Fairfield University's Center for Catholic Studies continues its tradition of bringing nationally recognized scholars to campus with a lecture by author Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., S.T.D., on Tuesday, November 19 at 8 p.m., in the Dolan School of Business Dining Room.

Free and open to the public, her talk - "Buying the Field: Women Religious in a Renewing Church" - is the 20th Annual Christopher F. Mooney, S.J. Lecture in Theology, Religion, & Society. Dr. Schneiders, Professor Emerita of New Testament Studies and Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, will examine the pivotal role of women religious.

"The lecture will address an issue which has been at the center of the renewal of women's Religious Life since the Council has received enthusiastic endorsement from a large segment of the laity while raising serious concerns among or even scandalizing some others, and has been the object of Vatican suspicion and even public confrontation of U.S. Religious and their leaders," said Dr. Schneiders.

"The issue is the ‘separation from the world' or even 'rejection of the world' that had, for centuries, been a virtual definition of Religious Life in contrast to 'ordinary' lay life," she continued. "This lecture will attempt to shed some light on the repercussions for Religious and their life of the 'turn to the world' which the Church embraced at the Council and which Religious have made central to their self-understanding and ministerial commitment over the past 50 years."

Schneiders' most recent book, "Buying the Field: Catholic Religious Life in Mission to the World," was published in 2013 by the Paulist Press.

Schneiders specializes in New Testament literature, particularly Johannine literature and biblical hermeneutics, and Christian spirituality, specifically biblical spirituality, feminism, religious life and the theory of spirituality. She has been a member of the Religious Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan since 1955. She has written more than 100 scholarly and pastoral articles in review and journals. Schneiders has also published numerous books on spirituality, biblical studies, feminism, and religious life.

The Christopher F. Mooney, S.J., lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Office of the Academic Vice President, the Department of Religious Studies and the Center for Catholic Studies. The lecture honors Fr. Mooney, a former Fairfield University academic vice president who died in 1993. He was the author of eight books, including "Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ," (Collins and Harper & Row) which won the National Catholic Book Award.

For more information about the Center for Catholic Studies, please call (203) 254-4000, ext. 3415, or visit http://www.fairfield.edu/cs/ .

Posted On: 10-28-2013 11:10 AM

Volume: 46 Number: 100