Download DLSC Newsletter #9

DOMINICAN LAY SCHOLARS
COMMUNITY Issue No. 9
Newsletter
April 8, 2009
NEW DLSC GROUPS
The DLSC is greatly pleased to announce the formation of two new DLSC groups.
Nairobi, Kenya: A new DLSC chapter has been established in Nairobi, Kenya by two married
couples, Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole, Elisabeth Loba-Mkole, Amelia Odawa Lutz, and David Lutz,
members of the Dominican Laity. The new chapter has taken the name of Marie-Joseph
Lagrange, O.P., founder of the Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem. Jean-Claude is the chapter's first
president, and Amelia Lutz, its secretary. In 2008 the group held 4 quarterly meetings, discussing
a wide range of topics, including the Vatican document Dominus Jesus: On the Unicity and
Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church; the Pastoral Letter of Cardinal John Njue Be
Reconciled to God: Now is the Favorable Time; an essay of Jean-Claude on Reconciliation;
Marie Joseph Lagrange and Dominican Spirituality; the work of St. Albert the Great; and the
spirituality of St. Catherine of Siena. The Nairobi chapter looks forward to receiving its first
Anglican member in 2009.
West Los Angeles: Another new DLSC group has been established in the West Los Angeles
Area. Its founding members are Patrick Coleman (UCLA-French), Michael Hackett (UCLATheater, Film, & Television Arts), Henry Ansgar Kelly (UCLA-English), Marea Kelly (LMU Development, ret.), Jayne Lewis (UCI-English), Stephen Munzer (UCLA-Law), Jane Richardson
(Liturgist and RCIA Director, Corpus Christi Parish), and Debora Shuger (UCLA-English). The
group has thus far held 2 quarterly meetings and will meet again on April 19. Special thanks are
due to Fr. Peter Abdella, CSP, Campus Ministry Director at UCLA, for his invaluable assistance in
identifying several UCLA faculty members for the group.
GENERAL INFORMATION
New Promoter General: Fr. David Michael Kammler, O.P. is the new Promoter General for the
Dominican Laity, succeeding Fr. Jerry Stookey, O.P. On May 24, Phil Valera, the DLSC's
administrator, and his wife Elena had the pleasure of meeting with Fr. Kammler in Rome at the
Basilica of Santa Sabina, international headquarters of the Dominican Order.. On that occasion
they also had the privilege to talk once again with the Master of the Order, fr. Carlos Azpiroz
Costa, O.P., and to meet other members of the Order's general curia, fr. Chris McVey, O.P., fr.
Marcio Couto, O.P., and fr. Brian Pierce, O.P. During their visit to Rome, Phil and Elena also
visited with Fr. J.A. Di Noia, O.P., Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith.
Poverty & Morality: In collaboration with the Ethikon Institute and the Shalom Hartman Institute
of Jerusalem, the DLSC organized a dialogue-publication project on Poverty and Morality.
Participant/contributors included Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Michael Walzer, David R. Loy, Kent Van
Til, Tom Palmer, Peter Nosco, Nancy Hirschmann, Arvind Sharma, Sohail Hashmi, Noam Zohar,
Darrel Moellendorf, Andrew Levine, and Stephen Pope. William A. Galston and Peter Hoffenberg
are co-editing the book developed through the project.
Lodging in Rome: DLSC members and friends who are planning a visit to Rome may want to
stay at the Villa Rosa, a comfortable guest house operated by Irish Dominican Sisters at Via
Terme Deciane 5, on the Aventine, a short 8 minute walk from Santa Sabina. In May, 2008, the
daily rate for a double room with bath was 85 euros. A bus line directly opposite the guest house
offers highly convenient access to major points of interest in the center of Rome as well as to the
main train station. For information and reservations, contact Sister Christina at
<[email protected]>
Muslim-Christian Dialogue: The Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDE0) in Cairo will
he holding a two-week seminar on Islam and Interreligious Dialogue for English-speaking
Dominican students in July, 2009. The program will include three major components: lectures on
Islam and interreligious dialogue, visits to Al-Ahzar University, mosques, medersas, etc., and
personal contacts with Muslim friends and scholars.
Globalization of Ethics: Cambridge University Press reports that The Globalization of Ethics
Book, co-developed by the DLSC and the Ethikon Institute, and co-edited by Bill Sullivan and Will
Kymlicka, has been well received. An on-line review essay of the book by Stephen Angle of
Wesleyan University is found on http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=12683
The Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem continues to make good progress in its 15 year project to
produce a new edition of the Jerusalem Bible with extensive commentary on the particular
theological concerns and historical framework of the biblical writers. Entitled La Bible en ses
Traditions, the new edition will display (on the same page) multiple variants of the text and
various commentaries, rabbinical and patristic, in Syriac, Greek, and Latin. Further information
on the projects and publications of the Ecole Biblique can be found on their web site
(http://ebaf.op.org/English/titre.html)
Bibliography The biblical section of the DLSC Bibliography of Introductions to Theology,
presently limited to works published in English, is near completion and will be published on-line
in June 2009 on a special web site created for that purpose. The web site will invite viewers to
recommend whatever changes, additions, refinements, etc. they think appropriate. Special thanks
are due to the student friars at St. Albert's Priory for their very substantial contribution to the
development of this product.
Ordinations: On May 30, 2009, Brothers Raphael Salzillo, O.P. and Peter Do, O.P. will be
ordained to the priesthood at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco. We wish them both every
blessing and success in their priestly ministry. The ordaining prelate will be the Most Rev.
Thomas Cajetan Kelly, O.P., Archbishop Emeritus of Louisville.
GROUP MEETINGS
Over the past 15 months, the five DLSC chapters located on the East and West Coasts of the
United States and in Nairobi, Kenya have held 21 quarterly meetings. Discussion topics and their
preparatory readings have included Christianity and Capitalism (Albino Barrera); Secularism
(Charles Taylor); Religion and Politics (Kristin Heyer, Raymond Roberts, Max Stackhouse, &
Owen Thomas); Marriage and Family in Gaudium et Spes (Paul VI); The Sermon on the Mount
(Essay of Glen Stassen); Intercommunion (Vatican Decree on Ecumenism, Report of the
Archbishop's Commission on Intercommunion); Virtue, Saints, & Moral Saints (Robert M. Adams,
Jean Porter, & Susan Wolf); the future of church-related universities (Frank Donoghue, Matthew
Rosin & William Sullivan, John Sommerville); Spes Salvi - the Virtue of Hope (Benedict XVI);
Dominus Jesus: On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church; the
Pastoral Letter of Cardinal John Njue Be reconciled to God: Now is the Favorable Time; an essay
of Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole on reconciliationr; Marie Joseph Lagrange and Dominican
Spirituality; the work of St. Albert the Great, and St. Catherine of Siena. Topics scheduled by
some groups for future meetings include Spirit Christology and the Apostles Creed.
BRIEF NOTES ON ACTIVITIES OF SOME MEMBERS AND FRIENDS
Patrick Coleman, Professor of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA, has been appointed
Acting Director of the UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies for 2009-2010. He has
recently completed a book manuscript on the language of emotion in the French Enlightenment,
and will be editing Rousseau's "Letter to d'Alembert" to be published for the tricentennial of his
birth in 2012.
Gavin Colvert continues as Vice President of the American Maritain Association whose Houston
conference in October, 2009 will focus on "The Problem of Evil." Gavin's highly supportive wife,
Danielle, is now the principal at St. Anna's Catholic School in Leominster, MA where students
receive instruction in Spanish, Italian, and French.
John Connolly, who teaches Modern Eastern and Central European History at the University of
California, Berkeley, published an article in Commonweal (January 18, 2008) entitled Reformer
and Racialist:The Paradoxical Legacy of Karl Adam. John has recently completed the first draft
of a book on the Catholic Church, the Race Question, and the Jews. In February, he participated
in a meeting of scholars organized by Fr. Jim Heft, SM of the USC Institute for Advanced Catholic
Studies to discuss the recent book on the Second Vatican Council by John O'Malley, S.J. of
Georgetown University. Participants hope to bring out a collected volume considering issues
related to the question of change.
Michael Dodds, O.P., Professor of Theology at the Dominican School in Berkeley and the
Graduate Theological Union, is spending his sabbatical year at the historic Convent of San
Esteban in Salamanca and at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. Catholic University Press recently brought
out a second edition of his book, The Unchanging God of Love.
David Geib, O.P., Director of the Catholic Campus Ministry at Occidental College and Sub-prior
of St. Dominic's Priory, Los Angeles, has been welcomed by the DLSC Pasadena Area group as
a new and valued participant in its quarterly discussion meetings.
Jayne Lewis, Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, and a member of St.
John the Divine Episopal Church in Costa Mesa, is the author of The English Fable: Aesop and
Literary Culture, 1651-1740 , Mary Queen of Scots:Romance and Nation, The Trial of Mary
Queen of Scots, and numerous articles on topics pertaining to 18th-century British literature and
culture. Jayne is especially interested in the persistence of religious faith in an ostensibly
skeptical and secularizing society.
Jean-Claude & Elisabeth Loba-Mkole A New Testament scholar and biblical theologian, JeanClaude teaches at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. Two of his books
Interacting with Scriptures in Africa and Triple Heritage: Gospels in Intercultural Mediations (with
Ernst Wendland, co-author) were published in Nairobi in 2005. A more recent publication is his
essay on reconciliation and reflective peace ethics (Hekima Review 39). Jean-Claude also serves
as a translation consultant with the United Bible Societies in Nairobi. In addition to co-founding
the first DLSC chapter in Africa, Elisabeth provides care for the sick, a ministry in keeping with
her interest in St. Catherine of Siena.
Amelia & David Lutz Congratulations are due to Amelia Anyango and David on the arrival of
their first child, Catherine Aoko, born December 17, 2008. Catherine is the first newborn whose
parents are both DLSC members, so her arrival is a historic event for all of us. David continues
to teach philosophy and management at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and recently
published (in Italian) a chapter on "Rival Philosophical Foundations of Corporate Social
Responsibility" in the book Founding Corporate Social Responsibility: Contributions from the
Humanities and Christian Social Thought (ed. H. Alford & F. Compagnoni.) In addition to her role
as Secretary of the Nairobi DLSC chapter, Amelia is active in youth services and liturgical
ministry.
Dick Madsen is spending a year teaching at Fudan University in Shanghai and will return to his
role as Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego in the fall. In July he
presented a paper on Conditions When the Original Axial Age Breakthroughs Occurred and
Analogies of Such Conditions Today at a conference in Erfurt. HIs paper as well as Bill Sullivan's
will appear as chapters in the book now being edited by Robert Bellah and Hans Joas.
Contributors of other original essays include Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Jose Casanova,
Bob Bellah, Hans Joas, and others.
Giuseppe Mazzotta, a DLSC member in New Haven and Professor of Italian at Yale, was a
Visiting Professor at UCLA (Dept. of French & Italian) in the spring of 2008 where he taught a
graduate course on "Dante and Medieval Culture." During his time in Southern California,
Giuseppe participated in a meeting of the DLSC Pasadena Area chapter. Upon returning to New
Haven, he resumed his research for a book on "Renaissance and Modernity" which he tentatively
calls Disenchantments and Enchantments, a project he has been thinking about for many years.
He continues to lecture widely in both the U.S and Europe.
Stephen R. Munzer, Professor of Law at UCLA and a member of Westwood Presbyterian
Church is a philosopher as well as a legal scholar. His academic writing includes books and
articles on property, intellectual property, legal and political philosophy, law and biotechnology,
and the philosophy of religion. His most recent publications are on the"traditional knowledge" of
indigenous peoples.
Nancey Murphy, Professor of Philosophical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, will be
giving two lectures at Calvin College in April entitled Anglo-American Postmodern Philosophy and
Why Christians should be Physicalists.
Debora Shuger is a Professor of English at UCLA, working mostly in early modern intellectual
history (church history, law, political thought, biblical scholarship, neo-latin). A Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the author of 6 books and many essays, she has
written most extensively on religion in early modern England. Debora is a parishioner at St. Mary
of the Palms Episcopal Church where she is in the soprano section..
Eleonore Stump has spent a great deal of time on the road in 2008, lecturing at Leuven,
Maynooth, Georgetown, Berlin (Humboldt), Innsbruck, Salzburg, Berkeley (DSPT), Columbia,
Baylor, and Catholic University. Her lecture topics included "The Problem of Suffering;" " Modes
of Knowing: Autism, Fiction, and Second-person Perspectives;" "Eternity, Simplicity, and
Presence;" "The Problem of Evil: A Thomistic Approach;" and "The Nature of Love and
Forgiveness: Aquinas and the Contemporary Debate." She has also published essays on "The
Problem of Evil and the Desires of the Heart" in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion,
"Samson and Self-Destroying Evil" in Philosophers and the Hebrew Bible, and "Presence and
Omnipresence" in Liberal Faith, Essays in Honor of Philip Quinn.
William Sullivan presented a paper on The Axial Invention of Education and Today's Global
Knowledge Culture at an Erfurt conference in July. Initiated by Bill and Dick Madsen and
organized by Bob Bellah and Hans Joas, this project brought together about 25 scholars including
Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Robert Bellah, Jose Casanova, Hans Joas, Bill Sullivan, Dick
Madsen, and others to discuss the consequences of the Axial Age for subsequent history and the
present.
Augustine Thompson, O.P., a friar of the Western Dominican Province, received the H.R.
Marraro Prize from the Catholic Historical Association for his book Cities of God: The Religion of
the Italian Communes, 1125-1325. The prize was awarded for the best book on Italian history
published in 2005. Augustine continues his role as Professor of Religious Studies and History at
the University of Virginia where he has also served as Director of Graduate Studies in Religion.
Patrick Whelan, M.D. a founding member and co-president of the DLSC Boston Area chapter,
has been appointed to the editorial board of the National Catholic Reporter. In 2008 Patrick
published a book, The Catholic Case for Obama. In addition to teaching pediatric rheumatology
at Harvard Medical School, Patrick continues to serve as co-director of the Massachussetts
chapter of Pax Christi.