Fr. Gerard S. Sloyan, distinguished Biblical scholar, teacher, author, and activist in liturgical reform turns 100 years old Dec. 13, 2019! Gerard S. Sloyan, Professor Emeritus of Temple University, was President of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), from 1993-94. His presidential address to the CTSA was entitled “The Jesus in Whom the Churches of the Apostolic Age Believed.” CTSA Proceedings,49(1994) 65-70. Fr. Sloyan celebrated the 75th anniversary of his priesthood June 5, 2019.
We invite you to help post memories, congratulatory comments, and meditations on how Fr. Sloyan’s work and person has influenced you.
Here is a brief account my relationship Fr. Sloyan:
My name is Elizabeth Adams-Eilers. When I moved to Philadelphia to pursue a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Temple University, I sought a place to live. As it so happens, Fr. Gerard Sloyan had to leave Temple that year because he had reached Temple’s mandatory retirement age. As he prepared to leave Temple to move to the Washington, DC area, Fr. Sloyan looked for someone to rent his house. For two years, I was delighted to lease Fr Sloyan’s house on Sansom Street in Center City, Philadelphia. In 1991 “snail mail” was a preferred method of communication, and we wrote quite often to one another. While employed as an adjunct by Holy Family University in Philadelphia, I used two of his books as textbooks for a course on Catholic doctrine: Catholic Morality Revisited and Why Jesus Died.
Ten years later, the University of Notre Dame Press published a chapter from my dissertation, and Fr. Sloyan was a peer reviewer for this essay. He sent me scores of notes and notecards in his meticulous handwriting, his wisdom transmitted to this reader through perfectly-formed tiny script. I have kept some of these notecards as a fond remembrance of our work together.
When my husband, Bob, and I married in 2004, Fr. Sloyan officiated at our wedding, which was held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, St. Anthony’s Chapel. Fr. Sloyan generously invited us to marry there where he had served the parish for many years.
I am so grateful for Fr. Sloyan’s generosity, guidance, and love extended to me and to my family in the 29 years we have known him! Blessings to him on his 100th!!!
Please respond with your own stories!
Peace and every good,
Elizabeth Adams-Eilers, ofs, Ph.D.
eadams02@temple.edu.
P.S. For an approved version of his life story see https://www.biola.edu/talbot/ce20/database/gerard-s-sloyan
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CTSA Proceedings' links to Fr. Sloyan's work:
Presidential Address: The Jesus in Whom the Churches of the Apostolic Age Believed
Gerard S. Sloyan
2013-02-01
https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/3884
Orthodoxy and heterodoxy: the situation in the Church today
Gerard S. Sloyan
2012-10-01
https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/2683
The Age of First Confession
Gerard S. Sloyan
2012-10-01
https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/2629
Faith and modern subjective thought
Gerard S. Sloyan
2012-10-01
https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/2547
