Richard Penaskovic studied at the University of Innsbruck, the University of Würzburg, and the University of Munich where he received the Ph.D., magna cum laude, and has taught over 50 courses in religious studies during his 40 years in academia.

He has over 100 publications to his credit, 26 of them in peer-reviewed books and journals. Penaskovic has made presentations at several colleges and universities in the U.S.,e.g., Syracuse University, Providence College, but also at the University of Toronto, the Free University in Amsterdam, the University of Salzburg, Austria, Erasmus University in Rotterdam, and the London School of Economics.

He feels most at home in Newman and Augustinian Studies, ecclesiology, and ecumenism, understood in a wide sense as encompassing inter-faith dialogue.