Catholic Theological
Society of America

The Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS) at Durham University. UK offers a Distance Learning Programme in Catholic Theology. 

The programmes are designed so that participants can work through material at their own pace, studying equally well in any time zone and in many different life situations, alongside work, ministry, family or caring obligations. 

In addition to the Postgraduate Certificate, the Postgraduate Diploma, and the MA, students can enrol for a single module. Students with a BA or BSc who have not studied Theology or a related discipline before, are able to apply for the core module, ‘Catholic Theology: A Preliminary Tour’ and proceed to the MA following its successful completion. The single module is also a standalone option for Continual Professional Development and general interest.

Further details are available at Distance Learning – Durham University

The CCS offers a Bursary Fund specifically to support students on these distance learning programmes – see CCS Bursary for Distance Learning 2025-26 - Durham University for information.

If you have any questions about these Distance Learning programmes, please do not hesitate to contact the CCS Manager - theresa.phillips@durham.ac.uk

All are invited to join a webinar on Monday, Nov. 18th at 2pm EST featuring Fr. Michael Carson, Assistant Director of the subcommittee on Native American Affairs.  The new document is called "Keeping Christ's Sacred Promise: a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry."  The Catholic Boarding School Healing and Accountability Project is the sponsor of this event.  To register, visit: www.ahprojectusa.org.   

Papers are currently being accepted for an academic conference commemorating the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325) together with the 60th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). A collaboration between Milwaukee Catholic institutions and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the conference on "The Legacies of Nicaea I and Vatican II: An Inheritance Unfolding" will take place September 4–7, 2025 at Marquette University.

Paper proposals of no more than 300 words may be submitted using the online portal on the Legacies Conference website. Please note that papers related to Nicaea will be scheduled on Friday, September 5, and papers related to Vatican II will be scheduled on Saturday, September 6.

Paper topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The Council of Nicaea and its reception history
• The Nicene Creed and other Christian confessions
• Trinitarian theology and Christology in view of Nicaea
• Athanasius, Arius, and "Arianism"
• Orthodoxy and heresy in Christian tradition
• Unity and schism in Church history
• Constantine and Christianity in the Roman Empire
• Ecumenical councils and the conciliar tradition
• The Second Vatican Council and its reception history
• The proceedings and documents of Vatican II
• Liturgy and liturgical developments before or after Vatican II
• Synods and synodality
• The Church in the modern world
• Ecumenism and ecumenical relations between the Catholic Church and other ecclesial bodies

Selected papers will be included in an edited volume of the conference proceedings.

 The deadline to submit a paper proposal is March 1, 2025.

Notice from the Univ. of Notre Dame 

The Office of the Provost has received word of the recent passing of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., Professor Emeritus, Theology, College of Arts and Letters. We join with our colleagues across the university in sending our deepest condolences to the Gutiérrez family, community, and colleagues.

Father Gutiérrez will be remembered at a Memorial Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of Notre Dame on Monday, November 11, 2024 at 5:15 p.m. (Eastern Time).  Our university president, Father Bob Dowd, C.S.C., will preside. The Mass will be live streamed on the regular Basilica daily Mass page: https://basilica.nd.edu/prayer-and-worship/watch-mass/. 

Write a book review for https://catholicbooksreview.org/

 You select the book, I mail it to you, you send me the electronic review, and I post it (about 1,500 to 2,000 reviews posted since 1997). Write to Hegy@adelphi.edu/   Here is the list of books available in November:

ZECHARIAH. In the series Wisdom Commentaries. By Leslie Hoppe (250 pp – Liturgical Press). [Historical-critical analysis of the text, chapter by chapter, in a feminist perspective]

I PETER. Revised edition. Tyndale NT Commentaries. By Wayne A. Grudem (260 pp – IVP Academic). [First published in 1988. A long introduction about date and authorship, followed by a commentary of the various sections]

REDISCOVERING THE WISDOM OF THE CORINTHIANS. Paul, Stoicism, and Spiritual Hierarchy. By Timothy Brookins (340 pp – Eerdmans. [The “wisdom” of 1 Cor 1-4 refers to the Stoic philosophy that prevailed in Corinth; some members considered themselves as “wiser” philosophically and “superior” intellectually; this led to conflictive divisions. Paul refutes this philosophical interpretation of his teachings]

CHRISTIANS AT HOME. John Chrysostom and Domestic Rituals in Fourth-Century Antioch. By Blake Leyerle (140 pp – Penn State University Press). [Drawing from Chrysostom’s sermons, the author describes the home devotions of the Antioch Christians.]

JESUS AND DIVINE CHRISTOLOGY. By Brant Pitre (360 pp – Eerdmans). [In the tradition of the study of the historical Jesus, Pitre shows that Jesus made claims of divinity for himself]

TRUST IN ATONEMEMNT.  God, Creation, and Reconciliation by Teresa Morgan (240 pp – Eerdmans). [This book is a further development of the author’s theology of trust: in the NT and everyday life, with chapters on trust and suffering, trust after trauma, trust in creation, trust to forgive]

EUCHARISTIC RESERVATION.  Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass. By Paul Turner (180 pp – Liturgical Press). [Commentary section by section on the new edition of Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass of 2024]

Together with

SOUNDINGS ON EUCHARIST AND PRIESTHOOD. BY Michael Dellaire (100 pp – Friesen Press) Reflections from the context the Canadian ministry] These works can be reviewed briefly together or separately.

CATHOLIC DOGMATIC THEOLOGY: A SYNTHESIS. Book 3. On the Church and the Sacraments. by Jean-Hervé Nicolas, OP (750 pp – CUA Press). [Translated from German. First published in 1985]

REMARRIAGE IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY. By Andrew Das (320 pp – Eerdmans). [Review of the Jewish and Greco-Roman sources and the witness of the early church]

The nineteenth-century salesian pentecost (Classics of Western Spirituality). edited by Joseph Boenzi (270 pp – Paulist Press). [The Salesian family, the Sisters and the Daughters of Francis de Sales, the Fransalians]

Everyday Annunciations. On Learning to Say Yes. By Susan Swetnam (120 pp – Liturgical Press). [Swetnam recounts how she came to accept her husband’s death when contemplating Fra Angelico’s Annunciation. Using numerous stories of disrupted lives, she describes how to say “Yes” through six paintings of the Annunciation.]

ALL MY SPRINGS ARE IN YOU More Explorations of Great Biblical Texts. By Gerhard Lohfink (1934-2024) (320 pp – Liturgical Press). [The springs in Psalm 87 refer to Jerusalem to which all nations converge for justice and peace. Lohfink illustrates this theme through 50 short biblical reflections.]

SOCIAL CATHOLICISM FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENRTURY? New Hope for Ecclesial and Societal Renewal. Volume 2. Edited by William Murphy Jr. (360 pp – Wipf and Stock). [Proposals for societal renewal on engaging topics like Christian humanism, post-neoliberalism, biophilic markets, new economics, race, the social media, cooperation beyond borders, pastoral leadership, after populism and polarization, etc.]

Edited by Paul Lakeland, an international collection of essays re-evaluating the legacy of Hans Kung. Authors include Hermann Haring, Karl-Josef Kuschel, Anthony Godzieba, Roger Haight, Mary McAleese, Susan Ross, Jakob Rinderknecht, Hille Haker, Frank Clooney, Johanna Rainer and Jonathan Keir. Available from Paulist Press. 

Swiss theologian Hans Kung was the most controversial of the European Catholic theologians who emerged at the time of Vatican II. He gained attention for challenging papal infallibility, but he also wrote at length on other topics, including justification, Christian life, the existence of God, priesthood, the incarnation, global ethics and interreligious dialogue.

John R. Morris, OP has recently published Jesus, the Person and the Mission: Searching for the Jesus of History. The publisher’s description of the book reads:

“This book is a search for the Jesus of history, the Jesus experienced by his disciples during his public life. Its objective is to discover the authentic words and deeds attributable to Jesus with historical certitude. It accounts for his Jewish religious background and the historical context in which he carried out his mission. Central to this work is Jesus’ relationship to his Abba and his personal understanding of his mission. Special attention is devoted to the major events and teaching of Jesus: his baptism, his miracles, his preaching and parables, and his Last Supper. The Jesus of history, the person and his words and deeds, are foundational for the faith of the early church and the written Scriptures that followed his death and resurrection. They are also foundational for  contemporary faith." 

It is the author’s conviction that contemporary Christology must consider the Jesus of history. The book can be ordered through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Yipf & Stock, the publisher.

CTSA remembers the "father of liberation theology," Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP. 
 

The funeral arrangements for Father Gustavo are attached. Note that the funeral Mass is tomorrow, October 24, at 1:00 in Lima (Central time zone). We have unofficial word that the funeral Mass will be live streamed on the Facebook page of the Instituto Bartolome de las Casas (https://www.facebook.com/Institutobartolomedelascasas/).

"Damos gracias a Dios por el gran legado que nuestro hermano Gustavo ha dejado a la Iglesia y la sociedad." -Fr. Rómulo Vásquez Gavidia, OP. 

May Gustavo Gutiérrez rest in God's peace,
 

"Critical Theology", a newsletter published by Novalis and originally founded by Gregory Baum, is now available "free" as an online publication.  It is edited by Don Schweitzer of St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon, SK and includes several CTSA members as corresponding editors: M. Shawn Copeland, Lee Cormie, and Charles Curran. You can find it at:

en.novalis.ca/products/critical-theology

The video recording of the CTSA Fall 2024 Virtual Event, Teaching Catholic Theology in the Present Political Moment (Tuesday, October 22), is now available for viewing for CTSA members. 

To access the video, navigate to the CTSA's website home page.  Log into the website using your email address and member #.  Then scroll to the bottom of the page where resources are posted.  Select: CTSA Recorded Videos