Department News
The theology department offers a major and a minor and serves the larger general education program. Many of our classes invite students to reflect on their involvement in the local community. This video was created by a student to complete a final project for THEO 335 Theology from the Margins. It offers a wonderful example of what students learn in Bellarmine’s theology courses and illustrates collaborative work done with the Joseph of Arimathea Society.
Recent Faculty Activity
Fr. George Kilcourse - In April 2009 Dr. Kilcourse presented a paper entitled "'Revelation' and the Good under construction: Ruby Turpin's Entry into the Purgative Way," at Reason, Fiction and Faith: An International Flannery O'Connor Conference at Pontificia Universita della Santa Croce, Rome, Italy.
- His review essay on Kenneth Paul Kramer, Redeeming Time: T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets,” appeared in Spiritus [Journal of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality] VIII:2 (Fall 2008), 238-41.
Dr. J. Milburn Thompson - In May 2009 Dr. Thompson took part in a panel discussion “The Christian Tradition on War and peace” at the Annual Meeting of the College Theology Society, held at the University of Notre Dame, IN.
- He published an article, entitled, "Catholic Social Teaching and the Ethics of Torture," inJournal for Peace and Justice Studies, Vol 17, Issue 2 (2009), pp. 22-42
- Thompson’s book Justice and Peace: A Christian Primer (Orbis Books, Rev. Ed., 2003) has been recently translated into Indonesian.
Dr. Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty - Last spring, Dr. Hinson-Hasty organized and served on a panel entitled "Bridging the Divide Between Church and Academy" at the annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics. She also led a four-week lecture and discussion series at Bardstown Road Presbyterian Church. Over the summer, she wrote an essay entitled "In Each the Work of All, In All the Work of Each": Sin and Salvation in Schleiermacher and Rauschenbusch that will be published in Schleiermacher in America, edited by Terrence Tice and Jeffrey Wilcox.
- "The Future of the Social Gospel" was published in the April 2009 edition of Theology Today.
- She recently presented a paper entitled “Embodying Wisdom: Creating Effective Communities of Moral Discernment in the US Today” at a conference in Velletri, Italy. Her paper will be translated into Italian and published later this year.
- Last semester she also served as a lecturer for a series on “Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart” that was sponsored by Pinnacle Theological Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. Her lecture was entitled “For a Love Beyond All Reasons: God and the 21st Century Social Creed.”
Dr. Gregory Hillis - This past summer Dr. Hillis presented papers at two conferences. In May he presented a paper entitled "The Holy Spirit and the Governance of the Church according to Cyril of Alexandria” at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Also in May he presented a paper entitled “Baptism and Pneumatology in the Nestorian Controversy” at the Annual Meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago, IL.
- His article, entitled, "New Birth through the Second Adam: The Holy Spirit and the Miraculous Conception in Cyril of Alexandria” has been accepted for publication in Studia Patristica (forthcoming 2010).
- In July he published an op-ed in The Record, the newspaper for the archdiocese of Louisville, entitled
“Pope Benedict’s New Encyclical: What it means to ‘Love in Truth’”
- Upcoming presentations include a paper on Cyril of Alexandria's ecclesiology at the annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago in May 2010.
India Trip Photographic Exhibition
On August 27 we celebrated the launch of "Embracing India: Reflections on Global Spirituality and Social Justice,” an exhibition of photographs from the MAS 569 trip to India that took place last May. The exhibition ran until September 4.
MAS Cohort 2010 Off and Running!
In June, the 2010 cohort of students completed MAS 501 - Introductory Seminar in the Study of Spirituality, co-taught by Dr. Gregory Hillis of Bellarmine University and Dr. Alexander Hwang of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. We have a diverse group of 10 new students, and we are excited to have them in the program.
Congratulations to Scott Holzknecht ('06)
Scott Holzknecht, graduate of the MAS program in 2006, recently published a book on Catholic social teaching for teens entitled Everyday Justice (St Mary's Press). Congratulations!
We encourage alumnis of the program to keep in touch. Please contact Greg Hillis, Director of the Program, if you have any news to share.
MAS 569 - Spirituality and Justice: An International Experience (India)
This year, our current MAS cohort travelled to Kerala, India, to learn more about spirituality in a pluralistic environment, including Hindu spirituality, Christian spirituality, Muslim spirituality, and ecospirituality. The theme for the course was “Unitive Spirituality.” We hope to post some pictures of their trip soon. Stayed tuned for next year's destination.