Theology News and Accomplishments
Department News
Highlights Spring 2025
Assistant Professor Leo Guardado was awarded the Faculty Teaching Award from Fordham School of Arts and Sciences in the Humanities.
Adjunct Professor Aaron Hollander has been promoted as the first lay director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute (GEII), a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement.
Professor Larry Welborn, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature, has published the following article: L. L. Welborn, "To Repoliticize Paul: 1 Corinthians 11:19 and a Subterranean Stream of Greek Political Thought," Novum Testamentum 67 (2025) 163-181.
PhD Alumna Sónia da Silva Monteiro published an essay titled "Forgiving Out of Nothing" on the Orthodox Christian Studies Center’s Public Orthodoxy website.
PhD Alumnus Daniel Rober published an essay titled "The ‘Transitus’ of Francis" on the Commonweal website.
PhD Candidate Srdjan Maksimovic published an op-ed titled Not a Barricade, But a Bridge: The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Student Protests on the Orthodox Christian Studies Center’s Public Orthodoxy website.
PhD Candidate Menios Papadimitriou gave a lecture titled, “Religion in the Greek-American Diaspora,” at Yale University sponsored by the Hellenic Studies Program on February 17th.
Ph.D. Student Sadie Yates published "Women Walking: Experiences of Sacred Time on Mexican Guadalupan Pilgrimage" in the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage 12/4 (2025): 19-28. Sadie presented this paper at the 11th annual Sacred Journeys conference in Kyoto, Japan, in July 2024.
Adjunct Professor and PhD Alumnus David de la Fuente's paper presentation from the 2024 Ecclesiological Investigations international conference was published in Ecumenical Trends 54:1 (January-February 2025).The title of the essay is "Missed Receptions of Ecclesial Diversity: Rerouting the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Through Azusa Street to Filipino Charismatics." This periodical is published by Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute, a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement.
Professor Michael Peppard published "Torches, Not Lamps, in the Wedding Parable of Matthew 25," in the Journal of Biblical Literature 143 (2024): 663-79. Professor Peppard also published a cover story in the January 4 issue of The Tablet (UK), titled "Before Gutenberg: Catholics and the Bible." It is paywalled, but available through the Fordham library here.
Larry Welborn, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, has published a review essay on Honouring Age by Mona Tokarek LaFosse in Novum Testamentum 67/1 (2025) 125-132.
PhD student Menios Papadimitriou presented a paper at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in a joint section of Modern Greek Studies and Progressive Era history entitled, “Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith: The Sovereign Role of Religion in the Greek Diaspora."
PhD alumna Dr. Stephanie Ann Puen published her first monograph: The Ethics of Disruption in Business: Contributions from Design Thinking and Catholic Social Thought (Pickwick/Wipf and Stock, Nov. 2024).
- Professor Brenna Moore chaired the "Reimagining Catholic History" panel.
- Emeritus Professor James Fisher won the 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition, he presented the paper "Saving St. Peter’s: Parochial Education and Irish South Brooklyn, 1875–90" on the "Catholic Education in the Diocese of Brooklyn" panel and served on the panel, "Haunted by the Ghost: An(other) Irish Turn in Catholic Studies."
- Professor Jeannine Hill Fletcher served as a panelist on the "Warp Catholicism: Fantastic Voyages in Space and Time" panel.
- Associate Professor Jim McCartin chaired and presented as commenter on the panel, "American Catholicisms: New Directions for Religious History."
- Associate Professor John Seitz chaired the "Beyond Archival Silences: Clergy Abuse and Catholic History" panel.
- PhD student Gabby Bibeau presented as commenter on the "Religious Charisms in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Lay Involvement and Leadership" panel.
- PhD student Alex Gruber presented the paper “This Is How Our Minds Shall Be”: Journeying into the Ongoing Relationship between the Oneida Nation and the Norbertine Order on the Encounters: Colonies, Borderlands, and Indigeneity panel. Alex also presented the paper "The Value of Charism for Catholic Institutions of Higher Education" on the "Religious Charisms in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Lay Involvement and Leadership" panel.
Highlights Fall 2024
Professor George E. Demacopoulos was re-elected as President of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America.
Professor Michael Peppard presented "The Spiritual Exercises of Springsteen" at the biennial conference on the Catholic Imagination, this year held at the University of Notre Dame. A shorter version of the presentation was published simultaneously in Notre Dame magazine here.
Lisa Holsberg, PhD '21, presented her paper, "Truth, Lies, and the Name of Berdyaev in the 2010s" at Religion, Human Dignity, and Human Rights: New Paradigms for Russia and the West: A Conference in Honor of Nikolai Berdyaev at 150, November 1-2, 2024, at The Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education, University of Florida, co-hosted by the Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought.
Luis Josué Salés, PhD '18 has two forthcoming publications in December: Maximos the Confessor: Androprimacy and Sexual Difference (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Maximos the Confessor: Four Hundred Chapters on Love. Popular Patristics Series 61 (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2024).
Taylor Ott, PhD '21's first book, Conflict and Catholic Social Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Approach will be published on November 1st with Routledge.
Prof. Emeritus Richard Viladesau has published a book of pastoral reflections: New Homilies for Sundays, Year C. (Amazon KDP, 2024)
Jack Pappas, PhD '24 and Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou presented papers at the conference, "Encounters. Dialogue & Theological Exchange Between Catholic Nouvelle Théologie & Modern Orthodoxy," at the University of Fribourg and co-sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Studies Center.
Dr. Cristie Traina and Dr. Elsie Miranda created a new resource for teaching, The Meaning of Being Human. These three discussions are with groups of prominent scholars about theological
The discussions can be found here:
- Webinar I - Panelists: Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD (Villanova University), Daniel P. Horan, PhD (Saint Mary’s College), Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, PhD (Fordham University), Todd Salzman, PhD (Creighton University)
- Webinar II - Panelists: Craig Ford, Jr., PhD (St. Norbert College), Michelle Maldonado, PhD (Scranton University), Hosffman Ospino, PhD (Boston College)
- Webinar III - Panelists: Tina Beattie, PhD (Roehampton University), M. Shawn Copeland, PhD (Boston College), Susan Ross, PhD (Loyola University Chicago
Lisa Holsberg (PhD '21) was awarded a 2024 Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship to conduct archival research on 20th century ecumenical relationships between Russian Orthodox, French Catholics, and American evangelical Protestants in the Kautz Family YMCA Archives at the University of Minnesota.
PhD student Timothy Perron presented papers at three conferences this past year:
- “Human Ecology as an Approach to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Vatican Documents.” Catholic Theological Society of America Conference, Baltimore, MD, June 2024.
- “Grappling with the co-existence of vulnerability and flourishing for women: The Sexed/Gendered Body’s Influence in the Concept of God in the theologies of Mary Daly and Elizabeth Johnson.” College Theology Society Annual Conference, Regis University (Denver, CO), May 2024.
- “Mixed Identities: Strands of Queer and Feminist Theology in the Anthropology Pope John Paul II. Koinonia Forum, Princeton TheologicalSeminary, March 2024.
Professor Larry Welborn has published “Household Cults as Proximate Analogues for Pauline Christ Groups” in Everyday Life in Graeco-Roman Times: Documentary Papyri and the New Testament, ed. Christina M. Kreinecker. (Leiden: Brill, 2024) 207-224.
PhD student Sadie Yates published her first academic article "You Kept Me Safe on My Mother's Breast: The Breastfeeding Mother, Women's Embodiment, and the Eucharist" in Worship. Sadie's article was also featured on the cover of the printed journal.
Dave de la Fuente (Ph.D. 24) presented "Saving Kapwa: Investigating Decolonial Pneumatology Among Filipino-American Catholic Charismatics" at the 2024 Catholic Theological Society of America convention in June 2024. He also presented "Missed Receptions of Ecclesial Diversity: Rerouting the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and Catholic Pneumatology Through a Retrieval of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906" at the Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network Conference on Embodying Ecclesial Diversity in late June 2024. He was one of four EI participants to receive a Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute Scholarship for that gathering. Finally, Dave contributed the essay "Summoning Systematics to Responsibility: Paul Ricoeur, M. Shawn Copeland, and the Relationship Between Scripture and Theological Foundations" in Joseph K. Gordon, editor. Critical Realism and the Christian Scriptures: Foundations and Readings. Marquette Studies in Theology94. Marquette University Press, 2024.
Dr. Cristina Traina's essay, A Catholic Feminist’s Journey with Orthodox Saints, was published by Public Orthodoxy. Read it here.
Dr. Rufus Burnett was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. Learn more about Dr. Burnett’s work here.
Fr. Thomas Massaro, SJ was appointed as the new McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. Learn more about the McGinley Chair here.