Fall 2024 Perspectives Faculty Updates
Ana María Pineda, RSM
Ana María Pineda, RSM has been selected as a recipient of the Encuentros Award (El Premio de los Encuentros).Bishop Oscar Cantú, who is both the chair of the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs and the Bishop of San Jose, noted in his letter announcing the award: “This award is the highest recognition given by the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs for a sustained and significant contribution to the development and accompaniment of Hispanic/Latino Ministry at the national level over the years.” She is one of the first four recipients of the award, which is being given for the first time this year and will be presented in person during a special ceremony, in conjunction with the USCCB November 2024 annual assembly in Baltimore. She joined recipients Sean Cardinal O’Malley, OFM; Bishop Gerald R. Barnes; and Carmen Aguinaco.
Ana María has published the opening chapter in the newly published work Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching, edited by Todd Walatka. In her chapter, “Romero: A Man in Search of God and Truth”, Pineda provides a biographical sketch of Romero’s life avoiding the danger of bifurcating Romero’s life into two radically opposed periods. Pineda presents a compelling account of Oscar Romero’s life as a long preparation for his martyrdom, a life in pursuit of God and truth. The volume comes out of a four-year collaborative writing project sponsored by the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame and includes thirteen other Romero scholars.
Elyse Raby
Elyse Raby’s chapter "Beyond 'Women in the Church': Gender and Ecclesiology Since Vatican II" came out in the edited volume Vatican II at 60: Re-Energizing the Renewal (Orbis Press) in mid-May. In addition, her article "Eighty Years after Mystici Corporis Christi: Rereading Mystical Body Theology in the Early Twentieth Century" is out in the June issue of Theological Studies.
Elyse spent time in Rome with the GPPM group (three GPPM students, two undergrads, two staff, and herself). She spent the week in teach-ins on synodality, meetings with synod delegates, celebrating mass with JST Dean Orobator in the room in which Ignatius died, touring churches, attending the general papal audience on Wednesday, and—the grand finale—in the synod hall itself for an hour and a half conversation with two Cardinals overseeing the synod, Bishop Flores, and synod delegate Sr. Leticia Salazar from the San Bernardino diocese. Our SCU undergrad Asia Chan ‘25 (Psychology major) got to ask the first question on the synod floor. The whole week was extraordinary. Kudos to Paul Schutz for all the logistical work to get us there. She also was in Assisi where she visited the Basilica of Saint Clare and lit a candle at her tomb for our department and all of SCU!
Pearl Barros
At the beginning of July, Pearl Barros was featured in a story, "Can Feminists Embrace the Virgin Mary?," about her teaching and work at the intersection of feminism and religion. A former student wrote the article, which appeared on the SCU website. She is also featured in an article in the most recent issue of Santa Clara Magazine, in an article entitled "A Woman’s Place,"about the role of women in the Catholic church.
Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan had an article published last month in the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JESHO). It is a re-examination of the very (in)famous 18th century political letters of Shah Wali Allah (that have been used to support various religious/political projects in modernity).
Daniel also presented his current work at the annual South Asia Conference held in Madison, Wisconsin. He participated in a full-day pre-conference symposium on the question of the "everyday" in Mughal India where he presented a paper entitled “A Sufi Household at the End of Empire: Reconstructing Everyday Life from Mirza Jan-i Janan's letters.” The paper looked at a collection of Persian-language correspondence to understand how female relatives (and dependents) of a major Sufi shaykh navigated the changing political and social landscape during the 1750s-80s when the Mughal Empire was visibly fragmenting. While the letters allow us to say something about more powerful members of the household, we also find traces of subaltern individuals- in particular a slavegirl- about whom we can say almost nothing suggesting the limitations of the category of the "everyday".
On the last day of the conference, Daniel presented another paper called "From Manuscript to Print: A Publishing History of Shāh Walī Allāh of Delhi’s (d.1762) Ḥujjat Allāh al-bāligha." This paper used codicological and paratextual evidence from manuscripts and early lithographs of this massively important Arabic-language reformist work to show how it was transmitted from Delhi, where it was first circulated in manuscript the 1740s, to early print editions in Istanbul in the late nineteenth century (where it was picked up by intellectuals and, slightly later, by anti-colonial activists in the early twentieth century.) The evidence of the manuscripts challenges older scholarly frameworks that focus on orality for Muslim scholarly transmission in the pre-colonial period and suggests instead a certain degree of continuity between pre-colonial/colonial textual/scribal cultures.
Karen Peterson-Iyer
Karen Peterson-Iyer had an article come out, on "Reproductive Justice and Agricultural Labor Migrants" in the Journal of Moral Theology. Karen notes: “In it, I examine the experience of women farm laborers to illustrate why reproductive justice is a more helpful lens for the Catholic Church to adopt, rather than either a "pro-life" (or, for that matter, a narrowly "pro-choice") ethical posture. In addition, this essay will be part of a collaborative volume sponsored by Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, which also includes a short roundtable piece of mine entitled "On Threats to Women's Flourishing.”
Bryson White
Bryson White gave the 2024 Pressler Lecture at Louisville Seminary last month. His topic was “Birth of a Nation: Christian Eschatology and Black Disappearance,” which drew on his current book project. He reports that it went very well and provided useful feedback and encouragement on the project.
Nicholas Hayes-Mota
Nicholas Hayes-Mota has published an article, "Principle in Practice: A MacIntyrean Analysis of Community Organizing and the Catholic Social Tradition," in the Journal of Catholic Social Thought 21:2 (Summer 2024), 207-228. Nicholas, along with Richard Wood and Erin Brigham, is also one of the co-editors for the special issue of JCST in which this article appears. Cross-disciplinary in composition, it is the first collection of academic articles specifically focused on community organizing and Catholicism.
David DeCosse
David DeCosse recently published two pieces in the National Catholic Reporter that are very timely: “In Public Letter and Gathering, Religious Leaders Stress Need to Defend Democracy” and “Lessons from Hannah Arendt for the Catholic Church in the United States Today.”
Sarita Tamayo-Moraga
SCU Unhoused Initiative leadership alum, Sarita Tamayo-Moraga, and UI Research Grantee, CJ Gabbe, received awards at this year’s College of Arts & Sciences Convocation. Sarita received the Francisco Jimenez Reaching Out Award, in recognition of her dedication to the local community, highlighting her work with Catholic Charities’ Mobile Showers program.
Eugene Schlesinger
Eugene Schlesinger has published an article, "The Sacraments of Initiation as 'Proof of Concept' for Bernard Lonergan's 'Four-Point' Hypothesis" (open access) by New Blackfriars. This essay endeavors a correlation between Bernard Lonergan’s ‘four-point hypothesis’ – a theological proposal integrating trinitarian theology and the supernatural order of ‘created grace’ – and the sacraments of initiation. The same formal structure that Lonergan discerned in the experience of grace, itself a means of participation in the life of the Trinity, is replicated in the sacramental reception of that grace in those ritual acts whereby one is made a Christian. This at once serves as a ‘proof of concept’, lending credence to the Lonerganian proposal, and provides a speculative framework for understanding how it is that the sacraments introduce Christians into the divine life.
On November 16, Gene gave a workshop on the Liturgy of the Hours as part of the Markey Center's series on Enlivening Prayer. On November 18–19, he was in Baltimore for a joint meeting of the Episcopal Church's interim bodies (the groups by which we do business between our General Conventions), continuing my work for the Standing Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations. We onboarded new members, defined the scope of our work for the next triennium, and got started on subcommittee tasks. The main emphasis will be working for full communion with the United Methodist Church and making some changes to our Constitution and Canons to allow for Local Ecumenical Partnerships with the Presbyterian Church (USA), among others.
He also presented "Love Shed Abroad: The Holy Spirit, Charity, and the Sacrifice of Christ's Body" at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego. While in San Diego, I had a couple of developmental meetings with editors to discuss book projects. One is a theology of the liturgical calendar that I'm on the hook to deliver by this time next year. The other is still pretty nascent, but will involve interrogating the problem of supersessionism in the ressourcement movement.
Chris Tirres
Chris Tirres recently gave a book talk at Drew Theological School in Madison, NJ on his forthcoming book, Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas. During that trip, Chris also traveled to Princeton Theological Seminary for a planning meeting of the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) and connected with his HTI doctoral student mentee.
Jaime Wright
Co-PIs, Jaime Wright (RS), Thomas Plante (Psychology), and Daniel Turkeltaub (Classics, Director of Medical and Health Humanities minor program) applied for and were awarded Interfaith America’s Faith and Health Campus Grant ($60,000). This is a two-year grant that includes funding for course development and modifications that emphasize the connections between faith and health. The grant also funds research that examines religion as a social determinant of health—e.g., how faith-based organizations advocate for inclusive health policies or how spiritual practices play a role in mental health outcomes. Religious Studies and JST faculty including Nicholas Hayes-Mota, Gene Schlesinger, Karen Peterson-Iyer, Lynn Hillberg, Jaime Wright, Monica Marcelli-Chu (JST), and Kate Barush (JST) will receive funding for course development, research, and events. The grant funds faculty from other departments within the College of Arts and Sciences as well. This campus-wide grant received support in the form of an additional financial commitment to fund faith and health internships from Daniel Press Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition, the grant received support in the form of future coordination to promote the connection between faith and health from Aaron Willis Director of Ignatian Formation and the Bannon Forum and Marisol Maturino Chavez Program Director for the Arrupe Engagement Program.
Vicky Gonzalez
RS Academic Department Manager, Vicky Gonzalez has won the 2024 Nancy Keil Service Excellence Award! This award is in recognition of staff having established a well-deserved reputation for sustained excellence and initiative in providing technical or administrative support service, and for consistently approaching one’s responsibilities with a professionalism that demonstrates dedication to the welfare of students and others and that leads by example. See the full story on the RS Department website for details.