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Antonio D. Sison, CPPS

Professor of Systematic Theology and Culture
Vatican Council II Chair of Theology
Catholic Theological Union
Chicago, IL

Education

MA, Maryhill School of Theology, Phillippines
PhD, Catholic University of Nijmegen, Netherlands

Contact

asison@ctu.edu

Biography

Antonio D. Sison is committed to contextual, intercultural, and aesthetic approaches to doing systematic theology. He has written several books including The Art of Indigenous Inculturation: Grace on the Edge of Genius  (Orbis Books, 2021), a critical and creative exploration of the phenomenon of inculturation from the perspective of postcolonial religious cultures of the Global South. Among the book’s original proposals is a hermeneutics of serendipity, a liberative approach to inculturation where the “epiphany of surprise and sagacity” is purposefully considered as “the nexus of the divine-human encounter.” It was named one of the Twelve Most Important Theology Books of 2021 by the Engelwood Review of Books, a finalist in the 2021 Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) Excellence in Publishing Awards, and favorably reviewed by Theological Studies (June 2024) and other journals. His follow-up book within the research area (as editor and contributing author), Deep Inculturation: Global Voices on Christian Faith and Indigenous Genius  (Orbis Books, 2024), is an anthology on the variegated facets of inculturation born out of the creative and often heroic faith of underrepresented communities around the globe.

Sison has spoken globally in a number of venues, among them, invited teaching outreaches at Hekima University College in Nairobi, Kenya, and Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate in Saigon, Vietnam. He was the featured keynote lecturer for Chicago Field Museum’s Anthropology Department and Cathedral Filipino Network (CFN) 2022 co-curation initiative in Chicago, the 2018 Association for Southeast Asian Cinemas (ASEAC) international conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and Paradojas de lo liminal: Cine y teología, 2018 Colloquium, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. He also delivered the 26th Louis J. Luzbetak Lecture on Mission and Culture at CTU in October 2024.

He is a definitively incorporated Catholic Brother of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (CPPS), United States Province.

Antonio D. Sison, CPPS

Achievements

Publications
Articles
  • The Art of Indigenous Inculturation: Grace on the Edge of Genius (Orbis Books, 2021)
  • The Sacred Foodways of Film: Theological Servings in 11 Food Films (Pickwick/Wipf and Stock, 2016)
  • World Cinema, Theology, and the Human: Humanity in Deep Focus (Routledge, 2012)
  • Screening Schilllebeeckx: Theology and Third Cinema in Dialogue (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
  • “Liberative Visions: Biblical Reception in Third Cinema” in The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and its Reception (Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2016)
  • “Perichoresis of the Crucified Peoples: Spirituality in Third Cinema” in Plural Spiritualities: North American Experiences (Council for Research and Values in Philosophy, 2015)
  • “Postcolonial Religious Syncretism: Focus on the Philippines, Peru and Mexico” in The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film (Routledge, 2009)
  • “Cuba: Tomas Gutierrez Alea’s The Last Supper” in The Religion and Film Reader (Routledge, 2007)
  • Deep Inculturation: Global Voices on Christian Faith and Indigenous Genius (Orbis Books, forthcoming March 2024)– editor and contributing author.
  • “Indigenous Inculturation: A Hermeneutics of Serendipity” in 500 Years of Christianity and the Global Filipino/a: Postcolonial Perspectives (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2024).
  • “The Trinity in the Cinematic Imagination” in Oxford Handbook of Theology and Film (New York and London: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024).
  • “Pericoresis de los Pueblos Crucificados: Trinidad, Liberacion, Liberación y Tercer Cine” in  Paradojas de lo Liminal: Cine y Teología (Universidad Iberoamericana, 2021). Translated work.