Nominees for the Board 2011
01 Christopher Denny
Chris Denny has been a member of the College Theology Society since 1999, attending every CTS annual meeting since 2000 and presenting seven papers at the CTS during that time. He was the convener of the Arts, Literature, and Religion section from 2006 to 2009, and has served as an editorial reviewer for the Society’s annual volume. An associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University in New York City, his recent publications include articles appearing in Horizons, Communio, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Logos and the 2006 CTS annual volume Vatican II: Forty Years Later. With Christopher McMahon he is the co-editor of Finding Salvation in Christ: Essays on Christ and Soteriology in Honor of William Loewe (Wipf and Stock, in press for 2011). Dr. Denny was the recipient of a 2010 CTS award for his 2009 Horizons article, “Iconoclasm, Byzantine and Postmodern: Implications for Contemporary Theological Anthropology.” A past member of the American Academy of Religion’s Board of Directors, he has served since 2008 as the regional director for the Academy’s Mid-Atlantic region. At St John’s, he has taught courses in historical theology, theology and literature, interreligious dialogue, and ecclesiology, and he also serves as the co-moderator for St. John’s chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society for theology students. His current research projects articulate ways imaginative literature and non-Christian scriptures can shape Christian anthropology.
Statement
In the opening chapter of her history of the CTS, Joining the Revolution in Theology, Sandra Yocum Mize recounts Paulist Father Eugene Burke’s 1954 claim that the inaugural members of the Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine possessed “a tremendous power for the future of Catholicism in America.” Though the Society has changed a great deal in the past 57 years, Burke’s statement nicely encapsulates the mediating role that the CTS continues to play in the life of our academic and ecclesial communities. Yesterday’s “teachers of Sacred Doctrine” are now today’s professional Catholic theologians and scholars, but this valuable transformation has never obscured our vocations as teachers and interpreters of the Christian faith to the church at large. If elected as a board member of the Society, I will work to continue our tradition of engaging not only the academy but also the broader public. I support further investment in the invaluable work that Danny Michaels has done in expanding our Internet site. At a time when the expertise of academic theologians is too often marginalized in popular reporting on religious and theological subjects, I also support the creation of a CTS specialists’ database. This resource would be accessible to journalists, and it would help reporters and writers contact those Society members willing to share their professional expertise and contribute to a greater understanding of theology in the public sphere.
02 Lisa M. Hess
Lisa M. Hess is a relatively new member to CTS and serves as associate professor of practical theology and contextual ministries at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Other lenses of professional identity significant to CTS include her contributions as book-review editor for Spiritus: a Journal of Christian Spirituality, past-governing board member of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (2007-2010) and current Board Member (at-large) for the Academy of Religious Leadership. She was selected as a fellow for Cohort 1 of the Henry Luce/AAR Summer Seminars in Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology, and more recently, as one of seven for a Multifaith Pedagogical Brain-Trust, funded by Auburn Seminary and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. She is author of Artisanal Theology (Cascade, 2009) and Learning in a Musical Key: Insight for Theology in Performative Mode, forthcoming in the Princeton Theological Monograph series of Pickwick Publications. Her specific projects in research and teaching come under the rubrics of contemplative pedagogies, online teaching/learning, and “liturgical hospitality,” explorations of multifaith-learning centered in ritual and scriptural reasoning.
Statement
My involvement with CTS has offered both professional and personal development in the research and teaching I do—first in a spirituality session paper on music and theology, then a session discussion on what I call artisanal theology. I was therefore delighted to stand for nomination, simply to share thanksgiving for the opportunities enjoyed. Any service I offer to the College Theology Society as a member of the Board of Directors will be rooted in the academic disciplines of Christian spirituality and (practical) theology and guided by my commitment to academic excellence and innovative teaching/learning. Given such disciplinary context, it is not surprising that such service ultimately aims toward measurable outcomes in research/teaching and a vibrant life related to religion(s) by a theological delight able to companion suffering. As scholars who teach today, we face unprecedented challenges for enjoying what we do with an imaginative and resilient competence in creative research and relevant teaching. Gifts I would bring to the Board, toward leadership in CTS facing those challenges, include 1) ecumenical and multifaith networks for Society development; 2) previous academic-guild, governing-board experience; 3) expertise in contemplative pedagogies and certification in higher-education, online teaching/learning; 4) the organizational wisdom that (sometimes) comes with Christian spirituality/theological folks, and 5) passing familiarity with CTS’s strengths and weaknesses as an historical, academic-guild organization. Were I to be elected to serve on the CTS Board of Directors, I would serve actively, with a sense of humor, and a renewing appreciation for the historical roots of the Society. At the very least, thanks to you all.
03 John N. Sheveland
Raised in Los Angeles and Portland, OR., my passion for theological studies was lit at the University of Portland, where I majored in History and Theology. I went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Yale Divinity School and a doctoral degree in Systematic and Comparative Theology from Boston College, where I wrote a dissertation on Rahner, Barth, and the Hindu theologian Vedanta Desika, under the direction of Roger Haight, S.J., and Francis X. Clooney, S.J. A lightly edited version will appear in 2011 with Ashgate. I have been a member of the CTS since my days in graduate school and remain ever grateful for the financial support of Boston College and the collegial support of the Society to make my presence possible at the annual meetings. These meetings crystallized my commitment to professional development and collegial collaboration. The annual meetings also refresh and energize me each year, thanks to the many good colleagues we have. This is my fifth year at the rank of Assistant Professor at Gonzaga University in Washington state, where I teach undergraduate courses that interface Christian theology and ethics with the world’s religions, and graduate courses on Theological Anthropology and Comparative Theology. I am exceptionally fortunate to be where I am and to meet students in the classroom, some of whom appreciate theological studies while many approach the subject with significant and not unwarranted hesitation. I balance the desire to communicate to them the very best of our theological traditions while inviting them to the table of responsible reflection, as active participants capable of critically integrating our subject matter with their intellectual and personal lives.
Statement
As convener of the World Religions section of the Society for 3 years, it has become apparent to me that the strides the Society has made to integrate diversity in all of its forms needs to be continued, strengthened, and met with fresh resolve each year. One of my goals as convener has been to help integrate the voices and perspectives of the world’s religions and comparative studies with the Society as a whole, so that we think of comparative studies not as a peripheral to moral, historical, or theological reflection, but a new way of thinking about these, one that is more inclusive of the diversity within us. As a member of the Board and in any other capacity of service to the CTS, a primary focus for me will be to continue the agenda of Christian theology in dialogue – significant dialogue – with religiously diverse persons and communities. This commitment along with the openness it requires should be particularly urgent for those of us who belong to communities of relative privilege and power.
04 Tobias Winright
Tobias has been a member of CTS for over a decade. From 2009 to 2011 he served as convener for the Justice and Peace section, and with Margaret Pfeil he is coeditor of the 2011 annual volume, They Shall Be Called Children of God: Violence, Transformation, and the Sacred, which will be published by Orbis Books. He presented papers at the CTS annual conventions in 2005, 2007, and 2008, with the latter two submitted and accepted for publication in the CTS annual volume: "The Liturgy as Basis for Catholic Identity, Just War Theory, and the Presumption against War," in Catholic Identity and the Laity, ed. Tim Muldoon (Orbis 2009), and (with Mark Allman) "Jus Post Bellum: Extending the Just War Theory," in Faith in Public Life, ed. William J. Collinge (Orbis 2008). With Mark Allman, he coauthored After the Smoke Clears: The Just War Tradition and Post War Justice (Orbis 2010), which builds on their CTS paper on the topic. He is also sole editor and a contributor to Green Discipleship, which includes chapters by twenty-one theologians (plus a few non-theologians) and will be published by Anselm Academic in 2011. He is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, and he taught previously at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa (1998-2003) and Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio (2003-2005). His Ph.D is in Christian Ethics/Moral Theology from the University of Notre Dame, and he has a B.A. in political science from the University of South Florida and a M.Div. from Duke University Divinity School. In 2004 he was honored with the Educator of the Year award at Walsh University, and he has been a finalist for the Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities award at Saint Louis University in 2010 and 2011. A first generation college student in his family, he somehow worked (full time) for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department (FL) during his undergraduate years. He and his wife, Liz, live in the city of St. Louis with their daughters Clare (6 years) and Lydia (6 months).
Statement
I have been involved with several professional societies over the years, and CTS is the one that has most nurtured my development as a theologian seeking both to teach well and to keep my finger on the pulse of the best in current theological scholarship. At the annual convention I am always struck by the excellent academic presentations and the friendly environment. CTS is a nexus for exchanges, collaboration, and encouragement for newer as well as more senior theologians. I am grateful for the things other members have done for me (feedback on papers, letters of recommendation, invitations to assume roles of service in the society, etc.), and I hope to give back to CTS by making sure that it retains this ethos. At the same time, I think CTS, as is said of Catholic social teaching, is a "best kept secret" that needs to be shared, especially through our improved website. As we continue to initiate graduate students and junior theologians into the society, we also need to keep more experienced scholar-teachers involved. In addition, as one who has benefited from an ecumenical education, I appreciate the ongoing participation of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, and I would like to explore the possibilities for including other similar organizations that might challenge CTS to be more attentive to race and ethnicity in our teaching and scholarship. Briefly stated, CTS has become a part of my identity as a college theologian, and I look forward to serving CTS in whatever capacity in the future!