Theology—Philosophy
Interdisciplinary Research Seminar
Background and Significance
The Christian tradition in general, and the Catholic tradition in particular, have always encouraged a substantive dialogue between the distinct but closely related disciplines of Theology and Philosophy. Taking advantage of the renewed emphasis on interdisciplinarity within the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, we take the view that a regular exchange of ideas across the borders of our respective disciplines, within the framework of a research seminar, will be of great benefit both to faculty members and to the student population.
The Theology—Philosophy Interdisciplinary Research Seminar intends to give fuller expression to the Catholic tradition of substantive dialogue between the distinct but closely related disciplines of Theology and Philosophy; to promote the exchange of ideas between scholars in our respective departments, which we consider to be of great benefit to our various research projects; to stimulate the exchange of ideas among doctoral students of philosophy and theology; to promote the further development of working relationships between scholars and teachers at Duquesne University and other local and regional universities.General Information
The research seminar meets once every semester and organizes a colloquium. For each of the two annual meetings a scholar is invited whose work is deemed of interest to faculty members and doctoral students in both disciplines to deliver a keynote address followed by paper presentations and discussions within the seminar.
Upcoming Events
For the first meeting of our seminar we intend to invite Dr. John D. Jones, professor of philosophy at Marquette University. Dr. Jones is a noted scholar of Pseudo-Dionysius. He is the translator of the Mystical Theology and the Divine Names, and the author of several studies dedicated to the interpretation of the Corpus Dionysiacum and its medieval reception. His historical and philological research is doubled by philosophical reflection on some central ps.-Dionysian themes: the notion of God "beyond being," the notion of theological language beyond both affirmation and negation, the notion of theology as "liturgy" or "science," and so forth.
Friday, April 9, 2009 [pdf]
The keynote speaker for the second meeting of the seminar, in the Spring of 2010, will be Dr. Michael Niculescu (Bradley University). His training includes a degree in Classics (University of Bucharest), PhD in Early Christian Studies (Catholic University of America), and PhD in Philosophy (Toronto University); Niculescu is the author of The Spell of the Logos: Origen of Alexandria’s Exegetic Pedagogy in the Contemporary Debate regarding Logocentrism (Baker Academic, 2009).
Organizers
Department of Theology:
Dr. Marie Baird (profile; E-mail: bairdm@duq.edu)
Dr. Aimee Light (profile; E-mail: lighta@duq.edu)
Dr. Bogdan G. Bucur (profile; E-mail: bucurb@duq.edu)
Department of Philosophy:
Dr. Therese Bonin (profile; E-mail: bonin@duq.edu)
Dr. Michael Harrington (profile; E-mail: harringtonm@duq.edu)
