Presentations on the Old Testament

How to Read the Bible
Biblical Grounding in Laudato Si
Dianne Bergant, OSA

Dianne Bergant, CSA is Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP Distinguished Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She was President of the Catholic Biblical Association of America (2000-1) and has been an active member of the Chicago Catholic/Jewish Scholars Dialogue for the past thirty years. For more than twenty-five years she has been the Old Testament book reviewer of The Bible Today, having been a member of the editorial board for twenty-five years. Five of these years she served as the magazine’s general editor. She wrote the weekly column The Word for America magazine (2002-5), reflections that have now been published by Paulist Press. She is currently working in the areas of biblical interpretation and biblical theology, particularly issues of peace, ecology and feminism.

Introduction to Prophetic Literature
Leslie Hoppe, OFM

Within the broad range of Old Testament studies, Fr. Hoppe has focused on Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic literature. Another focus of his study and teaching has been on the social and economic conflict between rich and poor in ancient Israelite society. He has participated in several archaeological projects in Israel and is the author of The Churches and Synagogues of Ancient Palestine and is responsible for “The Biblical Landscape,” a regular feature on biblical archaeology in The Bible Today. He is the general editor of The Catholic Biblical Quarterly and has served on the editorial boards of Old Testament Abstracts and The Bible Today and was the general editor of the latter. He has served as the President of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research and the Catholic Biblical Association of America.

The Psalms
Maribeth Howell, OP

Sister Maribeth, a Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. She completed a PhD and STD at the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium. For most of her religious life, Sr. Maribeth has taught Biblical Studies at Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis, MO; St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, Wickliffe, OH; and the Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, MO. She has also served as her Congregation’s Director of Formation, visiting her sisters in the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. In addition to her work in academia, Sr. Maribeth has given talks, workshops and retreats to various parishes, dioceses, and religious congregations, and has published in a variety of journals and books. Sr. Maribeth is currently the program coordinator of the Together Program a joint program with the Religious Formation Conference and Catholic Theological Union.

Presentations on Theology

God and the Mystery of Suffering
Robin Ryan, CP

Robin Ryan is a Passionist priest and theologian who serves as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Theology program. He earned Master of Divinity and Master of Arts degrees at Catholic Theological Union. He received his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. He is the author or editor of several books, including God and the Mystery of Human Suffering (Paulist, 2011). Robin’s theological interests include the thought of Karl Rahner and Edward Schillebeeckx, the theology of redemption (soteriology), the mystery of suffering, and contemporary ecclesiological themes and issues.

Contemporary Ecclesiology I
Contemporary Ecclesiology II
Steve Bevans, SVD

Rev. Steven Bevans, SVD continues his work in the area of the Theology of Christian Mission and has recently completed an article in the missionary nature of the ecclesial mark of “catholicity” as part of an extended systematic reflection on a missionary ecclesiology. His current work includes research into Pope Francis’s thinking on inculturation and on his signature phrase “the culture of encounter.” Steve is a commissioner on the World Council of Churches’ Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, a member of the Society of the Divine Word’s Arnold Janssen Spirituality Team, and a member of his SVD Chicago Province’s Provincial Council. He serves also as the faculty advisor for CTU’s program of “Catholics on Call.” He is an editor of the Brill series “Theology of Mission in Global Christianity” and on the editorial board of the International Review of Mission.

Faith and Film: A New Stained Glass Window,
Antonio Sison, CPPS

Antonio D. Sison, CPPS, is committed to contextual, intercultural, and aesthetic approaches to doing systematic theology. His latest book is The Art of Indigenous Inculturation: Grace on the Edge of Genius (Orbis Books, Spring 2021), a cutting-edge exploration of the phenomenon of religious inculturation through the “aesthetics of liberation,” with case studies from Asian, African, and Latin American postcolonial contexts. He is also the author of the books The Sacred Foodways of Film (Pickwick, 2016), World Cinema, Theology and the Human (Routledge, 2012), Screening Schillebeeckx: Theology and Third Cinema in Dialogue (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); and a contributing author to a number of books and journals, including Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context, peer-reviewed journal of Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea; and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and its Reception by Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany.
 

Presentations on Liturgy

Reflections on Death
Liturgy in the Time of COVID
Richard Fragomeni

Rev. Richard Fragomeni is a presbyter of the Diocese of Albany, New York, and has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1990. His teaching involves him in Roman Catholic theology, interpretation theory, and poetry. His current work is in the field of word and sacrament: the intersection of symbolic activity and language as it creates insights into the Christian proclamation of grace. Central to this work is a fascination with the power of liturgy and preaching in the transformation of the human heart. Richard is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University. He also serves as the Rector of The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, an Italian-American spiritual center in Chicago’s historic Little Italy.

Sacramental Imagination: Part 1 
Sacramental Imagination: Part II
Ed Foley, Capuchin

Rev. Ed Foley,OFM Capuchin is trained in musical performance and liturgics, Ed’s teaching at CTU prodded him to develop as a practical theologian. In his understanding, practical theology is the contextual interface of experience, religious traditions and society for the transformation of church and world. He belongs to the Capuchin Franciscan Order, canonically recognized as a “mixed” community of lay and ordained friars of equal dignity. Ed believes this charism makes a distinctive contribution to a Church that is also “mixed” but sometimes struggles with the “equal dignity” part of that equation. Besides exercising practical theology as an educator at CTU and concurrently as adjunct at the University of Chicago, he preaches and presides at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago.

Presentations on Spirituality/Prayer

Biblical Spirituality: Part I and II
Laurie Brink, OP

Sr. Laurie Brink, OP, Laurie Brink is a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa and has served on the faculty since 2004. She teaches courses on the Gospels, Letters of Paul, Acts of the Apostles, and Early Christian Literature, and frequently leads the Biblical Study and Travel Program. With a grant from the Louisville Institute, she is currently researching the implications of emerging science on the spirituality and praxis of Religious Life. As a Dominican, she is keenly interested in promoting biblical literacy and to that end has given presentations and workshops throughout the United States and in Australia, Bolivia, Jamaica, New Zealand, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Eucharist and Sacraments Part I and II
Mark Francis, CSV

Mark is member of the Clerics of St. Viator (Viatorians) and was professed in 1976 and ordained in 1982. He served three years in Bogotá, Colombia as chaplain and formation director at the Colegio San Viator. He taught liturgy at CTU from 1987-2000 and served from 1992-2000 on the ICEL (International Committee on the Liturgy) revisions and translations subcommittee. The focus of much of his scholarship has been on the relationship between liturgy and culture. From 1989-2000 Mark also taught in both English and Spanish in the liturgy certificate program sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 2000 Mark was called to Rome to serve as the international superior of the Viatorians until 2012. After a year’s sabbatical as a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in California, he served as the seventh President of the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago from 2013-2020.

Presentations on Psychology

Grief, Loss, Human Sexuality and The Road to Joy
Four presentations by Kevin McClone, PsyD

Dr. Kevin McClone is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified alcohol and drug counselor, and certified chaplain who has worked for over twenty five years in the health care field, including over ten years of hospice care experience. Kevin currently is the Director of the Institute for Sexuality Studies located on the campus of Catholic Theological Union where he has provided one month training programs on Healthy Sexuality for Ministry for formation and vocation personnel and tutored hundreds of religious and lay men and women from around the world for over ten years.

Presentations on New Testament

St. Paul and The Resurrection
Ferdinand Okorie, CMF

Ferdinand Okorie is a member of the Claretian Missionaries. He received his MDiv and an MA in Theology with a concentration in Biblical Languages and Literature from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. Then, he obtained a PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity at Loyola University Chicago. His research interests include the Greco-Roman context of Early Christianity, the relationship between Paul’s letters and the Pastorals, the formation of Christian identity and the intersection between religion and culture.

The Resurrection Narratives of Mark
The Resurrection Narratives of John
Barbara Reid, OP

Sr. Barbara Reid is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has served on the CTU faculty since 1988. She is the current President of CTU, and has served as Vice President and Academic Dean and has been actively involved in the Association of Theological Schools, including service on their Board of Directors. Sr. Barbara is one of the leading scholars in feminist interpretation of the Scriptures. She is General Editor for the Wisdom Commentary Series, a new 58-volume feminist commentary on the Bible published by Liturgical Press (see www.wisdomcommentary.org, where her Introduction to the series can be downloaded gratis).

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