CSTM Faculty News
John F. Baldovin, S.J., professor of historical and liturgical theology, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Fairfield University on May 17. He published “Where Is God in the Liturgy? A Way Forward for Liturgical Reform and Renewal,” America, March 13, 2025, 18–25: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/03/13/baldovin-liturgy-vatican-ii-way-forward-250062. He also published a chapter, “A Liturgical Reform in Peril? Sacrosanctum Concilium Sixty Years On,” in Sacrosanctum Concilium: Exploring Liturgical Futures, Clare V. Johnson, Gerard Moore, and Peter G. Williams (eds.). (Cham Switzerland: Springer Nature/Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), 9–22: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82129-5_2.
Vicente Chong, S.J., visiting assistant professor of systematic theology, presented the paper “The Relationship between Theology and Integral Ecology in Liberation Aesthetics” at the Theology and Integral Ecology Conference, organized by the Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Campion Hall, University of Oxford, on April 25, 2025.
Rev. Brian Dunkle, S.J., associate professor of historical theology, gave the following lectures: “The Creed After 1700 Years,” Harvard Catholic Forum, St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Cambridge, MA, March 30, 2025; “Przywara as Synthesizer: Augustine and Newman,” Colloquium on Erich Przywara: Exemplar of Jesuit Ressourcement, Mundelein, IL, March 28, 2025; and “Divine Evacuation in Hilarii’s Tractatus Super Psalmos,” North American Patristics Society, Chicago, IL, May 23, 2025.
Rev. Phillip Ganir, S.J., assistant professor of religious education, currently serves as a researcher for “Welcoming Children in Worship,” an educational initiative sponsored by the Catholic University of America and endowed by the Lilly Foundation. The most recent phase of this project included hosting the internationally acclaimed Scottish composer James MacMillan this past April in Washington DC, which served the double purpose of conducting research on MacMillan’s compositions to date and also of producing a “masterclass library” designed to assist parents, teachers, and ministers in promoting more-engaged liturgical participation among children through the treasury of sacred music. Videos were produced that will be released in the near future along with accompanying articles documenting the research. This spring, Prof. Ganir launched a new course entitled The Music of Christ’s Passion, which involves a deep study into five Passion settings and yielded Compline and Tenebrae liturgies featuring the newly formed CSTM Schola Cantorum, founded by his student and recent graduate Marc-André Veselovsky, S.J. Moreover, Prof. Ganir and this new class produced the Sacred Music recital “Abide with Me,” directed by his student Josef Rodriguez, S.J., who collaborated with BC Orchestra musicians and began the concert with his own overture and aria based on the Gospel of John. This June, Prof. Ganir has been invited to present his paper “Towards a Foundation of Jesuit Music Education” for the Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education (G.R.A.C.E.) Colloquium at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK. He hopes to publish that research in the near future.
Angela Kim Harkins, professor of New Testament and professor ordinaria, presented two papers: The first, “Psalm 72 and Its Relationship to Other Solomonic Writings in the Second Temple Period,” was presented at the Joint Bible Symposium sponsored by Trinity College Dublin and BC CSTM in May. The second, “Dream-Visions and ASCs in Daniel’s Night Visions,” was an invited paper at the conference Altered States of Consciousness in Ancient Judaism and Christianity, held at the University of Texas at Austin. Prof. Harkins received a Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring Grant from the Provost Office, Boston College, for fall 2025. She will begin a term on the editorial board of New Testament Studies, the journal of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS).
Christina McRorie, associate professor of moral theology, published “The Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality of Parenting,” Theological Studies, 86.1 (2025) in March. It provides an overview of emerging theological scholarship on parenting, focusing on publications from the last two decades. The first section maps the role of magisterial teaching in shaping Catholic discussions of parenting as a vocation. The second section surveys literature on pregnancy, birth, and adoption, including recent work on the less socially visible experiences of infertility and pregnancy loss. A third section turns to the task of parenting children, addressing scholarship on family spirituality, the moral formation of children, specific ethical issues facing parents, and the relationship of parenting to the common good. Finally, a fourth section introduces the growing literature on motherhood, where women’s experiences of caregiving have proven generative for revisiting questions about care, embodiment, spirituality, and theological anthropology.
Jos Moons, S.J., was the Cavelieri Chair Visiting Professor for the spring semester. He spoke about synodality in the context of the School for Synodality’s Book Club: https://www.schoolforsynodality.org.uk/our-resources/final-document-book-club-2025.