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Department ofReligious Studies

Eugene Schlesinger

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Eugene R. Schlesinger

Assistant Professor

Eugene R. Schlesinger (Ph.D., Marquette University) is a systematic theologian whose work proceeds from the intersection of ecclesiology and sacramental theology and tends to be preoccupied with questions of how human beings come to participate in the life of God and how that participation informs human activity in the world. He aspires to reinvigorate the speculative dimension of Christian theology in the spirit of the two Vatican Councils.

His current research pivots from a recently completed book on the relationship between mysticism and salvation in the theology of Henri de Lubac toward bringing the (mainly French) ressourcement movement into conversation with theologies of liberation (particularly Latin American, Black, and womanist theologies) in a theology of the divided church.

Schlesinger received his B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and his M.Div. from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC before spending five years in pastoral ministry. His pastoral work raised questions about the relationship between the church's life of worship (liturgy) and its engagement with the world around it (mission), which in turn drove him to pursue doctoral studies at Marquette University, leading him eventually here to Santa Clara. He loves teaching in both at the undergraduate level and in the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries.

Courses
  • TESP 4: The Christian Tradition
  • TESP 50: Catholic Theology: Foundations
  • TESP 122: Good and Evil (Mostly Evil)
  • PMIN 203: Christology
  • PMIN 205: Ecclesiology
  • PMIN 213: Liturgy and Sacraments
  • PMIN 214: Sacramental Theology
  • PLIT 221: The Eucharist
  • PLIT 235: Sacraments of Healing
Publications

Sacrificing the Church: Mass, Mission, and Ecumenism (Fortress Academic/Lexington Books, 2019).

Missa Est! A Missional Liturgical Ecclesiology (Fortress Press, 2017).

“Overcoming the ‘Distance’: Robert Doran as a Bridge between the Trinitarian Analogies of Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar,” Theological Studies 82, no. 4 (2021): 626–45.

“Worship and Mission.” In Theological Foundations for Engaging Worship, edited by Khalia J. Williams and Mark A. Lamport. Engaging Worship Series, 135–49. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021.

“Ecological Conversion, the Four Point Hypothesis, and Social Grace.” In Intellect, Affect, and God: The Trinity, History, and the Life of Grace, edited by Joseph Ogbannaya and Gerard Whelan, 19–33. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2021.

“Catholicity from an Anglican Perspective.” Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies 5, no. 2 (2020): 281–96.

“Eucharistic Sacrifice as Anti-Violent Pedagogy.” Theological Studies 80.3 (2019), 653–72.

“The Quest for Liturgical Meaning: Schmemann, Ressourcement, and Scholasticism” in We Give Our Thanks Unto Thee: Essays in Honor of Alexander Schmemann, edited by Porter Case Taylor, 35–51. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2019.

“Revisiting Anglicanism’s Vocation to Disappear.” Journal of Anglican Studies 17.1 (2019), 8–30.

“The Integrative Role of Sacrifice in the Theology of Henri de Lubac.” International Journal of Systematic Theology 20:3 (2018), 402–22.

“A Trinitarian Basis for a ‘Theological Ecology’ in Light of Laudato Si’.” Theological Studies 79:2 (2018), 339–355.

 

In the News

March 4, 2024

Eugene Schlesinger reviews Christopher Edwards' book Crucified: The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus.

January 28, 2023

Eugene Schlesinger reviews Kimlyn J. Bender's 1 Corinthians from the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series.

January 15, 2020

Eugene Schlesinger wrote an article in The Living Church about Jesus responding to the basic human need of food.