Annual Kenneally Lecture Welcomes Author & Scholar Dr. Mary Boys
September 23, 2010
Jewish-Christian relations expert Dr. Mary C. Boys, S.N.J.M. will be the featured speaker at the annual James Kenneally Lecture on Wednesday, October 6. The lecture, sponsored by Stonehill's Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Committee, will be held at the Martin Institute at 7:30 p.m. that evening.
Dr. Boys is the Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, NY. "Razing the Stumbling Block: Telling Our Sacred Story More Responsibly" will be the title of her presentation, which will focus on the story of the events of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus and how its telling has encumbered a just relationship with Jews.
In addition to her appointment at the Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Boys also serves as an adjunct faculty member of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Teachers College at Columbia University. She served for seventeen years on the faculty of Boston College prior to being named the Skinner and McAlpin Professor at Union Theological Seminary in 1994.
She has served as Visiting Lecturer of Religious Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, Claremont School of Theology, John Carroll University, Villanova University, and St. Mary's College in London, England. Dr. Boys is a member of the editorial boards of the Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations, Journal of Religious Education (Australia), Teaching Theology and Religion, and Religious Education.
Dr. Boys served as co-director of the Lilly Endowment-sponsored "Religious Particularism and Pluralism" project that involved Jewish and Catholic educators and academics. She is a member of the boards of the Tanenbaum Foundation for Interreligious Understanding, the Suenens Foundation, the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, and The Catholic Theological Society of America. She also serves on the advisory committee for the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Catholic Bishops.
The recipient of the 2005 Sternberg Award from the International Council of Christians and Jews, Dr. Boys has been a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of Roman Catholic women, since 1965.
Dr. Boys is the author of five books: Biblical Interpretation in Religious Education (1980), Educating in Faith: Maps and Visions (1989), Jewish-Christian Dialogue: One Woman's Experience (1997), Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding (2000), and Christians and Jews in Dialogue: Learning in the Presence of the Other (2006 with Sara S. Lee). She has also appeared on a number of television shows, including the Today Show and News Night.
The Stonehill Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Committee was founded in 1993 following a program on the Holocaust at the College. Recognizing the need for greater understanding and dialogue between Christians and Jews, Stonehill History Professor James J. Kenneally invited interested individuals from the College and surrounding areas to join together to promote interfaith dialogue. The Committee serves to educate the public about the Jewish and Catholic faiths.
On March 20, 2002, the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Committee honored its founder and former chair, Dr. James J. Kenneally, by naming the annual lecture in his name. Associate Professor of History Rev. Kevin Spicer, C.S.C. '87 chairs the committee.
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