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From the Director's Desk...
Woodstock Report No. 70, June 2002This issue of the Woodstock Report focuses on our March 14 Forum, "Being Radically Religious in Public Life," which explored the impact of religious militancy on public life. The forum brought Woodstock senior fellow Leon Hooper together with Gil Bailie, the award-winning author of Violence Unveiled (Crossroads, 1995) and R. Scott Appleby, director of the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Scott Appleby, who authored The Ambivalence of the Sacred (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) and is co-author of a major study of religious fundamentalism, opened the panel by exploring the similarities between the violent militants and nonviolent activist peacemakers as radical believers. Gil Bailie laid the problem of violence at the feet of post-modern relativism and the abandonment of truth. Father Hooper parried that no mortal has a final claim on the truth. Looking at the lives of John Courtney Murray, S.J., and Dorothy Day, he argued that even the very firm convictions of saintly men and women can be modified by new perspectives and experiences and such openness is essential for an effective religious presence in the public square.
"Being Radically Religious in Public Life" was the second in a three-part spring public education program on religion and peacemaking in the wake of September 11. The series began with a Woodstock "afternoon of conversation," hosted by senior fellow Dolores Leckey and led by associate fellow John Farina. Dr. Farina's paper, "The Religious Imagination and Peacemaking," will soon be available as an occasional paper from the Center. The series concluded May 2 with our last forum of the spring, "Hope for Muslim-Christian Relations," held in conjunction with Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. You will be able to read the summary of that event in the next Woodstock Report.
This summer the Institute for Jesuit Sources will publish Lay-Jesuit Collaboration in Higher Education, the papers from the November 2001 forum of the same name. In the fall, look for Georgetown University Press to release Ethics of Lobbying: Organized Interests, Political Power, and the Common Good, the result of a three-year project led by Father Ted Arroyo, S.J., and the publication by Paulist Press of the two-volume Spiritual Exercises for Church Leaders, prepared by Dolores Leckey.
This issue includes our final appeal of this program year to you, our faithful and appreciated supporters. We continue to pursue the work of "theological reflection on the human problems of today" (Pedro Arrupe, S.J.) for you and because of you. If you have already contributed, you have our thanks and our prayers. If you have not already given, please take this opportunity to be part of the Woodstock family.
Father James Connor, S.J., has served ably for over 15 years. We are on the verge of selecting a new director and of an exciting and challenging era for Woodstock. Rarely has the task of theological reflection been more difficult or offered more opportunity. Your continued support of our undertakings is essential to our effectiveness. Thank you for all that you do to help the Woodstock Theological Center.
Drew Christiansen, S.J.
Acting Director