News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
The next Theology Thursday lecture will feature David Turnbloom, theology, as he presents “Sacramental Justice and the Mission of Holy Cross” on Thursday, September 19, at 7:15 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. Turnbloom will examine the relationship between sacraments and justice using the constitution of the Congregation of Holy Cross as a guide.
For more information or ADA accommodations contact theology at x7274 or mackinno@up.edu.
The Department of Theology will host a Theology Celebration and Open House on Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m., in the Terrace Room. Fellowship, food, and fun await all who attend, and all are welcome. Graduating theology majors will be honored starting at 6:30 p.m. All prospective theology majors and minors are encouraged to come and meet faculty and students and learn more about the department.
For more information contact Rachel Wheeler, theology, at wheelerr@up.edu.
University of Portland professors Rebecca Gaudino, Barb Braband, and Anissa Rogers will present the next Theology Thursday lecture, “Preparing Students to Encounter the Suffering of Grief and Loss,” on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the Terrace Room. The lecture is free and all are welcome.
Gaudino, Braband, and Rogers make up an interdisciplinary research team and will present their award-winning interview and Photovoice project as well as a pedagogical model that has emerged from their research into how to teach students to accompany people who have experienced loss.
For more information contact the theology department at x7274 or theol@up.edu.
University of Portland theology professor Rene Sanchez will speak on social justice in the Catholic Church on Tuesday, March 1, at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church (25 N. Rosa Parks Way, Portland), at 7 p.m. (English) and Saturday, March 5 at 9 a.m. (Spanish). The event is free and open to all.
Sanchez will focus on the seven key principles of Catholic Social Teaching: Life and Dignity of the Human Person; Call to Family, Community, and Participation; Rights and Responsibilities; Option for the Poor and Vulnerable; The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers; Solidarity; and Care for God’s Creation.
For more information contact the theology department at x7274 or theo@up.edu.
The theology department will introduce its newest faculty member, Dave Turnbloom, as he presents the first two Theology Thursday lectures of the spring 2016 semester. Turnbloom will speak on “The Sacraments: God’s Life in our Lives,” on Thursday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m., in Franz Hall Room 120. His lecture is free and open to all. Turnbloom will explore questions about the Sacraments, including:
All are invited to come hear about the rituals of Christianity and how the faithful underestimate their power.
For ADA accommodations or event information contact the theology department at 7274 or mackinno@up.edu.
Faculty from the theology department will engage in a forum-style discussion on the outcomes and implications of the 2015 Synod on the Family on Thursday, November 12, at 7:30 p.m., in Shiley Hall Room 301. Many complex issues are being addressed by the Synod, including the status of divorced and remarried Catholics and that of homosexual members of the Church; artificial birth control in married life; issues of economic justice and immigration; as well as other topics pertaining to family life situations in a wide variety of cultural settings in the contemporary world. Starting with the historical context of the Synod, the forum will address the complex ethical issues and problems pertaining to these topics.
For more information contact the theology department at x7274 or theo@up.edu.
Theology professor Rene Sanchez will present “The Prophetic Church and the McDonaldization of Society” as part of the theology department’s Theology Thursdays lecture series on Thursday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. The lecture is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and the public.
Sanchez will explore a social phenomenon called the “McDonaldized society,” and the question of what it means to be a prophetic church in this society. Using the work of sociologist George Ritzer, which analyzes this social phenomenon and its four dimensions of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control, Sanchez will reflect on how McDonaldization creates a human condition of numbness and inauthenticity. Drawing from the concept of “dangerous memories” from Johann Baptist Metz and the concept of “prophetic pathos” from Walter Bruggemann, Sanchez will discuss how a prophetic Church can confront this phenomenon and offer an alternative way of being human.
For more information contact the theology department at 7274 or theo@up.edu.
A new program was launched this fall to bring intentional student leadership around faith and community to the University’s residence halls. The Faith and Formation Ambassador Program is a redesign of the Faith & Leadership House that had existed on campus since 2006. Rather than placing student leaders in a single community home, this new program seeks to integrate them into the residence hall communities to foster the Christian community of the University of Portland within the context of each hall.
In the program’s inaugural year, there are 14 students serving as faith and formation ambassadors across campus, within at least one in each residence hall. Through the collaboration of the theology department, residence life, the Moreau Center, and campus ministry, faith and formation ambassadors are supported in their charge to “actively and critically grow in faith, build community within a particular residence hall and throughout the University, and serve others.” Faith and formation ambassadors also participate in a required one-credit course, Theology 347, which provides them the opportunity to reflect critically and theologically on the service they are providing in the halls.
For more information contact Beth Barsotti, campus ministry, at 7463 or barsotti@up.edu.
Fr. Richard Rutherford, C.S.C., emeritus theology, is leading a team of UP faculty, alumni, and supporters on an expedition to the old Roman city of Pollèntia near Alcúdia in Mallorca, Spain, this month. The UP team is working by invitation from the Consortium of the Roman City of Polléntia and in collaboration with Miguel Cao from the University of Barcelona. The team’s work includes mapping the farm site Ca’n Fanals, partially excavated in the 1920s and known to contain a necropolis dating to the Roman Republic and Christian antiquity; aerial photography of the Polléntia excavations and the buried necropolis; and confirmation of earlier excavations in Ca’n Fanals. A test excavation trench predicted to intersect previously mapped features shows great promise, as a known wall has already been uncovered. As the UP team heads home, Fr. Rutherford and colleagues are already planning to raise funds to take a team of students back to Pollèntia in Summer 2015. Find more information, including photos and day-to-day stories, at http://wordpress.up.edu/pollentia/.
The next Theology Thursday lecture will feature UP theology professor Michael Cameron as he presents “A Beginner’s Tour of Saint Augustine’s Confessions” on Thursday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m., in Shiley Hall room 301. This presentation, sponsored by the theology department, is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and the public. Cameron will tour the thirteen books of Confessions in order to see inside the mind of the greatest figure of ancient Christianity. For more information contact Debbie MacKinnon, theology, at 7274 or mackinno@up.edu.