I N T E R P R E T AT I O N O F S C R I P T U R E AND ECCLESIAL EXEGESIS THE SEARCH FOR AN INTEGRATED THEOLOGY
September 17–19, 2021 | Rochester, New York
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
5:00 - 7:00 PM 6:30 PM 7:15 PM 7:30 PM
8:30 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 PM 10:45 PM
Conference Check-In (St. Bernard’s Rotunda) Shuttle Departs from the Hotel Welcome and Opening Remarks (Room B) Keynote Address (Room B) Gregory Vall, Ph.D.: “The Relationship between the Testaments: The Case of Hannah and the Virgin Mary” Evening Reception and Cocktail Hour (Rotunda) First Shuttle Returns to the Hotel Compline (St. Bernard’s Chapel) Second Shuttle Returns to the Hotel SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
7:45 AM 8:00 – 9:00 AM 9:00 – 10:30 AM
Shuttle Departs from the Hotel Morning Prayer and Adoration (St. Bernard’s Chapel) Light Breakfast Available (Room B) Panel Session #1, Room A Cathal Doherty, S.J., University of San Francisco, “‘Dialogical Narrative’ & the Hermeneutics of Biblical Forgiveness” Christopher- Marcus Gibson, Princeton University, “Augustine on the Testing of Abraham & the Question of Temptation” J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary, “Did Abraham Pass the Test? Unbinding the Aqedah from the Straitjacket of Tradition” Room C Tyng-Guang Chu, Duke University, “Mary Hidden in the Text? Two Old Testament Examples” Mark Reasoner, Marian University, “Paul’s Polyphonic Meditation on the Election of Israel in Romans 9” Nathan Mastnjak, Notre Dame Seminary, “The Exile of the Prophet and the Passion of Christ: a Method C Reading of the Songs of the Suffering Servant”
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
9:00 – 10:30 AM
11:00 AM
12:30 PM 2:00 – 3:30 PM
Room D Matthew A. Tsakanikas, Christendom College, “On the Structural Interpretation of the 7th Day: Deification as the Original Promise to Man and Woman at Creation” Matthew Ramage, Benedictine College, “From the Dust of the Earth: Reading Genesis 1-3 with Ratzinger and a ‘Method C’ Hermeneutic” Charles Hughes Huff, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, “Historical-Critical and Patristic Views of the Day of Atonement” Keynote Address (Room B) Fr. David Meconi, S.J., "The Word Must Become Flesh: An Exhortation to Integrate Scripture, Sacraments and Sanctity" Panel Response: Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, J. Richard Middleton, Thomas Scheck, and Fr. Cathal Doherty, S.J. Lunch (Room B) Panel Session #2, Room A Joseph Atkinson, Pontifical John Paul II Institute, “Exegesis as the Intersection of History and Theology: Human Freedom’s Encounter with Revelation” Helene E. Paharik, University of Fribourg Switzerland, “A Missional Hermeneutic: Participating in the Remembrance of Being God’s Friends” Room C Matthew Kuhner, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, “The Sublimity of the Words Themselves: The Consequent Sense as Reconciler” Matthew McWhorter, Divine Mercy University, “Gadamer’s Hermeneutics and the Spiritual Senses of Scripture Today” Luke Arredondo, St. Philip Institute, “Ecclesial Hermeneutics in Light of Providentissimus Deus”
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
2:00 - 3:30 PM
4:00 – 5:30 PM
Panel Session # 2, Room D Trevor Williams, Villanova University, “Revelation and the End of Exegeticall Neutrality: An Analysis of Post-Conciliar Hermeneutics and the Catholic Fulfillment of Biblical Theology” Matthew Pietropaoli, St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, “The Hiddenness of God as Given in Revelation: Jean Luc Marion’s Notion of the Gift in Relation to Scripture” Timothy Troutner, University of Notre Dame, “Reversing the Historical-Critical Gaze: The Phenomenology of Scripture in Jean-Louis Chrétien and Fr. Olivier-Thomas Venard O.P." Panel Session #3, Room A Thomas P. Scheck, Ave Maria University, “Jerome's Exegesis of Galatians 2:11-14 Clearly Explained” Stephen Hildebrand, Fransciscan University of Steubenville, “The Cappadocians, Contemporary Theologians, and Scriptural Revelation: Towards a True Ressourcement” Room C Sujit Thomas, Villanova University, “The Mirror of Scripture: A Pauline Metaphor and Its Reception in the Patristic Era” Dunstan Enzor, OSB, Boston College, “History and Allegory in Saint Methodius’ Exegesis odius’ Exegesis of the Parable of the Trees” Timothy Chapman, Durham University, “Putting Scripture to Work: The Use of Scripture in Papal Encyclicals on Labor” Room D Kasey Kimball, Boston College, “Origen on Rahab: Typological Exegesis for the Sake of the Church” Dan Schneider, Research Centre for Theology - Maryvale Institute, Birmingham England, “‘The Mystery of AAroma’: Eros and Ecclesia in the Reception of Mary of Bethany in Hippolytus of Rome”
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
4:00 – 5:30 PM
Panel Session #3, Room D (cont.) Jeffrey Bingham, Southwestern Theological Seminary, “World, Time, and Knowledge in the Second Century””
5:45 PM 6:30 PM 7:30 PM
Mass (St Bernard’s Chapel) Dinner (Room B) Keynote Address (Room B) Robert Louis Wilken, “Words Alone Are Certain Good” Evening Reception and Cocktail Hour (Rotunda) First Shuttle Returns to the Hotel Compline (St. Bernard’s Chapel) Second Shuttle Returns to the Hotel
8:30 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 PM 10:45 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
7:45 AM Shuttle Departs from the Hotel 8:00 - 9:00 AM Morning Prayer and Adoration (St. Bernard’s Chapel) Light Breakfast Available (Room B) 9:00 – 10:30 AM Panel Session #4, Room A Ljubica Jovanovic, American Public University System, “The Theological and Historical Context of CyrilloMethodian Translation Project" Theodore Janiszewski, St. Irenaeus Center, “Retrieving Eusebius of Emesa's Commentary on Galatians
Room C Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, University of St. Thomas Houston, “Reading the Bread of Life Discourse in Albert and Thomas” Jeffery Walkey, Ave Maria University, “Participation in and Connaturality with Truth: A Metaphysical Apologia for Historical Study of Scripture for the sake of Spiritual Exegesis”
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
9:00 - 10:30 AM
10:45 AM 12:00 PM
Panel Session # 4 (cont.), Room D Mark Heffley, Ave Maria University, “The Human Author, Historical Criticism, and Sacra Doctrina: A Proposed Development of Thomas’ Exegetical Approach” James Kelly, Ave Maria University, “‘Clinging to the Faithful Word’: How Aquinas Develops His Teaching on Biblical Interpretation”
Concluding Panel: Cumulative Q&A and Final Comments with Professors Vall, Wilken, and Atkinson (Room B)
ACKNOWELDGEMENTS CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Charles Hughes Huff, Conference Co-Chair Matthew Kuhner, Conference Co-Chair Nathan Mastnjak, Conference Co-Chair Sophia Zdanowski, Conference Coordinator Bernadette Bobrowski, Conference Marketing and Communications Fr. Peter Van Lieshout, Conference Chaplain Tyburn Academy, for shuttle transportation
HOST INSTITUTION ST. BERNARD’S SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY For more than 125 years, St. Bernard's has steadily pursued a course of dedication and service to Christ and His Church. In 1981 St. Bernard's became one of the first Roman Catholic theological seminaries in the eastern US to offer graduate education to lay people. Striving to reunite theology, sanctity, and prayer in our courses by contemplating what is true, beautiful, and good, we appeal to both the mind and heart in coming to know and to love Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Himself. We offer graduate degrees in theology, pastoral studies, divinity, and philosophy; certificate programs in the fine arts, bioethics, philosophy, catechetical leadership, and Biblical studies; as well as diaconal formation in the dioceses of Rochester, Albany, Buffalo, and Allentown, and pre-theology studies in the diocese of Albany. Our physical campuses are located in Rochester and Albany, New York, and have legacies that include people and places such as Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the nearby Cistercian Abbey of the Genesee. Our mission is to nurture the entirety of the human person through attention to the pastoral, intellectual, spiritual, and human dimensions of formation with the hope that we may, in a definite and dedicated way, assist our students to understand the things of our Faith and to incarnate them in their day-to-day service to God's people and the world as a whole.
www.stbernards.edu
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS Gregory Vall: Chair of and Professor of Sacred Scripture, Notre Dame Seminary
Dr. Gregory Vall has been privileged to serve the Church on the faculty of Notre Dame Seminary of New Orleans from 1992 to 2000 and from 2015 to the present. He also taught at the Catholic University of America (1989 to 1992), the Franciscan University of Steubenville (2000 to 2004), and Ave Maria University (2004 to 2015), where he served as Director of the Ph.D. Program and Chair of the Theology Department. Dr. Vall received a Ph.D. in Semitic Languages and Literatures from the Catholic University of America in 1993. His areas of scholarly expertise are the biblical languages, the Old Testament, and the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch. His book, Learning Christ: Ignatius of Antioch and the Mystery of Redemption, was published by CUA Press in 2013. A second book, Ecclesial Exegesis: A Synthesis of Ancient and Modern Approaches to Scripture, is forthcoming with CUA Press. He has published articles in Biblica, The Bible Today, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal of Biblical Literature, Nova et Vetera, Seminary Journal, The Thomist, and Vetus Testamentum. Dr. Vall is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He and his wife Lourdes, and their four children—Teresa, Gregory, Ezra, and Mark—reside in Covington, Louisiana. Fr. David Meconi, S.J.: Associate Professor of Patristics, Saint Louis University
Fr. David Vincent Meconi, S.J., is an Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Catholic Studies at Saint Louis University; he is also the editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He holds degrees from Marquette University, the Pontifical License in Patrology (Liz. Theol.) from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, as well as his doctorate in Ecclesiastical History from the University of Oxford (D.Phil., Oxon.). Fr. Meconi has published numerous books and articles on the early Church, and on Saint Augustine of Hippo in particular. He has recently translated a collection of the Sermons of Peter Chrysologus (Routledge, 2020), has edited three Cambridge Companion volumes, and authored Augustine On Self-Harm, Narcissism, Atonement and the Vulnerable Christ (Bloomsbury Press, 2020). In 2021, Fr. Meconi's Christ Unfurled: The First 500 Years of Jesus' Life (TAN Books) and The Ongoing Incarnation: A Spirituality of the Mystical Body (Emmaus Academic) will appear. September 17–19, 2021 | Rochester, New York
Robert Louis Wilken: William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the History of Christianity Emeritus, University of Virginia
Robert Louis Wilken is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of the History of Christianity emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past president of the American Academy of Religion, the North American Patristics Society, and the Academy of Catholic Theology. He is chairman of the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, the publisher of First Things. Among his numerous publications are The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity (2013), The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (2003), The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (1984/2003), and Remembering the Christian Past (1995). He has taught at Fordham University, the University of Notre Dame, the Institutum Patristicum (Augustinianum) in Rome, the Gregorian University in Rome, and Providence College.