SHU Brings College Faculty Together to Discuss Theology

Theology Society Convention focuses on ‘Rendering the Absent Present’

Sacred Heart University drew nearly 200 college-level professors and others from around the world to campus in early June when it hosted the 69th Annual College Theology Society (CTS) Convention.

This year’s theme was “Theology and Media(tion): Rendering the Absent Present.” Convention planners said that at its heart, mediation is about the dynamic between that which is present and that which is absent—a dynamic at the heart of so many religious traditions as they encounter the divine … Mediation has, in fact, been a consistent and underlying concern of Christian theology, through Christ, the Church, liturgy, scripture, tradition, ethics and pedagogy … More recently, the global pandemic of 2020-2022 has shown many ways that the relationship of presence and absence underlie our relationships within families, religious communities, universities and more.”  

Katherine Schmidt, associate professor and chair of the theology and religious studies department at Molloy University in New York, and Stephen Okey, associate professor of philosophy, theology and religion at St. Leo University in Florida, served as convention cochairs.

SHU participants included Daniel Rober, associate professor in the Catholic studies department, who serves on the board that organizes the annual convention. “I am very much a veteran of the College Theology Society, having attended its conventions at campuses around the country,” Rober said.

As someone who teaches Sacred Heart’s Human Journey seminars in Catholic intellectual tradition, among other courses, Rober said the convention helps him in that role. “The CTS is specifically geared to help scholars think about their work as teachers. For me, it always helps to see how cutting-edge ideas in theology can be translated to the classroom, and the CTS provides a good workshop for this.”

He cited specific examples of thought-provoking discussions he heard during June’s gathering, including Robert Orsi’s hard-hitting remarks about the sex abuse crisis in the Church and Joseph Flipper’s talk about Native American Catholics in the western United States. He said both discussions gave him much to reflect on in his teaching. Orsi is a professor of religion and the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University; Flipper is a member of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium, the Catholic Theological Society of America and the College Theology Society.

“There were many distinguished talks, particularly the addresses by Orsi, Flipper and Hana Reichel. In addition, this year’s CTS presidential address by Brian Flanagan was notable for tackling some of the issues facing the theological profession head-on, particularly loss of jobs as institutions close or change curriculum,” Rober added.

Other presentations included a panel discussion about U.S. bishops titled, “The Challenge of Peace,” another about the war in Ukraine and one concerning recent books by Phyllis Zagano and Susan Bigelow Reynolds. Zagano is author of several works on women in the diaconate, including her most recent Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women (Paulist 2023); Reynolds just authored People Get Ready: Ritual, Solidarity, and Lived Ecclesiology in Catholic Roxbury, drawing on “six years of ethnographic research to examine embodied ritual as a site of radical solidarity in the local church,” according to a description of the book.

This was the first time Sacred Heart hosted the CTS convention, which involved arranging residence halls, catering, presentation spaces and other necessities. “It was a successful national conference, and the discussions and lessons shared gave us much to think about as we continue to study and teach religion,” Rober said.

Top: Professor Callie Tabor speaks in one of the breakout sessions. Inset: keynote speaker Robert Orsi.