Measuring Meaning-Making: BC-LAMP-C
BC-LAMP-C is a quantitative instrument that measures the capacity for meaning-making among college students. It draws on constructive-developmental theory, which recognizes the expanding cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal capacities, by which individuals interpret and make meaning of the world and their place in it (Kegan 1982; Kegan, 1994; Baxter-Magolda, 2007; Parks, 2011). Growth in meaning-making capacity is marked by individuals’ increasing ability to see themselves as distinct, but connected in myriad ways to the world around them.
Sense of the Possible: An Introduction to Theology and Imagination
Callid Keefe-Perry
Sense of the Possible is for those interested in learning about the intersection of Christian theology and imagination. Written from the assumption that imagination is deeply connected to the Christian work for liberation and human flourishing, this book is an energizing introduction to the ways in which theologians have thought about the powerful human capacity to envision a future that has not yet come.
Ritual Mourning in the Second Temple Period
Angela Kim Harkins
The project on ritual mourning in the Second Temple period produced a number of studies of ancient Jewish and Christian Prayers.
A Theology of Pilgrimage
André Brouillette
The phenomenon of pilgrimage is important in the lived experience of Christianity throughout history, and historians, anthropologists, and sociologists have studied it, but it has rarely explored theologically. This project to reconnect aspects of pilgrimage that have a theological import—historical narratives, devotional practices, Biblical sources—to explore the meaning of a pilgrim paradigm in the Church and understand its continued relevance.
Disability Ethic/Preferential Justice: A Catholic Perspective
Mary Jo Iozzio
This book introduces disability basics, realities, and etiquette; reviews landmark contributions of the United Nations and World Health Organization; and utilizes theological traditions on the Trinitarian basis of the imago Dei, natural law, Catholic social teaching on the option for the poor and marginalized, and the imperatives of disability inclusion for the Church and the world.
Social History of U.S. Franciscan Missionaries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa (1879–2019)
Margaret Eletta Guider, O.S.F.
The project provides an overview of the missionary activities, locations, and legacies of U.S. Franciscans from 1879–2019. Sr. Guider's research draws on resources including archival records, missionary narratives, interviews, and statistical data, as well as additional materials relevant to particular orders, provinces, and congregations.
What Makes Education Catholic?
Thomas H. Groome
There are over 55,000 Catholic schools in more than 200 countries, educating over 150 million students; together, they comprise by far the largest independent educational system in the world. Yet what makes such schools Catholic is a new question. At one time (e.g., in the mid-60s) the faculty and staff of Catholic schools was typically 95% vowed religious— sisters, brothers, priests. Now they, are less than 3%.
The Holy Spirit: Setting the World on Fire
Richard Lennan
The book brings together the contributions of 17 members of the STM faculty to present contemporary understandings of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. The contributions range from scripture studies and history to liturgical and pastoral studies, as well as a number of explicit treatments from systematic theology and Christian spirituality.
Theology and Ministerial Practice of Synodality
Felix Palazzi and Rafael Luciani
The Synod on Synodality represents a new stage in ecclesial life that invites us to generate processes of conversion and reform in order to build a Synodal Church for this third millennium. Responding to this call, CSTM's Formación Continua department is organizing a series of intercontinental and intercultural initiatives focused on research and formation related to synodality, offered in six languages—English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German.
Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer
Callid Keefe-Perry
This book gives an account of the rise of "theopoetics," a way of approaching theological reflection in ways that honor creative practice. Beginning with the work of Stanley Hopper in the late 1960s and the early scholarship of key authors like Rubem Alves and Amos Wilder, this text explores how theopoetics developed as a response to the American death-of-God movement and grew into a method for theological thought that more fully honors embodiment and aesthetic dimensions of human experience.
Formative Theological Education
Colleen Griffith and Hosffman Ospino
The language of formative education is appearing everywhere, and Boston College, in particular, has a strong commitment to it. This project sets out to offer spiritual grounding for what is spoken about as formative education, and to show what formative education looks like in the context of a specific discipline, namely theological education.
What Does the Bible Say About Animals?
Jaime Waters
This project examines the diverse ways that animals appear in the Bible, such as blessed creatures, symbols, agricultural laborers, food, and sacrifices. It also considers questions of animal afterlife and human obligations to care for creation, contributing to ongoing contemporary conversations about ecology and human responsibilities.
God’s Double Love: Nature and Grace in the Early Church
Brian Dunkle, S.J.
This study considers how ancient sources, from New Testament texts until Augustine’s initial anti-Pelagian writings, understand the relationship between nature and grace. This background is essential for understanding the distinction between nature and grace as it was employed at the end of the fourth century AD, and as it influenced the thought of Augustine and his rivals.
Reading the Old Testament: An Introductory Textbook
Andrew R. Davis
This book is a new edition of a well-known introduction to the Old Testament, written by Larry Boadt and later revised and updated by Davis's teachers, Richard Clifford and Dan Harrington. Intended for undergraduates and graduate students who are reading the Old Testament for the first time, it aims to draw readers more deeply into an encounter with the literary and theological artistry of the texts.
Ancient Jewish and Christian Prayers
Angela Kim Harkins
This research focuses on the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hebr. Hodayot) from Qumran caves 1 and 4 and other prayers, using new integrative approaches alongside traditional historical-critical methods to gain fresh insights into these texts.
Paulist Bible Commentary
STM Editors: Richard J. Clifford, S.J. and Thomas D. Stegman, S.J.
With contributions written by more than 70 Catholic scholars and colleagues, this single volume provides an up-to-date commentary that is both scholarly and useful to ministers, ordained and lay, in their teaching, preaching, and personal lives. It engages with questions such as: What do the texts say about Christian life? How do they ground what we may call Christian spirituality?
Ancient and Modern Perspectives on Jeremiah
Jaime Waters
Set during a period of instability and impending exile, the book of Jeremiah reflects on religious, political, and cultural concerns of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. Jeremiah's poetic oracles, prose narratives, and sermons provide a wealth of prophetic literature on themes relevant to ancient and modern communities. This project uses interpretive methods, including feminist, womanist/black feminist, and sociological approaches, to produce a multidimensional resource for biblical study.
Tilling the Church: Theology for An Unfinished Project
Richard Lennan
The book is a contemporary Catholic ecclesiology (theology of the Church) that aims to bring the tradition of reflection on the Church into dialogue with the Church's current circumstances. The goal is to offer resources for present-day Catholics to appropriate positively their membership in the Church, while also promoting fruitful engagement with today's world.
Moving Through Impasse
Heather DuBois
Moving Through Impasse is a book in progress that uses the texts of the sixteenth-century spiritual guide John of the Cross and the contemporary critical theorist and activist Judith Butler to theorize transformation at the nexus of self and society. It focuses on the dynamics of desire, virtue, and power to address rationalist alienation in relationships to self, others, and ideals.
The Shepherd of Hermas: An Early Christian Apocalypse
Angela Kim Harkins
Using emerging integrative approaches from the fields of cognitive literary theory and cross-cultural anthropology, Angela Kim Harkins's most recent publications focus on the early Christian apocalypse known as the Shepherd of Hermas, one of the most widely read books in the early Church.
The Structures of Virtue and Vice
Daniel J. Daly
In this book, Daly uses the lens of virtue and vice to reimagine Catholic virtue ethics and social ethics in order to better scrutinize the social forces that affect our moral character and contribute to human well-being or suffering.
Hope: Promise, Possibility, and Fulfillment
Richard Lennan
The book gathers reflections on hope written by 17 members of the STM faculty, who worked together to ensure that the finished project is an integrated study of its theme. The various disciplines represented by the diverse faculty members ensured a comprehensive examination of the theme of "hope", a theme that is central to Christian life and faith, but not always well understood or connected deeply to everyday experience.
Neuroscience Education in Theological Training
Dominic Doyle
This project aims to foster dialogue between religion and science at STM, thus enhancing the intellectual growth and ministerial effectiveness of our students. It has involved revising five core courses to include substantial sections on science, sponsoring student-centered activities around the integration of ministerial theology and science, and hosting an on-campus talk on neurospirituality by a Harvard Medical School neurologist.
Navigating toward Adulthood: A Theology of Ministry with Adolescents
Theresa A. O'Keefe
In this work, O'Keefe identifies the "project" of maturation from later childhood to adulthood using the lens of constructive-developmental psychology and theological anthropology. She identifies the development of a relational capacity as essential for successful maturation, and proposes the work of the Church in this project is to provide robust relationships and a meaningful horizon, both of which contribute to the individual's sense of purpose.