Catholic Theological
Society of America

“The Great Waters of the Kingdom of Matter”: Faith, Religion, Science, and Reality

Registration:   https://forms.gle/BToEkKJ6o9ta7jBF8

Deadlines: Registration for in-person attendance: March 18th.

      Registration for virtual attendance: March 23rd. 

Conference: Saturday, March 26, 2022

Sponsored by 

Lumen et Vita 

The Graduate Journal of Theology

School of Theology & Ministry

Boston College

www.bc.edu/lumenetvita

www.facebook.com/lumenetvita

Remote and virtual attendance and presenting are possible.

The three best papers (as determined by a panel of judges) will each be awarded $400.  

Prizes are generously funded by the Science for Seminaries initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion.  Boston College’s School of Theology & Ministry received this grant under the leadership of Professor Jessica Black and Professor Dominic Doyle.  

More information can be found here: https://www.scienceforseminaries.org/school/boston-college-school-of-theology-and-ministry/

This conference has also been generously supported by a grant from the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, of which Boston College School of Theology & Ministry is a member.

More information on the BTI can be found here: https://www.bostontheological.org 

Keynote Speakers:  

Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar

School of the Environment & Yale Divinity School

Yale University 

https://environment.yale.edu/profile/tucker

Dr. Michael Ferguson, Ph.D.

Instructor in Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Lecturer on Neurospirituality, 

Harvard Divinity School

Neurospirituality Research Director, 

Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics 

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

https://neuromichael.com

“In the new humanity which is begotten today the Word prolongs the unending act of his own birth; and by virtue of his immersion in the world’s womb the great waters of the kingdom of matter  have, without even a ripple, been endued with life. No visible tremor marks this inexpressible transformation; and yet, mysteriously and in very truth, at the touch of the supersubstantial Word the immense host which is the universe is made flesh. Through your own incarnation, my God, all matter is henceforth incarnate.”

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “The Mass on the World” in Hymn of the Universe  (1961) 

Faith, Religion, and Science are lenses for viewing reality.  Although religious belief and science have long been constructed as being in tension and conflict in Western society, they also work together cooperatively, with mutually-informing perspectives despite different commitments, frameworks, burdens, strengths, limitations, methods, or goals.  These tensions and differences in method, however, speak to one another creatively and lead to a greater understanding of reality.  Christian theologians have described Faith, Religion, and Reason as aspects of the human experience that assist in the pursuit of truth, and ultimately the search for God.  Theologians such as Teilhard have poetically and analytically tried to incorporate the perspectives of science into their theologies.  On the other hand, scientists such as Francis Collins (former director of the Human Genome Project and 2020 Templeton Prize Winner) have tried to reconcile personal religious faith with their research.  Following such prominent examples of dialogue between these two human areas of inquiry,  we seek further conversation and collaboration between these two methods and modalities for encountering reality.  Faith, Religion, and Science are embodiments of different human capacities that have much to learn from one another with their own particular perspectives.  Sometimes there have been misguided or mistaken attempts to combine them.  Lumen et Vita seeks to engage and promote learning (in theoretical realms of theology and science and in practical realms such as the social sciences and pastoral practice), dialogue, and collaboration in exploring how these lenses might be used in conjunction to further true knowledge of humanity, creation, and, ultimately, the Divine.   

A tentative schedule:

• (Continental) Breakfast until 9:30

• 1st Keynote: Dr. Tucker: 9:30-10:30

• Break: until 10:45

• First set of two panels (concurrent): 10:45-12:00

• Lunch: 12-1

• Second set of two panels (concurrent): 1:15-2:30

• 2nd Keynote: Dr. Ferguson: 2:45-3:45

In addition to Twitter and Instagram, the CTSA is on LinkedIn.  Follow the CTSA at https://www.linkedin.com/company/catholic-theological-society-of-america!

The CTSA holds its investments with CBIS.  All members are welcome to sign up to attend CBIS' 30-minute webcast on February 23 at 2:00 p.m. (CST).

Join CBIS for a 30-minute webcast on February 23 to review the recently updated USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has updated its Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines for the first time in 18 years, with CBIS acting as project manager for the update. In this webcast, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of:   The process USCCB undertook to review and update the Guidelines The notable attributes of the Guidelines, and How the Guidelines reinforce CBIS’ approach to Catholic Responsible Investing Register for the event here. To learn more, download CBIS’ summary of the new investment restrictions and active ownership efforts under the updated Guidelines.                                  CBIS Presents USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines Discussion February 23, 2022 2:00 PM CST Raymond Burnell, Director of Catholic Responsible Investments, and Eric Bieniasz, CFA, Managing Director - Relationship Management

The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union invites contributions to a symposium focused on Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s consistent ethic of life on Sept. 17-18, 2022.  Our symposium, Life, Solidarity, Fraternity: The Consistent Ethic in Light of Fratelli Tutti, will explore the consistent ethic of life as a social ethic in the light of Pope Francis’s social teachings. Pope Francis has offered a comprehensive view of social ethics not only with solidarity, social friendship, and “a better kind of politics” as we read about them in Fratelli Tutti, but also with Laudato Si’ vision of integral ecology and the bold response to the pandemic described in Let Us Dream. The common ground between Pope Francis’s social teaching and the consistent ethic of life are the primary topic of the symposium.

Submissions are sought from current graduate students and recent Ph.D.'s in any applicable field.  Submissions from non-Catholic perspectives also are encouraged.

A complete call for papers with details and a tentative symposium schedule can be found at https://ctu.edu/consistent-ethic-2022-cfp/.  Direct questions to bernardincenter@ctu.edu.

REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.luc.edu/popefrancis/index.shtml

Loyola University Chicago reached out to the Head of Office of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Dr. Emilce Cuda, to lead a dialogue on the synodal process that Pope Francis has invited the Church to undertake.

Upon our suggestion, Dr. Cuda invited Pope Francis to personally participate in this dialogue. We are proud and excited to say that he accepted this invitation!

This historic encounter between the Pope and university students from North, Central, and South America will address salient challenges of our times. The Pope will dialogue with these university students, highlighting the contributions of students who are themselves migrants and children of migrants. The students will share concrete educational projects that seek to justly transform environmental and economic realities and the manifold ways their educational commitments can contribute to integrate and empower existential peripheries.

Loyola University of Chicago is honored to welcome Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American Pope, and university students from across the Americas committed to social justice, serving others, and finding God in all things.

Please help us spread the word and encourage students to register for this unprecedented event and initiative among college and university students in the Americas. 

Primary Contacts at Loyola University Chicago:

Dr. Miguel Diaz, John Courtney Murray, S.J. University Chair in Public Service

Dr. Michael Murphy, Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

Dr. Peter Jones, Interim Dean of the Institute of Pastoral Studies 

Dr. Felipe Legarreta, Professor of Theology, Institute of Pastoral Studies 

Media Coverage:

https://www.vaticannews.va/es/iglesia/news/2022-01/francisco-convite-universidad-loyola-de-chicago-jovenes-migrante.html

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/01/26/pope-francis-loyola-chicago-university-students-americas-242289

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/pope-francis-meet-college-students-virtual-dialogue-hosted-chicagos-loyola-university

Synodal Process: We are a listening Church
The Archdiocese of Seattle

CTSA member Jaisy Joseph, Assistant Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Seattle University, serves on the Archdiocescan Pastoral Council of Seattle and has been working with Archbishop Etienne and their team to create resources and to be part of listening sessions.  Jaisy wishes to share their website and an intro video that that they developed.  (Link to video provided below.)

Let's journey together

Pope Francis is calling for the largest consultation of the human family in history, including all of us in Western Washington.  Watch Archbishop Etienne and others explain how local parishes, ministries, and lay people will host listening sessions to prayerfully read the signs of the times, interpret them in the light of the Gospel, and then discern how the Holy Spirit is calling the Body of Christ to accomplish our mission here and now.

See https://archseattle.org/about-the-archdiocese-of-seattle/archbishop-etienne/pastoralplanning/pastoral-plan/synod/

It is with great pleasure that we invite CTSA members to participate in the 11th World Forum on Theology and Liberation being held online June 6-9, 2022. The call for papers is now open and we welcome CTSA members to contribute. The link to the call for papers can be found below. 

We would like to thank the CTSA leadership for their continued support in this effort of collaboration and exchange. 

Call for Papers Link: WFTL 2022-Call For Contributions- 4 Languages

Sincerely,

Jaisy Joseph and Rufus Burnett, Jr.

CTSA Representatives to the World Forum on Liberation and Theology   

Today, the CTSA remembers longstanding member Francine J. Cardman.

May she rest in peace.

Francine's Profile at Boston College (View here)

Contribution to the CTSA convention in 1999:

"The Praxis of Ecclesiology: Learning from the Donatist Controversy" CTSA Proceedings 54 (1999): 25-37. 

July 24 - July 30, 2022

A graduate colloquium on Christ and the Holy Spirit in Aquinas and Bonaventure with Prof. Joseph Wawrykow. The Thomistic Institute’s graduate colloquia are intended to give a selection of emerging scholars from different PhD programs an opportunity to meet and work with other younger scholars that share their interests, and to benefit from the wisdom and formation of a senior scholar.

During this colloquium, students will have the opportunity to study the relationship between Christology and Pneumatology in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, and the conversations that contextualized their views in the surrounding scholastic environment of the thirteenth century.

About the Speaker:

A professor at the University of Notre Dame, Joseph Wawrykow began his studies at the University of Manitoba, where he completed a Masters degree in 1980.  Subsequently, he completed his PhD with a Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship and a Whiting Prize Fellowship at Yale University under the direction of George Lindbeck.  Professor Wawrykow began teaching at Notre Dame in 1986, where he continues to teach and pursue research projects.  

Professor Wawrykow has taught a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in theology.  He regularly offers specialized research seminars for doctoral students on aspects of Aquinas’ thought such as grace and Christology and has directed many doctoral dissertations on Aquinas and other figures who shaped the theological development of the high medieval and scholastic West.  In 1999, he was designated a ‘Master Mentor’ by the Notre Dame Graduate School for his work with doctoral students, and his department has asked him to serve lengthy stints as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Graduate Studies (PhD).  In 2020, he was awarded by the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame The James A. Burns, C.S.C. Award for outstanding faculty mentorship.  

Professor Wawrykow’s first book, God’s Grace and Human Action: ‘Merit’ in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), plays an influential role in scholarly conversations about Aquinas’ theological anthropology. His Westminster Handbook to Thomas Aquinas (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005) provides an indispensable reference work for scholars and students of Aquinas. He has edited volumes, such as Christ among the Medieval Dominicans, co-edited with Kent Emery (University of Notre Dame Press, 1999) and The Theology of Thomas Aquinas, co-edited with Rik Van Nieuwenhove (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005). In addition, he has published numerous scholarly articles and invited essays.

This colloquium is open to current PhD students in philosophy, theology, and related fields. Attached to your application, please include a 500-word personal statement describing your current research and your reasons for applying to this colloquium.

Successful applicants will receive a full tuition scholarship and room and board for the duration of the conference. A limited number of travel scholarships are also available for select students who do not have access to institutional funding for travel.

Applications Close on March 31.

For more information and to apply: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events/graduate-colloquium-wawrykow 

July 17 - July 23, 2022

A graduate colloquium on Eucharistic Metaphysics with Prof. Gyula Klima. The Thomistic Institute’s graduate colloquia are intended to give a selection of emerging scholars from different PhD programs an opportunity to meet and work with other younger scholars that share their interests, and to benefit from the wisdom and formation of a senior scholar.

This colloquium will study the development of speculative accounts of the doctrine of the Eucharist, focusing on the medieval and early modern periods.  The mystery of this doctrine—in which the substance of bread and wine is believed to become the body and blood of Christ—has provoked reflection from a variety of theoretical perspectives for many centuries.  In addition to the questions it raises for systematic and historical theology, the doctrine of the Eucharist has also consistently given rise to metaphysical difficulties that have divided theological and philosophical schools of thought within the Western tradition.  This colloquium will study the development of this question and the significant theological and metaphysical questions it raises.  

About the Speaker:

A professor of philosophy at Fordham University, Gyula Klima has written on a wide variety of topics in medieval philosophy including logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. Completing his doctorate in Budapest in 1986, Professor Klima has held research and teaching positions in Europe (Budapest, Helsinki, St. Andrews and Copenhagen) and in the United States (Yale, Notre Dame, UCLA, Fordham). Since 1999 he has taught at Fordham University, where he was made a full professor in 2003. In 2009, he was made a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy, and since 2019, he has served as the director of the Research Center for the History of Ideas of the Hungarian Institute of Research. As the founding director of the Society of Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, Professor Klima continues to serve as editor of the Society’s proceedings. Recently, Professor Klima worked to establish the Society for the European History of Ideas and now serves as its founding director. He also serves as an editor for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in the medieval philosophy subject area, and edits the series “Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies” for Fordham University Press and the series “Historical-Analytical studies on Nature, Mind and Action” for Springer. In addition to over one hundred scholarly articles, Professor Klima has produced over twenty edited volumes and scholarly monographs on a wide variety of topics in medieval philosophy.  

This colloquium is open to current PhD students in philosophy, theology, and related fields. Attached to your application, please include a 500-word personal statement describing your current research and your reasons for applying to this colloquium.

Successful applicants will receive a full tuition scholarship and room and board for the duration of the conference. A limited number of travel scholarships are also available for select students who do not have access to institutional funding for travel.

Applications Close on March 31.

For more information and to apply: https://thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events/graduate-colloquium-klima