dei in his conversion and what made him feel that Opus Dei was his specific calling within the Catholic Church: (1) its members' devotion to the Bible; (2) its
ecumenism, since Opus Dei was the first Catholic institution to welcome non-Catholics as cooperators; (3) the upright lives of its members; (4) they were ordinary people, who lived theology; (5) holy ambition: "a devout
work ethic"; (6) the practice of
hospitality in answering his questions; (7)
prayer: "They made time for intimate prayer every day."
Current work Hahn founded and is currently the president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, a Catholic non-profit research and educational institute committed to the promotion of biblical literacy among the Catholic laity and biblical fluency among Catholic clergy. Some of his projects include online and parish-based Bible studies, a book series, pilgrimages, and a scholarly journal,
Letter and Spirit. He is also the founder and director of the Institute of Applied Biblical Studies. A popular speaker, Hahn has given over 800 talks in the US and other countries on theological and biblical topics related to the Catholic faith and appears regularly on the
Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). His talks have also been featured in multiple audio titles distributed by
Lighthouse Catholic Media. He has also written numerous books (see list below) and is the co-editor of the
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. Since 1990, Hahn has taught at the
Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he is the Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization. He was awarded Doctor of
Humanities –
honoris causa, by the
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in 2004. In 2014,
Francis Cardinal George appointed Hahn to the newly established McEssy Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Biblical Theology at
Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. ==Personal life==