From the Director


Dear Friends of the Aquinas Center:   

       2008 brings with it many blessings and renewed hope for a world at peace.   The Aquinas Center of Theology enters this new year with high expectations for more completely fulfilling its mission to strengthen Catholic intellectual life at Emory and to bring the considerable religious resources of the University to the burgeoning Catholic population of north Georgia.  The need for our work is great. Consider: between 15-20 percent of Emory undergraduates declare a Catholic affiliation, and the population of the Archdiocese has doubled in the last decade, is increasingly diverse and now numbers about 650,000.  The Center's aspiration is to better serve the needs of both these University and Archdiocesan constituencies.  

      Accompanying this letter is a schedule of Spring 2008 events;   please join us as often as you are able.   In order to keep you informed of upcoming events, please send us your name and e-mail address either via the website (www.aquinas.emory.edu) or directly to mdurret@emory.edu. You will want to know about several significant events planned for Fall 2008:   a major address by Archbishop Wilton Gregory co-sponsored by the Aquinas Center (ACT) and Emory's Center for Law and Religion; a lecture by Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., former head of the Dominican order co-sponsored by ACT and the Pierce Program for Religion at Oxford College, and a lecture by Paul Baumann, editor Commonweal Magazine.   

      We are delighted to welcome three new members to the ACT Board of Directors: Dr. Pam Hall, Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Emory University;   Ms. Jane DiFolco Parker, Vice President for Development, Operations, Emory University, and Fr. Bryan Small, Catholic Chaplain, Emory University.    

      Each year the Aquinas Center sponsors an Emory graduate student whose work supports the mission of the Center. This year's Aquinas Fellow, Heidi Tauscher, will complete her dissertation in May.  In  "Welcoming Islam:  American Law, Citizenship, and Minority Religion"  she explores how Muslim Americans adapt as citizens of the United States, compares their experience to those faced by minority Protestant sects, Catholics and Jews, and analyzes previous Supreme Court decisions resolving conflicts and integration of other minority faiths into national citizenship.   

      The next ACT mailing will reach you in Fall 2008.  At that time the Center will have a new Executive Director who will bring distinctive skills, talents, and experiences to the position.  It has been my honor to work with the Aquinas Center Board of Directors and to help forward the mission of the Center.   
 

Sincerely,  

Additional Information

The Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory is an independent, non-profit academic center contractually affiliated with Emory University and the only university-level center for Catholic scholarship in Georgia . It is accountable to a Board of Trustees which includes representatives from the commercial, legal, medical, and academic communities of Atlanta.

The Aquinas Center, as a center for Catholic Studies, provides a Catholic scholarly presence, ecumenical in spirit, for the benefit of the university, the Archdiocese of Atlanta , and the region. The Center assists inquiring persons to enhance their knowledge of the living Catholic tradition and of the intellectual, spiritual and moral life of the Church.

 The Center's faculty teach at Emory in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Candler School of Theology, and Emory College where a significant number of students are Roman Catholic. A permanent Chair in Catholic Theology and the Annual Visiting Dominican Chair in Catholic Studies have been funded by the Center. Among its faculty are distinguished visiting professors, often from abroad, who reach out to the community through talks, conferences, and retreats. Associated Faculty from Emory and Affiliated Faculty from the Atlanta area do the same.

 In addition to regular instruction at Emory, four annual lectures are sponsored: the Aquinas Philosophy Lecture, co-sponsored with the Emory Philosophy Department, the Aquinas Spirituality Lecture, the Aquinas Social Justice Lecture and the Theology Lecture. The Center serves the region by offering timely public lectures, conferences, discussion groups and courses. It publishes a series called "Occasional Papers." Its Continuing Education Program broadens and deepens participants' knowledge of Catholic tradition and helps them engage in the intellectual and spiritual life of the Church, especially in relation to the contemporary moment.

"Christianity is not a message which has to be believed, but an experience of faith that becomes a message."

-Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P