Megan Hopkins is a doctoral candidate in comparative and systematic theology at Boston College. She investigates questions of ritual revelation among Christianity and Islam. Further work attends to theological anthropology as related to contemplative, liturgical, and disability theologies. 

The foundation of Hopkins’ research relies on the comparison of Jesus Christ and Qur’an each understood as Word. Within the field of comparative theology, newly surfaced sites for study and methodological engagement include ritual, lived religion, and embodiment. In her study “Embodying the Word: How to live the Eucharist everyday as animated by dhikr,” Hopkins takes ritual and embodiment seriously, pursuing the question: how might Catholics continually remember and respond to the Word-made-Flesh as received in the Eucharist? As a confessionally Catholic comparative project, engagement with Sufi dhikr fosters a recovery and reinterpretation of how Eucharist may cultivate a Catholic spirituality which is integrated with everyday life. 

The project is rooted in a Johannine Christology and a high theology of the Qur’an, recognizing each traditions’ self-understanding of revelation. The ritual engagement first begins with the Eucharist, as Catholics understand the Word-made-Flesh in Christ to be present through the eucharistic sacrifice of each Mass. Persons are re-membered as relations of the Word-made-Flesh, through the gift of body and blood. Echoing the Johannine community, all are called towards the beloved community in an invitation to shared life in a eucharistic and agapic praxis of solidarity.

Arguing within the embodied episteme, Hopkins acknowledges that individually persons know the Divine in a unique and particular way; as the God who is already in their flesh and bones, is newly revealed to them slowly in profound, and at times overwhelming, even fearful, ways. Exploring the Sufi practice of dhikr—intoning God’s Divine Names in remembrance of the Word-made-Speech—allows the rust to be polished off Muslims’ hearts, developing and transforming persons toward a deeper relationship with the Real. The reality of dhikr in many Arab and Islamic countries permeates the visual and aural landscape, with tasbih hanging from hands and Qur’anic recitation playing in nearly every uber you take. The weekly hadra animates the continual practice of dhikr which permeates the very being of Muslims, reminding them of the mercy that surrounds them, and aligning them on the straight path. 

Bringing Sufi practices to bear on the Eucharist—particularly on the question of how continually remember and respond to Christ—suggests a return towards Catholic Eucharistic embodiment. A retrieval of Catholic contemplative practices of the 14th-16th centuries, richly rooted within the Christian and eucharistic traditions, invite the transformative remembrance which dhikr illumines. These contemplative and embodied practices are reconsidered in the modern landscape, maintaining the remembrance of and participation in Christ’s offering—continually. A beloved community emerges from the eucharistic participation in the Word-made-Flesh, where the light of Christ lives in and through human persons, mediating the Spirit in the world.

This constructive comparative theology offers two methodological contributions to a growing body of scholarly work focused on ritual practices. First, this study adds a unique voice through a distinctly interdisciplinary method, synthesizing the insights of phenomenology and ritual studies within the context of a Sufi and Catholic comparative theology. Second, it continues to develop Hopkins’ method of “embodied epistemology,” where this affective knowledge is already present as a way of knowing inherent within each human person—regardless of the ability to articulate this via traditional (academic) means. This embodied knowledge can be cultivated towards the transcendent through ritual practices, training persons to receive the Divine more intimately in and through their already knowing bodyminds. 

Prior to her work at Boston College, Megan served as the Director of Education at Mosaic: Interfaith Youth Action. There she facilitated interfaith dialogue and equipped young people to work together across differences so that they may cultivate communities of justice, equity, and peace. This work animates her theological lens, rooting reflection in praxis and lived experience.

Hopkins holds a M.T.S. from the Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, as well as a B.A. and B.A.H. from Villanova University.