James Weiss

EDUCATION
The University of Chicago, M.A., Ph.D.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
A fifth-generation Chicagoan transplanted to Boston College in 1979, James Weiss has also taught on visiting appointments at the University of Munich, Harvard, and Notre Dame. Trained in history and church history, his work has turned from Renaissance and Reformation spirituality to contemporary spirituality, 1900 to the present. The Capstone Program, which he founded and has directed since 1990, offers over 30 sections a year to 400 seniors on subjects of life-long commitment in work, relationship, citizenship, and spirituality. Twenty-four faculty from 18 departments teach in the program. An Episcopal priest with a ministry in spiritual direction, he serves two different parishes in Boston's Back Bay and the inner city Dorchester neighborhood.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Contemporary Spirituality since 1900
Renaissance and Reformation Church History
Biography as a Literary Form
Spirituality of Work & Vocation

TEACHING
Personal and Social Responsibility
Introduction to Christian Spirituality
Religious Quest I
Capstone: One Life, Many Lives
Contemporary Spirituality since 1945

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS
German Academic Exchange Fellow
Harvard University Mellon Fellow
Carl S. Meyer Award of the Sixteenth Century Conference
American Council of Learned Societies Travel Grant
Newberry Library Research Fellow
Numerous research and travel grants from Boston College

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
"Beyond Individuality: Varieties of Biography in the Italian Renaissance"

"The Six Lives of Rudolph Agricola: Forms and Functions of the Humanist Biography"

"Rhetoric and Friendship in the Development of Humanist Biography"

"Erasmus at Luther's Funeral: Melanchthon's Biographies of Luther"

"German Humanist Lives of the Saints, 1485-1520".

Numerous entries in Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, and Westminster Dictionary of Church History

PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2002
Academic Articles:
“Humanism”, “Renaissance”, “Beatus Rhenanus”, and Stanislaus Hosius”, in Westminster Dictionary of Church History, ed. Carter Lindberg (Nashville, 2004), forthcoming.
Kennst Du das Land wo die Humanisten blühen?  The Role of Italy in the Biographies of German Humanists, 1485-1585, in Germania Latina…: Politik,

Wissenschaft, humanistische Kultur …Eds. Eckhard Kessler & Heinrich Kuhn (Munich, 2003), vol. I, pp.439-455.

Educational Articles:
“A Kinder, Gentler Pope Benedict”, Op-ed piece for The Boston Globe (4/19/06)

“Precedents and Priorities at the Coming Conlave”, Op-ed piece for The Boston Globe  (April 13, 2005)

“College Kid at the Council: Reflections on a Year at Vatican Council II, 1964/5”, Commonweal (December 16, 2005), pp. 12-14