Catholic Theological
Society of America

Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo, Ecomartyrdom in the Americas: Living and Dying for our Common Home (Orbis Books, March 2023).

Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos, Tracy Sayuki Tiemeler, Elisabeth T. Vasko, editors, “Why We Can’t Wait”: Racism and the Church (Orbis Books, May 2023).

Good afternoon, everyone. Ruben (Sonny) Mendoza, President of INSeCT, invites us to their next online lecture, “Decolonizing Theologies, Decolonizing the World.” It will occur on April 25 at 930pm (Eastern Daylight Time). The speakers are the CTSA's own Dr. Melissa Pagán, and Dr. Pushpa Joseph (see below). Please register in advance here.  Frank

About the speakers: 

Dr. Melissa Pagán is a decolonial feminist ethicist. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Society from Emory University. Her current research project provides a feminist decolonial and critical spatial appraisal of the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching to ascertain whether, and to what extent the coloniality of knowledge, coloniality of being, and coloniality of gender undergird and therefore undermine its teachings on social justice. Dr. Pagán’s areas of expertise and research include feminist social ethics, critical geographies, postcolonial and decolonial theories and theologies, and Latinx theologies. For the academic year 2021-2022, Dr. Pagán was the recipient of a First Book Grant for Scholars of Color from the Louisville Institute. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS), the Board of Directors for the Web Branch of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc., and is the current Chair for the Committee on Underrepresented Groups for the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA). She is currently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Religious Studies at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

Dr. Pushpa Joseph is a feminist theologian from India with over 20 years of experience in the field of higher education. She has taught at the Department of Christian Studies in the University of Madras for over 11 years and has guided several students in their dissertations at the masters, pre-doctoral, and doctoral levels. Her research work is focused on themes that have a prophetic and transformatory impulse, and she has published around 40 articles on various topics related to theology, ethics, and feminist issues. Among her publications are Re-imagining Marriage and Family in Asia: Asian Christian Women's Perspectives and Feminist Hermeneutics: A Contextual Reconstruction. The former is acollaborative edited work with Dr Sharon Bong and explores Asian Christian women'sperspectives on marriage and family, while the latter is a reference book on feminist hermeneutics, contextual reconstruction and is published by Salesian College Publications, Darjeeling, West Bengal.

Good afternoon. This post is simply to inform you that the Board has established a Media Committee, to help us to keep up to date on media possibilities and challenges, with an eye toward how we can responsibly integrate a skilled use of media into our planning for the next decades. The membership is now posted under Committees, and I am grateful to everyone who has agreed to serve on the committee. If you would like a copy of the 2-page description of the committee and its role, please email me and I will send it to you.

Speaking of Media, don't forget our very important town hall next Tuesday, as previously announced. See below., Frank Clooney, SJ, President

Fossil Fuel Divestment Town Hall Meeting April 25th, 7 p.m. (ET)

Erin Lothes Biviano, Chair, Fossil Fuel Divestment Committee invites the membership to save the date for a virtual town hall at which all members may be updated on the recommendations by the committee for best paths forward to implement the Board's decision to divest from fossil fuels.  A report and presentation by the committee will be followed by conversation, questions, and answers.  A registration email will be forthcoming in April.

CTSA Recorded Event Videos Member login required to access website page. Theology and Teaching in Light of ChatGPT Tuesday, April 4, 2023 Moderator: Mary Kate Holman, Assistant Professor Department of History, Philosophy and Theology Benedictine University Panel: Anne Carpenter, Associate Professor Department of Theology and Religious Studies Saint Mary's College of California Stephen Okey, Associate Professor of Theology Department of Philosophy, Religion and Theology Saint Leo University David Turnbloom, Associate Professor Department of Theology University of Portland Precis: Following its launch in November '22, the new AI chatbot ChatGPT has presented some significant and rather daunting challenges to educators at all levels. Our spring virtual event will take up the question of how ChatGPT and similar technologies challenge us, or invite us to new forms of teaching and assessment, precisely as Catholic theologians and teachers of theology. Is this new tool an opportunity for theologians to embrace ‘the modern world’, à la Gaudium et Spes? Does it risk stifling the human task of knowing, à la Lonergan? And how do we talk to students about all this?

Congratulations to longstanding member John Thiel on being elected as the 111th President of the American Theological Society!  He will be serving in this role in 2023-2024.  

His most recent book is Now and Forever: A Theological Aesthetics of Time (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).

Member Pat Parachini invites you to attend

Faith, Feminism and Being Unfinished:
The Question of Women's Ordination
Monday, April 17, 7 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Georgetown University

This is a sequel to a 2018 event held at Georgetown University honoring Anne E. Patrick's contributions to the field of theology.

In-person event iand via Zoom

RSVP: bit.ly/faithandfeminism

The CTSA remembers and prays for Teresia Mbari Hinga.

Eternal rest grant unto Teresia, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon her.
May she rest in peace. Amen. 

Dr. Teresia Mbari Hinga Funeral Mass Service
Provided by Teresia Hinga's family to the CTSA through Theresa A. Yugar

Dr. Teresia Mbari Hinga’s funeral mass services are scheduled for Wednesday April 5th, 2023, 11:30am at St. Celestine Church, 3020 North 76th Court, Elmwood Park, Illinois. Officiated by Father Paul Kalenzi and Father Stan Chu Ilo.

The Kenyan funeral service is scheduled for Tuesday April 4th, 2023, in Ndumberi Kiambu.

Teresia Mbari Hinga was born January 25, 1955, as the youngest of seven children to her late parents Agnes Wairimu and Ernest Hinga in the village of Ndumberi, Kiambu in British-occupied Kenya. She was sister to her late siblings: Zita Nyambura, Norbert Kamau, Regina Wang’eri, Alphonse Mungai and Stephen Chege. She was a loving mother, grandmother, and godmother who protected her children and helped them flourish with her grand sense of humor, love of song, and faith in God. As a single mother who balanced her professional life with her home life, she is survived by her two beautiful children: son Anthony Hinga, daughter Pauline Wairimu Kenly, her son in-law Thom Kenly and her two grandchildren, Zoe and Nia Kenly, all in Chicago. In Kenya she is survived by her brother Michael Machua, her many nieces, nephews, cousins, relatives, friends, and colleagues.

Dr. Teresia Mbari Hinga earned a B.Ed. in English Literature and Religious Studies which she passed with first class honors from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Nairobi University. She earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies/African Christianity from the University of Lancaster in England in 1990. She was an African Christian feminist who pioneered the fields of African feminist theology and ethics. Dr. Hinga was an Associate Professor of Religion at Santa Clara University, California (2005-2023). Before that, she had joined DePaul University, Chicago in 1994-2005 having previously taught at Kenyatta University in Nairobi Kenya (1987-1994).

Service for her began at home supporting family members with their financial needs for education and medical purposes.Beyond that, she was a devoted friend to her home village of Ndumberi - Kiambu, finding seed money for local farmers, planting and growing trees, facilitating training for rainwater harvesting and organic farming methods.

She was a dedicated professor of religion and a welcoming friend who mentored hundreds of students and young scholars and promoted the scholarship of fellow professors, making them feel welcomed, known and heard. Dr. Hinga was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in Accra, Ghana in 1989. She promoted the Circle throughout her career. She was also a founding member and on the executive committee of the African Association of the Study of Religion (AASR), a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), she was on the board of the Journal of Global Catholicism and a member of the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC) Network until her death.

She bowed to a protracted battle with cancer on the March 31st, 2023, at Chicago Illinois, surrounded by her family and friends after receiving all the Catholic rites by Fr. Paul Kalenzi and Fr. Stan Chu Ilo.

We would like to invite you contribute towards Dr. Teresia Mbari Hinga’s funeral expenses. Through the following methods:

Zelle: phkenly@yahoo.com or CashApp: Pauline Kenly $profTeresia2023

Dr. Hinga was born in Kenya. She received a B.Ed. in English Literature and Religious Studies from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Nairobi University, also in Kenya. She earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies/African Christianity from the University of Lancaster in England. Her thesis on the role of women in African Christianity focused on women's power and liberation in the African Independent Church. Dr. Hinga's research focuses on religion and women's issues, particularly in Africa, African religious history, and expression in the global religious landscape, religion and public policy, and the ethics of globalization. She is a founding member of the "Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians," a pan-African association of women who study the role and impact of religion and culture on African women's lives. She is also a member of the Black Catholic Symposium of the AAR and of the Association for the Academic Study of Religion in Africa (AASR). 

Dr. Hinga joined the Santa Clara University faculty in 2005 and teaches courses on women and religion, feminist theologies, African religions and society, and religion and contemporary moral issues.   

Above reference provided through the The Department of Religious Studies', Santa Clara University, website (Accessed 3/31/23 < https://www.scu.edu/cas/religious-studies/faculty--staff/teresia-hinga/>

CTSA Contributions include:

"Women Healing Earth: Revisiting Rosemary Radford Ruether's Work on Moral Agency & Ecological Ethics among Women of the Global South", Proceedings of the CTSA, 72.

"A Response to Gerald M. Boodoo's 'Space of Possibility' Toward Another Possible Nonviolent World: Recognizing the Gift and Insights of 'Glo-cal' Theologies", Proceedings of the CTSA 74, 62-70.

"Bioethics & Healthcare Ethics: Prophetic Healthcare Ethics: A Panel Discussion on Catholic Women Theologians on the HIV/AIDS Pandemic", Proceedings of the CTSA 65.

"Catholic Theologies, Intrafaith Dialogue, and Pluarlism", Proceedings of the CTSA, 61.

The CTSA's Consultation on Sexual Abuse and the Church has been working on a bibliography of scholarly resources on sexual abuse and the Catholic Church.  The consultation invites all CTSA members to view this in-progress bibliography and suggest additions to Julia Feder at juliafeder@creighton.edu.

Congratulations to CTSA member Sister Carla May Streeter on the release of Avoiding the Sin of Certitude Podcast.  

Commentary from Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Congregation, St Louis, MO and Sister Carla May Streeter of Aquinas Institute, St Louis, MO on the book Avoiding the Sin of Certitude - courageous conversations around contemporary issues.

The Podcast may be accessed at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2155109

CTSA Members Elissa Cutter and Mary Kate Holman invite you to join Wednesday, March 22 (7 - 8 p.m.) virtual event

The Recovery of Women's Voices in Catholic Tradition:
A Conversation

Georgian Court Critical Concerns Week website: https://georgian.edu/critical-concerns2023/

Zoom link: https://georgian.zoom.us/j/98068749037