"For we were predestined before the ages to be in Christ as members of his body. He adapted us to himself and knitted us together in the Spirit as a soul to a body. For this we were created; this was God's good purpose for us before the ages."
Maximos the Confessor, Amb. 7
A native of Italy, Prof. Cattoi joined the Jesuit School faculty in August 2006 after completing his doctorate at Boston College. His research interests include Christology and Patristics, Eastern Orthodox theology, Mahayana Buddhism (with particular attention to the Tibetan tradition), and the theology of inter-religious dialogue. His current goal as a constructive theologian is to explore the interface between early Christian thought and comparative theology.
As Associate Professor of Christology and Cultures, Dr. Cattoi teaches courses such as 'Christology: Ancient and Modern', 'Prayer and Spirituality in the early Church', 'Tibetan Christian dialogue', and “Theology after 1965'. He has offered courses in Patristic Theology and Patristic Spirituality, as well as doctoral seminars for the Theology and Ethics Department and the Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion Department. In 2018-20 , he served as chair of the GTU Theology and Ethics Department.
In the past, Professor Cattoi taught a number of short courses at different Chinese universities under the umbrella of the Malatesta Program, and also led a number of theological immersions to Nepal and to India. He was a visiting professor in Rome at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in spring 2023.
Since 2015, he has co-edited the journal Buddhist-Christian Studies based at the University of Hawaii, and he is on the board of both the American and the European societies of Buddhist-Christian Studies. He also serves on the committee of the Comparative Theology group for the American Academy of Religion and is on the board of the Ancient Christian Writers book series.
- Christology, Ancient and Modern
- Mariology in Dialogue
- Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church
- Tibetan-Christian Dialogue
- Trinitarian Theology
Books
- Seeking Wisdom, Embracing Compassion: A Philokalic commentary to Tsong kha pa’s ‘Great Treatise’ (Brill: Ledien, forthcoming)
- With Brandon Gallaher and Paul Ladouceur (eds.), Eastern Orthodoxy and World Religions (Brill: Leiden, forthcoming)
- With Carol Anderson (eds.), Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies (Routledge: London and New York, 2022)
- Edited (with David Odorisio), Depth Psychology and Mysticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
- Edited (with Christopher Moreman), Death Dying and Mysticism: The Ecstasy of the End (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
- Editor, Many Tongues, One Spirit: Local Ecclesiology in Dialogue (Solstice Press, 2013)
- Theodore the Stoudite: Writings on Iconoclasm and the Spiritual Life (Ancient Christian Writers. New York, N.Y./Mahwah, N.J.: Newman/Paulist Press, 2014)
- Edited (With June McDaniel), Perceiving the Divine Through the Human Body: Mystical Sensuality (Palgrave McMillan, 2011)
- Divine Contingency: Theologies of Divine Embodiment in Maximos the Confessor and Tsong kha pa (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2009)
Articles
- “Il Tabor e il dharma: la soteriologia cristiana orientale e la teologia comparata dell’incarnazione”, in Paolo Trianni (ed.). Interreligious and Intercultural investigations (2022/3) (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 2024)
- “The ‘dry path of detachment’: Julius Evola’s Doctrine of Awakening and the interpretation of Buddhism in Fascist Italy,” in John Grady and Martin Roetting (eds.), Euro-Buddhism and the Role of Christianity (Muenich: Sankt Ottilien, 2023, forthcoming)
- ‘Nondual heresy or clear insight? The imiaslavie controversy on Athos and Nyingma Buddhological reflection in Tibet,’ in Jon Paul Sydnor and Jen Wade (ed.), Nondualisms: An Interreligious Exploration (Lexington Press, 2023), 127-45
- ‘Christian deification in dialogue with the dharma religion” in Andreas Hofer and Matthew Levering, Oxford University Handbook on Deification (Oxford University Press, 2023)
- “Byzantine fractals: Perry Schmidt-Leukel’s approach to religious pluralism, Haribhadra and Gregory Palamas’ essence-energies distinction” in Journal of Interreligious Studies, Issue 29, Jan. 2023
- “Transcending the Letter, Awakening the Mind: Maximos the Confessor, Tsong kha pa, and the challenge of Textual supersessionism” in Muhammad Shafiq (ed,) Mystical traditions: Approaches to Peaceful Co-existence (Springer, 2023)
- “The Christian God and Buddhism”, encyclopedia entry in Asle Ekrem (ed.), T&T Clarke Encyclopedia of Theology, 2022
- “Merits, demons, and karma: Catholic victim souls and the Tibetan practice of gcod,” in Buddhist-Christian Studies, 42 (2022), 201-17
- ‘Ethnic’ and ‘convert’ Buddhists in the West and Buddhist-Christian dialogue’, in Fr. Indunil Kodithuwakku (ed.), Building a Culture of Compassion: Essays Celebrating 25 years of the Vesakh Message to Buddhists (Urbaniana University, Rome, 2020), 281-96
- Interreligious lectio divina: reflecting on the Transfiguration with Maximos the Confessor and the Bhagavad Gītā,” in Teaching Religion and Theology (2020), Vol. 23.I, 44-48