Christina Atienza, a Dominican Sister of San Rafael, received her M.A. in Interreligious Studies and Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. Her research focus is on comparative studies of Sōtō Zen and Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism and Roman Catholicism at the intersection of theologies of religious life and human flourishing, altruism, and lived religion.
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she immigrated with her family to the San Francisco Bay Area in her late teens. Prior to becoming a religious sister, she enjoyed a long career as a professional civil and traffic engineer and long-range transportation planner, having received her B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. As a religious sister, she has served as a campus minister at Dominican University of California and is deeply interested in the ongoing evolution of the identity of American women religious since Vatican II.
- TESP 4 The Christian Tradition
- TESP 50 Catholic Theology: Foundations
- TESP 187 Christ and Catholic Theology
“A Comparison of Aquinas and Dōgen’s Views on Religious Life.” In The Routledge Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies, edited by Carol Anderson and Thomas Cattoi. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2022: 189-200.
“An Evaluation and Comparison of American Buddhist and Catholic Racial Projects Through the Lens of Critical Race Theory.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 41 (2021): 207-220.