Philosophy and Theology as Core Disciplines in Jesuit Higher Education
Friday, Nov 21, 2025 - Saturday, Nov 22, 2025 | Burns Library| Please Register to Attend
Event Overview
The importance of teaching philosophy hasbeencultivated atJesuit institutions of higher educationsince the inception of the genera enterprise. This conference brings together scholars and administrators to reflect on how thedisciplines contributesto the mission of those institutions. Key questions for exploration thus include: What role has philosophy had in the history of Jesuit institutions of higher education?How have we and how should we think about its relation with theology, which has long been thought its first and best partner?What have been the salient changes of the role of these disciplines, as well as the causes and consequences of these changes, in the history of these institutions? Finally, what do the answers to these questions tell us about how best to proceed in the future? By addressing these questions, the conference and its participants aim to contribute to an on-going conversation about how to foster the core of Jesuit higher education.
Friday - November 21 | Burns Library, Thompson Room |Please to Attend | |
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2:30-4:00 PM | TalkCristiano Casalini and Greg Kalscheur, S.J., Boston College.
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Saturday - November 22 | Burns Library, Irish Room | Pleaseto Attend | |
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9:00-10:30 AM | Morning Sessions
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11:00-12:30PM | After Break Sessions
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2:00-4:30 PM | Afternoon Sessions
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5:00PM | Mass| St. Ignatius Church |

Gregory Kalscheur, S.J.
Gregory Kalscheur, S.J. has served as the Dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences since 2015. In addition to this role, he holds faculty appointments as a professor in both the Boston College Law School and the Political Science Department. Father Kalscheur’s primary teaching and research interests include law and religion, constitutional law, Catholic social thought and the law, and the contributions of Ignatian spirituality and the Catholic intellectual tradition to the character of Jesuit higher education. As dean, he has earned praise from faculty for his work on the Core Curriculum renewal, faculty engagement, mentoring, and academic planning, and from students for his accessibility, guidance, and ongoing commitment to student formation.

Cristiano Casalini
Cristiano Casalini is a Professor at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, where he holds the Chair in Jesuit Pedagogy and Educational History. He was recently appointed Academic Director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, where he has served as a Research Scholar for the past ten years. His scholarship focuses on Jesuit education and the history of Jesuit philosophy. On the latter, he is the author of Aristotle in Coimbra: The Cursus Conimbricensis and the Education at the College of Arts (Routledge, 2017) and editor of Jesuit Philosophy on the Eve of Modernity (Brill, 2019).

Brenna Moore
Brenna Moore is Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department at Fordham University. She is the author of Sacred Dread: Raïssa Maritain, the Allure of Suffering, and the French Catholic Revival (1905–1945) and Kindred Spirits: Friendship and Resistance at the Edges of Modern Catholicism. Her most recent book is Mutuality in El Barrio (co-authored with CareyKasten). She also completed a co-authored research project for the IAJU with Gabrielle Bibeau and Pep Marí, SJ, titled The Art of Encounter: Experiments for Engaging Religious Diversity and Secularization in Jesuit Higher Education.

Joseph Corabi
Joseph Corabi is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Saint Joseph’s University. His research focus is on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion. His publications include "The Evidential Weight of Social Evil," "Superintelligence as Moral Philosopher,” and “Intelligent Design and Theodicy.”

Jennifer M. Sanders
Jennifer M. Sanders is the Mooney Professor in Catholic Studies at Saint Louis University. She teaches courses including Catholic Imagination, Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and the Good Life, and The Question of Suffering and Evil in Catholic Thought. She earned her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College in 2017, following a M.A. in Philosophy in 2009 and a B.A. in Philosophy from Boston College. Her recent work includes “Stonecatchers: Imagining Forgiveness,” “The Cross and/as Civil Resistance,” and “Imitating the Divine Interruption of Deteriorating Human Conversations: Speaking the Gospel in a New Language.”

Christopher Krall, S.J.
Christopher Krall, S.J, is an assistant professor of theology and neuroscience at Creighton University. He has a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary research of systematic theology and neuroscience from Marquette University. The title of his dissertation is “The Human Person Fully Alive: The Transformation of the Body, Brain, Mind, and Soul of Humanity in the Encounter with the Divinity.”

Brian Treanor
Brian Treanor is professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, with affiliate appointments in Environmental Studies and Irish Studies. Broadly speaking, he is interested in environmental philosophy, ethics, and philosophy of religion; however, like poet Les Murray, he is “only interested in everything.” Treanor is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Melancholic Joy (Bloomsbury 2021), Philosophy in the American West (Routledge 2020), Carnal Hermeneutics (Fordham 2015), Emplotting Virtue (SUNY 2014), Interpreting Nature (Fordham 2013), and Aspects of Alterity (Fordham 2006). He is currently at work on a monograph addressing the meaning and experience of “nature” and “wilderness,” as well as a number of other “public-facing” essays and a Substack newsletter: Wild Life.

Fr. Martin Connell, S.J.
Fr. Martin Connell, S.J., is Dean of Arrupe College, Loyola University Chicago’s associate’s degree program designed for first-generation students. He has served in leadership and teaching roles in the United States and East Africa. After graduating from Loyola, Fr. Connell went on to earn an MA from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto and an MDiv and STL from the Jesuit School of Theology. He was ordained in 1994 before earning his PhD in teaching and learning from the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara.

Erick Berrelleza, S.J.
Erick Berrelleza, S.J., was named founding dean of Messina College of Boston College. Father Berrelleza received a B.A. in philosophy from Loyola Marymount University, an M.Div. degree in theology and ministry from Boston College, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston University. He previously served as a visiting scholar in BC’s Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and as an assistant professor of sociology at Santa Clara University.
Campus Map and Parking:
Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.
Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).