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CATHOLIC INTELLECTUALS A new collection of Marianist Award lectures covers a 'broad range of thinking.' (Dec. 1, 2005) -- Believing Scholars: Ten Catholic Intellectuals, a new book edited by Father James Heft, S.M., and published by Fordham University Press, gathers the Marianist Award lectures of the past decade and explores the connections between faith and the intellectual life. Each year, the University of Dayton presents the Marianist Award, one of its highest honors, to a Roman Catholic whose work has contributed to the intellectual life. Theologians, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, scholars and critics are among those who have received the Marianist Award and discussed the relationship of their faith to their professional work. "What I think is most significant about this volume is the broad range of thinking, both in areas of scholarship and diversity of viewpoints, of the Catholic intellectuals who make up the volume," said Heft, University Professor of Faith and Culture and chancellor of the University of Dayton and president and founding director of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. In the collection, Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., the first American theologian who is not a bishop to be named to the College of Cardinals, discusses the tensions between faith and theology in his career. Jill Ker Conway, author and former president of Smith College, explores the spiritual dimensions of memory and personal narrative. Mary Ann Glendon, professor of law at Harvard University, maps the roots of human rights in Catholic social teaching, while anthropologist Mary Douglas reflects on the fruitful dialogue between religion and anthropology in her own life. Peter Steinfels, a regular contributor to The New York Times, defines what it means to be a "liberal Catholic." Co-director of the Fordham Center on religion and culture Margaret O'Brien Steinfels outlines the complicated history of women in today's church. Charles Taylor, professor of law and philosophy at Northwestern University, and David Tracy, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Chicago, discuss the fractured relationship between Catholicism and modernity. Gustavo Gutièrrez, a Peruvian theologian and priest considered to be the father of liberation theology, brings attention to the enduring call of the poor, and Marcia Colish, professor emerita of history at Oberlin College, traces the historic links between the church and intellectual freedom. "These essays address a number of different issues, all of them critically important, not just for the intellectual leadership of the Church, but also for ordinary Catholics interested in figuring out how to live their lives with integrity and love," Heft said. ----- |