Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, will deliver the 10th annual Christopher F. Mooney, S.J., Lecture in Theology, Religion and Society on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The lecture, entitled "Do We Still Need a Catholic Apologetics?" will take place in the Kelley Theatre.

An internationally acclaimed author, Cardinal Dulles has been a professor or visiting lecturer at more than a dozen universities both in the United States and Italy. His 22 books include "Models of Revelation," "The Reshaping of the Catholicism," "The History of Apologetics," and his most recent, "Newman."

"Cardinal Dulles is among the most influential Catholic theologians since Vatican II," said Dr. John Thiel, Professor of Religious Studies, Fairfield University. "It is an honor for Fairfield University to host him as this year's Mooney lecturer, especially since he was a friend of Father Christopher Mooney, S.J., whose memory the lecture celebrates."

Father Mooney was academic vice president and professor of religious studies at Fairfield University from 1981 to 1993.

Born in Auburn, N.Y., Cardinal Dulles was the son of U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his wife, Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. A Harvard graduate and former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he was created a Cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2001.

Cardinal Dulles' teaching career began when he became an instructor of philosophy at Fordham in the early 1950s, but his first position as a professor was at Woodstock College in Maryland, where he taught theology from 1960 to 1974. He was then appointed a professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he taught from 1974 to 1988 and is still a professor emeritus. From there, he took his current post at Fordham.

Cardinal Dulles has been a visiting professor at The Gregorian University in Italy, Boston College, Oxford University, the University of Notre Dame, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Episcopal Seminary, Lutheran Theological Seminary and other institutions.

The author of more than 700 articles on theology, Cardinal Dulles has been a long-respected source on matters of faith. He is past president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society. He has served on the International Theological Commission and as a member of the U.S. Lutheran/Roman Catholic Coordinating Committee. He is an advisor to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cardinal Dulles' lecture is sponsored by Fairfield University's Department of Religious Studies. Admission is free. For more information, call Religious Studies at (203) 254-4000, ext. 2130.

Posted On: 10-03-2003 09:10 AM

Volume: 36 Number: 83