Providence College Theology Department

Our faculty are constantly involved in scholarly work. Here, Fr. Bruno Shah, "The Mystery of Problems for Modern Theological Methodology," and Dr. Michael Wahl, "The Moral Life as an Act of Worship."

Tonight, the Theology Department's Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange Committee is hosting the annual Fay Rozovsky Lecture in Jewish-Catholic Dialogue. Prof. Benny Bar-Lavi, Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence in Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations is speaking on “Jewish-Christian Co-Production and the Threat of Radical Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Sephardic Amsterdam," demonstrating remarkable and unexpected ways that Jewish and Catholic thinkers borrow from one another as they seek to respond to the radical Enlightenment.

PC Theology Social Hour, including homegrown live music. “John the Revelator” with guitar, harmonica and soulful vocals.

College receives $1 million grant for "Come to the Table" project Holly Taylor Coolman, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology, will serve as the principal investigator for the grant and will collaborate with the Diocese of Providence and St. Pius V, a neighboring school and parish.

As people in the United States observe Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, learn about Bartolomé de las Casas, the 16th century Dominican priest and scholar who sailed with the mariner on his third voyage.

Columbus' original ship log was lost but las Casas had made a copy. "A lot of what we know about his initial landing in the Americas came from las Casas' pen," said Rev. David T. Orique, O.P of the Providence College Department of History and Classics and director of the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Program.

Orique is one of the founders of the Bartolomé de las Casas Study Center at PC, which "seeks to advance critical understanding of the long-term consequences of European expansion into Africa, the Atlantic world, the Americas and Asia, which complex and conflictual realities las Casas witnessed and critiqued."

Over time, las Casas became an advocate for the native people of the Americas and was the first to argue against their enslavement, lobbying the Spanish monarchy on their behalf.

Calls for proposals are open now for the 2025 Las Casas Conference, which will be held in Seville, Spain, the missionary's birthplace. There have been two scholarly volumes published from past conferences thus far, and Father Orique is working on a third based on the 2023 event, which was held at Providence College.

More information about las Casas, the study center, the conference, and its publications: https://catholic-dominican.providence.edu/las-casas-studies-at-providence-college/

P.S. The keynote speaker at Academic Convocation, Paolo G. Carozza, J.D., an internationally renowned human rights expert, cited the example of las Casas. Watch his address: https://www.youtube.com/live/xb88SIf7_5E?si=nmmu6z4fkrh09_lJ&t=2768

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Friday for Rev. Terence Stephen Keegan, O.P. '60, who died Sunday, August 11, at the age of 85. A dedicated member of the Providence College faculty for 40 years, he taught theology and mathematics, authored numerous books, and served in various roles at the college, including executive vice president. Father Keegan will be laid to rest in the Dominican Friars Cemetery on campus.

Read the full obituary in The Providence Journal: https://www.providencejournal.com/obituaries/ppvp0910041

French Dominican friar created the motto for the Olympic Games The motto of the modern Olympic Games, “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” was coined by French Dominican friar Louis Henri Didon in the 19th century.

Join us tomorrow!
https://bit.ly/RegisterJCTEJuly
On July 23 at 1pm, the Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange is hosting a discussion of the recent book Israel and the Nations: The Bible, the Rabbis and Jewish-Gentile Relations (Academic Studies Press, 2023) by Rabbi Eugene Korn with a response from Dr. Mary C. Boys, SNJM, two leading scholars in Jewish-Christian dialogue.
“Israel and the Nations: The Bible, The Rabbis, and Jewish-Gentile Relations explores the Jewish theology and law (Halakhah) relating to non-Jews. It analyzes biblical, talmudic, medieval, and contemporary Jewish writings about gentiles and their religions.
The Bible challenges the Jewish people to be “a blessing for all the families of the earth.” Yet throughout history, Jewish experience with gentiles was complex. In the biblical and talmudic eras most gentiles were assumed to be idolators. In the Middle Ages most rabbis considered their Christian neighbors idolators, and Christian enmity sharpened the otherness Jews felt toward their Christian hosts. Muslims were monotheists, but Jewish-Muslim relations were sometimes positive and at other times difficult. With the advent secular tolerance in modernity, Jews found themselves in a new relationship with their gentile neighbors. How should Jews relate to gentiles today, and what are the bounds of Jewish tolerance and religious pluralism?
The book will interest both Jewish laypersons familiar with Jewish tradition as well as scholars of theology and interfaith relations.”
This is a virtual event. Registration required: https://bit.ly/RegisterJCTEJuly

Dominican Friars decided to take a break to grab a cold one at Mr.Lemon!

P.C. helps bring the arts to St. Pat’s with theater equipment donation - Rhode Island Catholic PROVIDENCE — Providence College is dedicated to helping their neighbors on Smith Hill, particularly if it means assisting in bringing the arts to the students of St. Patrick Academy. The …

Rev John Reid, O.P. Obituary - Providence, RI Celebrate the life of Rev John Reid, O.P., leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Russell J Boyle and Son Funeral Homes.

The Theology Department is in there!

Congratulations to Fr. (now Dr.!) Lazarus Onuh on his successful completion of doctoral studies at Boston College's School for Theology and Ministry. Dr. Onuh is a graduate of PC's Graduate Program in Theology.

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One mom-theologian's take on how to keep kids Catholic Raising faithful Catholic kids in today's society is not easy.

St. Catherine was a third-order Dominican, peacemaker and counselor to the Pope. She singlehandedly ended the Avignon exile of the successors of Peter in the 14th century.

She is the co-patron of Italy and of Europe.

Born in Siena, on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1347, Catherine was the 23rd of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa’s 25 children. Her twin sister died in infancy.

She exhibited an unusually independent character as a child and an exceptionally intense prayer life. When she was seven years old she had the first of her mystical visions, in which she saw Jesus surrounded by saints and seated in glory. In the same year she vowed to consecrate her virginity to Christ. When, at the age of 16, her parents decided that she should marry, she cut off her hair to make herself less appealing, and her father, realizing that he couldn’t contend with her resolve, let her have her way.

She joined the Dominican Tertiaries and lived a deep and solitary life of prayer and meditation for the next three years in which she had constant mystical experiences, capped, by the end of the three years with an extraordinary union with God granted to only a few mystics, known as ‘mystical marriage.’

St. Catherine suffered many intense periods of desolation alongside her mystical ecstasies, often feeling totally abandoned by God.

In 1375, while visiting Pisa, she received the stigmata, even though they never appeared on her body during her lifetime, owing to her request to God. They appeared only on her incorruptible body after her death.

She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of 33. https://bit.ly/3LigJv0