On Wednesday night, I attended the James J. Kenneally lecture, an annual event at the Martin Institute. Jim Kenneally was—indeed still is, even in retirement!—faculty member and colleague extraordinaire, beloved teacher and author and editor of books on American Catholicism, women’s suffrage, and House Speaker Joseph Martin. His significant scholarly and teaching contributions now span almost a half-century.
Any event that honors Jim and Louise Kenneally’s contributions to Stonehill is, in my mind, a no-miss occasion—I think of it as “back to the future.” Jim already looked like the future of Stonehill when he arrived in 1958, and reflections on his career offer us previews of the future we now inhabit—a college that invites faculty members committed to teaching simultaneously to pursue their research passions. Today Stonehill supports faculty members quite vigorously to help them reach their scholarly goals; Jim managed to publish articles and books under very different conditions. The lecture bearing his name is a major event in the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue—a dialogue that Jim founded and that he and and Louise have ardently supported.
This year’s lecture featured Prof. Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black Chair in Jewish Stuudies at Dartmouth College, who spoke eloquently about her current research on a Protestant Christian group whose project was to “de-Judaize” Christianity in 20th-century Germany —to remove references to Jesus being a Jew, to move his ancestry north to Galilee and thereby to make him seem more Assyrian, and to strip any references to the Hebrew Bible in Christian worship.
I was struck not only by the brilliance of Prof. Heschel’s arguments and by her ability to answer every kind of question about her research but also by her generosity of spirit. In some informal words spoken at the dinner which preceded the event, she spoke of the deep sense of welcome she felt at Stonehill. She honored Jim Kenneally and his work, and then also honored the memory of her father, Abraham Joshua Heschel, a major scholar and Jewish thinker who also promoted civil rights and interfaith dialogue and instilled a passion for such issues in his daughter.
It was our privilege to host this eminent scholar, and I’m proud that Stonehill works in so many ways to promote understanding of world religions and to encourage the critical and historical study of religion. Some of that work—such as the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue, other campus lectures, the film series on Religion and Film begun last year by the Religious Studies Department, and a significant number of courses in our curriculum—are substantive engagements with the study of religion. Others, such as the Buddhist Retreat that takes place on campus every second summer, are symbolic events that demonstrate Stonehill’s openness to and respect for all religious beliefs, practices, and cultures.
As I looked around the room at the Kenneally lecture, I noted the number of faculty members present there who encourage our students–and each other—toward such encounters. Kevin Spicer C.S.C. of the History Department came back from his year at Notre Dame to host the event. But Kevin is also the co-creator, with Shari Lowin of the Religious Studies Department (who was also present), of a Learning Community that pairs a History course on Nazi Germany with a Religious Studies course on Jewish Religion and Culture—and it culminates with a travel course to Poland, the Czech Republic, and Berlin. Sitting with Shari was Prof. Erica Tucker (Sociology), who agreed to help keep that enormously popular LC going this year in Kevin’s absence by pairing “Anthropology of the Holocaust” with Shari’s Religion course and team-teaching the travel course with Shari.
I saw Pete Beisheim (Religious Studies) and thought about how his Learning Community with Jose Luis Martinez (Foreign Languages) challenges students to look at the contemporary Catholic Church in Latin American and involves a Spring Break trip to Peru that partners with the HOPE trips sponsored by the Mission Division. Mary Joan Leith (Religious Studies) was also there, and her Learning Community with Allyson Sheckler (Fine Arts), "Pagans and Christians, Roots of Christian Worship" uses the study of religion and art to help students understand the world of early Christianity, and takes the students to Paestum, Pompeii, and Rome as part of that engagement.
Other faculty members attended the lecture too, like Daniel Itzkovitz (English), whose scholarship focuses on Jewish identity in American culture. I single out these faculty members only to suggest that—while Jim Kenneally probably couldn’t have imagined that the small, 10-year old College he joined in 1958 would someday be in a position to support educational endeavors such as our Learning Communities or to support such a breadth of scholarly effort—his work, and the work of others in his generation, built our foundations. For that, and for the creativity so evident in the faculty’s ongoing work, I am grateful.
Any event that honors Jim and Louise Kenneally’s contributions to Stonehill is, in my mind, a no-miss occasion—I think of it as “back to the future.” Jim already looked like the future of Stonehill when he arrived in 1958, and reflections on his career offer us previews of the future we now inhabit—a college that invites faculty members committed to teaching simultaneously to pursue their research passions. Today Stonehill supports faculty members quite vigorously to help them reach their scholarly goals; Jim managed to publish articles and books under very different conditions. The lecture bearing his name is a major event in the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue—a dialogue that Jim founded and that he and and Louise have ardently supported.
This year’s lecture featured Prof. Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black Chair in Jewish Stuudies at Dartmouth College, who spoke eloquently about her current research on a Protestant Christian group whose project was to “de-Judaize” Christianity in 20th-century Germany —to remove references to Jesus being a Jew, to move his ancestry north to Galilee and thereby to make him seem more Assyrian, and to strip any references to the Hebrew Bible in Christian worship.
I was struck not only by the brilliance of Prof. Heschel’s arguments and by her ability to answer every kind of question about her research but also by her generosity of spirit. In some informal words spoken at the dinner which preceded the event, she spoke of the deep sense of welcome she felt at Stonehill. She honored Jim Kenneally and his work, and then also honored the memory of her father, Abraham Joshua Heschel, a major scholar and Jewish thinker who also promoted civil rights and interfaith dialogue and instilled a passion for such issues in his daughter.
It was our privilege to host this eminent scholar, and I’m proud that Stonehill works in so many ways to promote understanding of world religions and to encourage the critical and historical study of religion. Some of that work—such as the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue, other campus lectures, the film series on Religion and Film begun last year by the Religious Studies Department, and a significant number of courses in our curriculum—are substantive engagements with the study of religion. Others, such as the Buddhist Retreat that takes place on campus every second summer, are symbolic events that demonstrate Stonehill’s openness to and respect for all religious beliefs, practices, and cultures.
As I looked around the room at the Kenneally lecture, I noted the number of faculty members present there who encourage our students–and each other—toward such encounters. Kevin Spicer C.S.C. of the History Department came back from his year at Notre Dame to host the event. But Kevin is also the co-creator, with Shari Lowin of the Religious Studies Department (who was also present), of a Learning Community that pairs a History course on Nazi Germany with a Religious Studies course on Jewish Religion and Culture—and it culminates with a travel course to Poland, the Czech Republic, and Berlin. Sitting with Shari was Prof. Erica Tucker (Sociology), who agreed to help keep that enormously popular LC going this year in Kevin’s absence by pairing “Anthropology of the Holocaust” with Shari’s Religion course and team-teaching the travel course with Shari.
I saw Pete Beisheim (Religious Studies) and thought about how his Learning Community with Jose Luis Martinez (Foreign Languages) challenges students to look at the contemporary Catholic Church in Latin American and involves a Spring Break trip to Peru that partners with the HOPE trips sponsored by the Mission Division. Mary Joan Leith (Religious Studies) was also there, and her Learning Community with Allyson Sheckler (Fine Arts), "Pagans and Christians, Roots of Christian Worship" uses the study of religion and art to help students understand the world of early Christianity, and takes the students to Paestum, Pompeii, and Rome as part of that engagement.
Other faculty members attended the lecture too, like Daniel Itzkovitz (English), whose scholarship focuses on Jewish identity in American culture. I single out these faculty members only to suggest that—while Jim Kenneally probably couldn’t have imagined that the small, 10-year old College he joined in 1958 would someday be in a position to support educational endeavors such as our Learning Communities or to support such a breadth of scholarly effort—his work, and the work of others in his generation, built our foundations. For that, and for the creativity so evident in the faculty’s ongoing work, I am grateful.
Best regards,
Katie
