"Joseph J. Naples Conversations in Christ and Culture Lecture and Performance Series" is an ongoing lecture workshop and conference series within the Buffalo/Niagara Region. It is designed to foster conversations about important issues involving the relationship between Christianity and culture. It promotes cooperation and understanding across religious, gender and ethnic lines.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Canisius College Institute for the Global Study of Religion and the Ecumenical Community of Western New York. For a copy of the brochure please click, Joseph J. Naples Conversations in Christ and Culture Lecture and Performance Series 2009-2010.
2009 - 2010 Events
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Director, Ignatius Productions
Faith and Reason
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 • 7:30 PM
Montante Cultural Center
Co-Sponsored with the Permanent Chair
of Polish Culture
Father Mitch Pacwa S.J. is the founder and director of Ignatius Productions, a Catholic media production apostolate whose mission is to teach people the scriptures, to educate Catholics about their Faith, and to promote unity and understanding within the mystical body of Christ. Father Pacwa received his BA in philosophy and theology from the University of Detroit, summa cum laude. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1976 with the Society of Jesus and then continued his studies, earning a master of divinity and S.T.B. from the Jesuit School of Theology of Loyola University and the Master of Arts, and PhD in Old Testament from Vanderbilt University.
Father Pacwa has taught at the high school, university, and seminary levels. Being a well-known biblical scholar, he has lectured at hundreds of conferences and churches around the world, and has appeared and hosted international radio and television programs. He is best known for his appearances on EWTN, as well as his podcasts through Ignatius Productions on such subjects as Christianity in the Middle East, Christian-Islamic relations, liturgy, poetics, and the New Age movement.
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Professor, Lutheran School of Theology
The African American Church and Politics in 2009
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 • 7:30 PM
Regis, Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Co-Sponsored with the Fitzpatrick Institute of Public Affairs and Leadership
Linda E. Thomas professor of theological anthropology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Illinois, has engaged students, scholars and communities for almost twenty years. Her work, which is grounded in a womanist perspective, focuses on the intersection and mutual influence of culture and religion. Formerly the dean of students at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C., Dr. Thomas has served on the faculty at the Iliff School of Theology, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University, and Drew University.
A prolific author, Thomas has published Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and SpiritualResilience in South Africa (1999),as well as Living Stones in the Household of God (2004) and dozens of articles in academic journals and scholarly books. Dr. Thomas’ lecture will be followed by responses from three clergy from prominent African American churches in the Buffalo area. They are Rev. Michael Chapman, senior pastor at St. Johns Baptist Church, Buffalo; Rev. Rodney Hennings, senior pastor at Zion Dominion Ministries in Amherst; and Rev. Richard Stenhouse, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Co-founder and Vice President Emeritus,
United Farm Workers of America AFL-CIO (UFW)
Now is the Moment to Take Action
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 • 3:00 PM
Grupp Fireside Lounge,
Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Co-Sponsored by Justice in Action
Dolores C. Huerta is the co-founder and Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW). Although she is a former University of California Regent and has earned six honorary doctorates, she is perhaps most well known for coining the much used phrase “Yes We Can.”
The mother of 11 children, 14 grandchildren and five great grandchildren, Huerta has played a major role in the American civil rights movement. A founding board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, she also serves on the board of Ms. Magazine. She began her community organizing legacy with the Latino civil rights group, Community Services Organization (CSO). In addition to her experience as a teacher, a lobbyist, and a labor advocate, Huerta has also been a community activist working for Spanish-speaking police officers and hospital workers. At the age of 78, she continues to work for women, immigrants, workers, and youth as the founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
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Associate Professor, Syracuse University
Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America
Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 • 7:30 PM
Grupp Fireside Lounge, Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Gustav Niebuhr is Associate Professor of Religion and the Media at Syracuse University where he directs the Religion and Society Program as well as the Carnegie Religion and Media program. Prior to coming to Syracuse in 2004, Niebuhr spent two years as a visiting fellow and scholar-in-residence at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion. From 1980 to 2001, he was best known as one of the nation’s most celebrated religion news reporters, with appointments at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. In 2008 Viking Press published his book, Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America, which earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was hailed by Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and holocaust survivor as “remarkable and absorbing.”
Dr. Niebuhr will also be guest speaker at the invitation only, Faith and the Intellectual Life luncheon forum.
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John Paul II and the Jewish Community
A Multimedia Exhibit
April 1 to June 30, 2010
Karpeles Museum,
453 Porter Ave., Buffalo, NY 14201-1217
“A Blessing to One Another” is an interactive, multi-media exhibit chronicling Pope John Paul II’s associations with the Jewish community from the time of his childhood in Poland. It illustrates how these lifelong associations shaped his papacy, the Catholic Church and the future of Jewish-Catholic relations. Featuring artifacts, photos, replicas of the gate to Krakow’s ghetto and Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, video interviews and narrative, the exhibit thoughtfully and artfully lays the foundation for inter-religious dialogue and emphasizes the Pope’s passion for human dignity, peace and forgiveness.
The Permanent Chair of Polish Culture at Canisius College in celebration of its 50th Anniversary, has partnered with the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums, Temple Beth Zion, the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, WLOF FM 107.1 FM, the Am-Pol Eagle, the Polish American Journal, and the Chopin Singing Society to inspire all ages and traditions!
For more information about the Karpeles Museum visit www.rain.org/~karpeles/buffrm.html or call 716-885-4139.
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Director, Institute on Religion and Public Policy
Global Condition of Religious Freedom
Monday, April 19, 2010 • 7:30 PM
Regis South, Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Co-Sponsored by the Permanent Chair of Polish Culture
Joseph Grieboski is the founder and director of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, an organization that was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and widely recognized for its commitment to freedom of religion as the foundation for security, stability, and democracy. As a religious freedom and human rights expert, as well as an authority on Jewish-Christian Dialogue, Grieboski also serves as the founder and secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom.
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Professor, University of Chicago
Jewish-Catholic Dialogue and
the Impact of Pope John Paul II
Thursday, April 27, 2010 • 7:30 PM
Regis North, Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Co-Sponsored by the Permanent Chair of Polish Culture
Father John Pawlikowski, Professor of Ethics and Director of the Jewish- Catholic Studies Program at the University of Chicago, is a leading figure in Jewish-Christian dialogue worldwide. Dr. Pawlikowski is also president of the International Council of Christians and Jews and author of Christ in the Light of the Christian Jewish Dialogue and co-editor with Judith Banki of Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust.
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Professor, Boston College
Catholics and Health Care: Justice, Faith and Hope
Thursday, April 29, 2010 • 7:30 PM
Grupp Fireside Lounge, Richard E. Winter '42 Student Center
Peter Canisius Distinguished Lecture
Lisa Sowle Cahill is the J. Donald Monan, S.J., Professor at Boston College, where she has taught theology since l976. She is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America (1992-93), and the Society of Christian Ethics (l997-98). Among her many publications, Cahill is the author of Theological Bioethics: Participation, Justice and Change (Georgetown, 2005); Sexuality and the U.S. Catholic Church, ed. with John Garvey and T. Frank Kennedy; Genetics, Theology, Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Conversation, ed. (Crossroad, 2005); Bioethics and the Common Good (Marquette University Press, 2004), and Family: A Christian Social Perspective (Fortress, 2000).
Cahill has been a member of the Catholic Health Association Theology and Ethics Advisory Committee, the National Advisory Board for Ethics in Reproduction, and the March of Dimes National Bioethics Committee. She has given testimony to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission on fetal tissue research and on cloning, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; and of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.
Past speakers include:
- Rev. Francis Clooney, S.J., Harvard University
- Afro-Semitic Experience
- Rabbi David Novak, University of Toronto
- Lawrence Cunningham, Notre Dame University
- The Disputation by Hyam Maccoby, starring Theodore Bikel
- Michael Breault, writer and producer of Nothing Sacred
- William Cain, S.J., writer and producer of Nothing Sacred
- Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University
- Tony Campolo, Eastern University, St. David's Pennsylvania
- Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, Kolel Center in Toronto
- Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Fordham University
- Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J., University of Central America in El Salvador
- Dr. Ronald Sider, Palmer Theological Seminar
- Dr. James Cone, Union Theological Seminary, NYC
- Elizabeth Johnson, Fordham University
- Dr. John Dominic Crossan, Depal University
- Dr. Martin Cook, Air Force Academy, Boulder, CO
- David Robinson, national director of Pax Christi
- Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University