Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. Chair in Catholic Studies

The Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Chair in Catholic Studies was established in June 2004, as a result of gifts of various donors in honor of the retiring president, Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J.

Image: Paul LakelandThe first holder of the chair is Paul Lakeland, Professor of Religious Studies at Fairfield University. The Chair is ex officio Director of the Center for Catholic Studies and the undergraduate academic minor program in Catholic Studies. He has been teaching at Fairfield University since 1981, where he has previously served as Director of the Honors Program and Chair of the Religious Studies Department.

Dr. Lakeland received his Licentiate in Philosophy from Heythrop Pontifical Athenaeum, an M.A. from Oxford University in English Language and Literature, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the University of London, and his Ph.D. in religion from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. At Fairfield he teaches courses on ecclesiology, religion and culture, and religion and literature. He is the author of some 35 scholarly articles and 8 books, the most recent of which are:

  • Lumen Gentium: The Unfinished Business, to be published by Liturgical Press in 2013.
  • Yves Congar: Essential Writings. The Modern Spiritual Masters Series (Orbis Books, 2010)
  • Church: Living Communion (Liturgical Press, 2009)
  • Catholicism at the Crossroads: How the Laity Can Save the Church (Continuum, 2007), which won an award from the Catholic Press Association
  • The Liberation of the Laity: In Search of an Accountable Church (Continuum, 2003), which received the 2004 Catholic Press Association Award for the best book in theology
  • Postmodernity: Christian Identity in a Fragmented Age (Fortress Press, 1997)
  • Theology and Critical Theory: the Discourse of the Church (Abingdon Press, 1990)

Paul Lakeland is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the independent ecumenical association of systematic and constructive theologians, the Workgroup for Constructive Theology. His academic and research interests include the roles of the laity in the Catholic Church, the Papacy, religion and literature, and the relations between religious commitment and progressive politics.

He can be reached at pflakeland@fairfield.edu

Dr. Paul Lakeland, professor of religious studies, was formally installed as the first holder of the
Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., Chair in Catholic Studies
March 2, 2005

Image: Paul Lakeland at Kelley Chair installation Sharing the honor of the occasion with Dr. Lakeland (third from left) were: (l-r) Dr. G. Dennis O'Brien, former president of Bucknell University and the University of Rochester, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree; the Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., president emeritus, for whom the chair is named; and Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., University president.