Catholic Theological
Society of America

My recently published article, “Pursuing the Intrinsic Relationship Between Liturgy and Ethics: Practical-Theological Promise in Poverty of Spirit,” is freely available in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal AUC Theologica (Charles University, Prague). 

That new issue of AUC Theologica features a special section of five articles on sacramental-liturgical theology (guest-edited by Petr Stica), along with eight more articles across a range of theological sub-disciplines.

CTSA member Gerard Magill, The Gallagher Chair, Duquesne University, announces the annual Integrity of Creation Conference, Sep.29-30, 2020.   The theme for this year is Building a Sustainable World. Due to Covid-19, the conference is virtual via zoom. Please visit the conference website for the schedule of events and for the zoom links, www.duq.edu/ioc.

Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, Religious Life for Our World: Creating Communities of Hope

https://www.orbisbooks.com/religious-life-for-our-world.html

 

Ilia Delio, OSF, Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion

https://www.orbisbooks.com/re-enchanting-the-earth.html

Ki Joo Choi/Sara Moses/Andrea Vicini, SJ, eds.: Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle  Cahill’s Contributions to Social Ethics

https://www.orbisbooks.com/re-imaging-the-moral-life-lisa-sowell-cahill-orbis.html

CTSA members, especially those interested in topics related to religion and ethics in contemporary society, may enjoy these two resources (Full disclosure: I never knew about either one until recent requests to contribute from the curators of each):

1) The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University hosts an online forum for the exchange of opinions on matters of public import. One of the Berkley Center's recent topics (treated by an interreligious array of nearly a dozen well-informed writers, a few of them CTSA members) involves “Economic Justice and Universal Basic Income: Ethical and Religious Perspectives.” You don't need to be a member of the "Yang Gang" to appreciate the opinions expressed here. (That is a reference to recent Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang).

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/blogs/berkley-forum

2) The Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law and Religion is a digital project of the Center for Law and Religion at Emory Law School. Its stated goal is “to provide sophisticated yet accessible content. . . on issues that lie at the intersection of law, religion, and society. . . in an informed, nuanced, and productive way.” Based on what I have seen on the website so far, these lofty goals are routinely achieved--again, in an interreligious mode.

https://canopyforum.org/

Happy reading!  Thomas Massaro, S.J. (Fordham University)

Commonweal continues to offer free one-year Commonweal  print 
subscriptions to all students (undergraduate or graduate) as well as to anyone who has finished a degree program in the past three years. We encourage professors to circulate this URL to all their students: https://cwlmag.org/freestudent.

We'd also like to introduce people to our Conversation Starter Series, which are small collections of Commonweal articles and discussion guides for classroom and small-group use. This year's topics are:

1. Catholic Citizenship
2. Listening to Marginalized Voices
3. Transforming Parishes Today
4. The Art of Conversion
5. Alternatives to Capitalism
6. How Does Church Teaching Change?
7. Seminaries & Formation
8. Environmental Spirituality

Free samples of any of these topical guides can be requested by emailing Thomas Baker, Publisher, at tbaker@commonwealmagazine.org. More information is at https://cwlmag.org/css.

Commonweal continues to offer free one-year Commonweal  print 
subscriptions to all students (undergraduate or graduate) as well as to anyone who has finished a degree program in the past three years. We encourage professors to circulate this URL to all their students: https://cwlmag.org/freestudent.

We'd also like to introduce people to our Conversation Starter Series, which are small collections of Commonweal articles and discussion guides for classroom and small-group use. This year's topics are:

1. Catholic Citizenship
2. Listening to Marginalized Voices
3. Transforming Parishes Today
4. The Art of Conversion
5. Alternatives to Capitalism
6. How Does Church Teaching Change?
7. Seminaries & Formation
8. Environmental Spirituality

Free samples of any of these topical guides can be requested by emailing Thomas Baker, Publisher, at tbaker@commonwealmagazine.org. More information is at https://cwlmag.org/css.

The CTSA has received approval  of Dennis Smolarski, S.J., Director, Campus Ministry, Santa Clara University, to provide the link to attend Paul Crowley's funeral on Monday, August 24, at 11:00 a.m.  The participants scheduled for the mass are the video and audio technicians, priests, readers, and musicians only.

The case-sensitive link for the mass is:

https://bit.ly/Crowleymemorial

The CTSA mourns the loss of beloved member Anselm Min.  Below is Claremont Graduate University's tribute to Anselm.

Eternal rest, grant unto Anslem O Lord, 
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May Anselm's soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. 

Passings: Anselm Mi, Scholar Who Helped Students See the Enduring Relevance of the Religious Past

Professor Emeritus Anselm Min, who passed away earlier this month, is seen here as he addresses an audience on the challenges that globalization presents to Christian theology during a 2017 conference.

The Catholic thinker Thomas Aquinas may have died some 750 years ago, but for Anselm Min, a longtime member of CGU’s Religion Department, Aquinas had much to teach Min’s students in our hyper-self-conscious age of social media.

“It was refreshing to read a thinker who reflects and argues rather than shouts and claims,” he wrote in his critically acclaimed 2005 study, Paths to the Triune God; “one who withdraws himself so as to let the matter speak for itself rather than intrude his own subjectivity at every available turn.”

A scholar renowned for his efforts to make historically distant theologies relevant to the present, Min passed away earlier this month at his Upland home. For nearly 30 years, he had served as a member of the university’s Religion Department.

Min had only just retired from CGU earlier this summer.

School of Arts & Humanities Dean Lori Anne Ferrell circulated a message to the SAH faculty about Min’s passing, praising “his remarkable gifts of intellect and spirit.”

On Instagram and Twitter, former colleagues and students expressed sorrow over his passing and paid tribute to Min’s warmth and scholarship.

CGU religion doctoral student Josiah Solis on Twitter described Min as “one of the most important professors I have ever studied with.”

Also on Twitter, University of Toronto doctoral student Sean Capener said Min was “almost single-handedly the reason I’ve spent the last seven years digging around in the medieval scholastic tradition.”

A Distinguished Career

Min held not one but two doctorates—one in religion from Vanderbilt University and one in philosophy from Fordham University—and helped maintain CGU’s high reputation in academic circles. He was the product of a Jesuit education and a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America.

At CGU, Min received many awards, including ones from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fletcher Jones Research Grant, and he enjoyed a five-year tenure as the John D. and Lillian Maguire Distinguished Professor of Religion.

In works such as Paths to the Triune God, Korean Religions in Relation, and Faith, Hope, Love and Justice, Min worked tirelessly to show the enduring power and relevance of traditions of religious thought to our contemporary age.

Recalling his earliest years at CGU (then CGS), Min writes in Paths to the Triune God that he had taught doctoral students since 1992, and that “during this time it occurred to me that some of our students tended to be so preoccupied with things contemporary that they not only suffered a woeful ignorance of the classical tradition but also had a positive contempt for the theological past.”

Professor Emeritus Anselm Min In his scholarship and teaching, Min sought to address this misunderstanding, explaining to generations of students and readers the “broadening and liberating experience” of understanding and appreciating past theologians while not making excuses for their errors and prejudices.

Ferrell also said in her message to the SAH community that they will honor and celebrate Min’s legacy as soon as quarantine conditions are lifted and in-person gatherings are allowed again.

Min is survived by his wife, Sonnya, and their daughter Sophia.

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By Claremont Graduate University (Aug. 17, 2020) at  https://www.cgu.edu/news/2020/08/passings-anselm-min-scholar-who-helped-students-see-the-enduring-relevance-of-the-religious-past/

May be of interest for those interested in Merton's writings on race, CTSA members who teach Merton, or who have spoken for the ITMS. A collaborative document, the fruit of an increasing wealth of scholarship on Merton and race. As current VP of the ITMS, I'd welcome any feedback, critical and otherwise.  (cpramuk@regis.edu) 

http://merton.org/ITMS/Racial-Justice-Statement-.July-2020.pdf

Here is Paul speaking on the mystery of suffering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRjSi3B2nXQ