PhD Admissions Panel Hosted by DSPT

On Tuesday, February 6, the newly-formed DSPT Academic Group hosted a GTU-wide PhD Admissions Panel. The panel consisted of Joseph Duggan, Associate Dean of the Graduate Division for Degrees, Admissions, and Appointments at UC-Berkeley, Kathleen Kook, Assistant Dean for Admissions at the GTU, and John Campbell, Professor of Philosophy at UC-Berkeley. The panel opened with an introduction by Elissa McCormack, ASDSPT President, followed by short talks by each of the panel participants and ending with time for questions.

All of the panel participants spoke about the general admissions process for doctoral programs, emphasizing that students should take the time to really consider if a PhD is what they want to do. Since PhD programs are, on average, a seven-year commitment, students interested in doing a PhD should think long and hard about whether or not this is really what they want to do. The panel participants all also gave GTU students some great tips about how to best put together their applications, like asking a professor in advance if they would be able to write a good letter of recommendation for you, remembering to rewrite your writing sample to incorporate the comments of your professor, and trying not to worry about the aspects of your application that are not under your control and focusing on the ones that are (like the personal statement and writing sample). Another important suggestion, reiterated by all the participants, was to ask professors about what programs would be best for your interests and to not be afraid to contact the departments and the faculty at these schools directly.

The DSPT Academic Group was formed in the fall of 2006 by a group of students who are all interested in pursuing PhD work after finishing at DSPT. Although the group is currently in a fluid form, the students who attended the PhD Admissions Panel will all be asked about their preferences about how such a group could best support them both during their M.A. and through the PhD application process. The Academic Group hopes to become a permanent presence at the GTU, run by students at DSPT since more of the lay DSPT students seem to be interested in academics in comparison to the large percentages of ministry-focused students at the other GTU schools.

-- Elissa McCormack

United Nations International Day of Peace

Today united with brothers and sisters around the world, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology re-dedicates itself to work for justice and peace. Key to promoting a culture of peace is cooperation, collaboration and dialogue among faith traditions.

Pope Benedict XVI calls us to this important mission stating that peace results only from witnessing to and working in Truth:

[We] must realize that peace cannot be reduced to the simple absence of armed conflict, but needs to be understood as ''the fruit of an order which has been planted in human society by its divine Founder'', an order ''which must be brought about by humanity in its thirst for ever more perfect justice''. As the result of an order planned and willed by the love of God, peace has an intrinsic and invincible truth of its own, and corresponds ''to an irrepressible yearning and hope dwelling within us''. (2006 World Day of Peace http://www.vatican.va).

Pope Benedict urges scholars and pastors to engage in “frank and sincere dialogue with great mutual respect” (Vatican News September 20, 2006).

The Muslim community responds favorably to the call for dialogue. It remains committed to a renewed engagement that will help us heal a world torn apart by hatred and violence.

We reject and decry all violence committed by Muslims against Christian and Catholic individuals and institutions. Such violence is sinful and unlawful. We urge Muslim authorities to increase their protection of Christians and their houses of worship, and to prosecute anyone who commits such acts of violence.

Muslim Americans welcome the gestures of friendship and understanding that have been made by their Catholic friends and colleagues, and express our sincere interest in continuing our dialogue with the Catholic Church to build the bridges of understanding between us. (Islamic Society of North America http://www.isna.net).

Though recent events have been a great test for our faith communities, Muslims and Catholics in a spirit of solidarity will join together to keep the Ramadan fast and pray for peace. (http://www.masnet.org).

The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology offers information about interfaith dialogue and related local events. Postings will appear on our website throughout the coming weeks.

From the Spring 2006 GTU Currents Newsletter - Students Speak

Three students from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology talk about their experience at the Graduate Theological Union.

CHRISTOPHER FADOK, O. P.

The Graduate Theological Union's connection to UC Berkeley is huge.I took a graduate-level class there on the nature of consciousness with world-renowned philosopher John Searle. One of my Dominican brothers and I were the only two enrolled from the GTU. I remember one Berkeley student asking us about St. Augustine and the nature of the soul, and how that would relate to issues in the philosophy of mind. It was an opportunity to make critical and creative dialogue happen, and participate in broader conversations about philosophical issues.

LAWRENCE KING

The most important thing is to not lose sight of the reason why you've come here. Most of us arrive with some specific goal, something important that's related to the outside world-to evangelize or to do social work or to reach out to people who aren't certain about their beliefs. In addition to questions of abstract theology, I try to remember the real people whose lives-physical and intellectual-are impacted by these teachings.

COLLEEN POWER

Studying here has given me the tools to talk with others in an open and responsive way, particularly those outside of the GTU. People hear that you're studying theology and they want to talk about it. Perfect strangers, on an airplane or on the street, often engage me in in-depth conversations about theology and life in general. They ask amazing questions. These discussions bridge gaps between my own understanding and faith with other points of view, and they give us a chance to say to each other, "This is what I believe."

Congratulations to the New DSPT Graduates!

Read Andre Delbecq's Commencement Address here or Br. Christopher Fadok's Commencement Address here.

Certificate of Theological Studies
Claire Norris and Chun Soeb Lee, S.D.B.

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
Karl Lupe Gonzalez, O.P., Mark Francis Manzano, O.P., Tammylee Aw Ngo, O.F.M. Conv., James Phan, O.F.M. Conv., Maria Erica Robles, V.D.M.F., Douglas Speigel, O.F.M. Conv., and Lois Vander Wende-Williams

Master of Divinity
Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P., Patrick L. Havel, Claire Thérèse Heyne, and Chinh D. Nguyen, S.D.B.

Master of Arts (Philosophy)
Newell (Duke) I. Cutter III - “Nietzsche’s Moral Paradigms”
Christopher Paul Fadok, O.P. (With Honors) - “Looking Forward to the Past: A Plea for Thomistic Intervention in the Philosophy of Mind”

Master of Arts (Theology)
Research Emphasis
Patrick M. Finn - “Liberation from a Paradigm of Conditional Love in the Transformative Dark Night According to St. John of the Cross”
Charlotte Ann Greer, F.M.A. - “Mystical Life: The Heart of Feminine Salesian Spirituality as Experienced by Mother Rosetta Marchese, F.M.A.”
Project Emphasis
Carrie L. Skinner
Bonnie L. Soong - “Recovering Affability as a Contemporary Virtue”Integral EmphasisAnthony Richard Garcias, O.P.

Master of Arts (Philosophy ) & Master of Arts (Theology) - Concurrent Degree
Zachary J. Foreman - “Confronting Terrorism Justly: A Retrieval of the Just War Tradition and an Application to International Terrorism”

Degrees Conferred by the Graduate Theological Union in cooperation with the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

GTU Master of Arts
Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P. (With Honors) - “The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes of Grace:Thomas Aquinas and the Post-Modern Theology of Louis-Marie Chauvet”
Christine Louise Gutleben - “Intentional Eucharistic Food Choices”
Phillip Jeffrey Guilbeau - “Our Lady the Fleming: Late Medieval Northern European Devotional Trends and Iconographical Motives in Sixteenth-Century New Spain”

Monsignor Bernard J. Moran

Dear DSPT community:

I wish to announce the death of Monsignor Bernard J. Moran in Oakland, April 21, 2006. Your prayers are requested for the repose of his soul and for the intentions of his family.

Monsignor Moran was not only a friend of the Dominicans during his long service in the Diocese of Oakland but, because of that great service to the church in Oakland, he was also honored by the Dominican School as an Alemany Award recipient for his many years of Catholic service.

Monsignor was a priest for 53 years having been ordained in San Francisco January 24, 1953. His assignments included: St. Anne Church in SF; St. Paschal Church and St. Isadore Church in Oakland; St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley; St. Raymond in Dublin and St. Theresa in Oakland. Monsignor also served as director of Catholic Cemeteries for the Diocese of Oakland.

In addition to their request for prayers from the DSPT community, Monsignor's family invite you to visit at St. Theresa Church, 30 Mandalay Rd, Oakland on Wednesday (today) after 2:30 PM, where the Vigil Service will be at 7:00 PM (tonight). All are also invited to the concelebrated Funeral Mass on Thursday, April 27th, at 10:30AM (also at St. Theresa's), followed by a reception in the parish hall, and then committal in St. Mary's Cemetery.

Scott Connolly

Vice President of Administration and Student Services

An Assessment of the “Gospel of Judas”

by Fr. Gregory Tatum, OP (Assistant Professor of New Testament)

The Press has raised a great hue and cry about the newly discovered “Gospel of Judas.” There is talk of the Church conspiring to hide the truth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Gospel of Judas was written by a tiny fringe group of Gnostics in the second century who rejected the God of Jews and Christians. Gnosticism was a religious movement that thrived in the second and third centuries. It set itself apart from the traditional religions of the Roman Empire as well as from Judaism and Christianity by proposing a secret knowledge (in Greek, gnosis,) which was available only to an elite few. They generally believed that the physical world and particularly the human body were evil, created by a rebellious minor aeon, or divine being. Seeing the popularity of Christianity, many Gnostics associated this evil creator with the God of Jews and Christians. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church taught that the physical world and the human body are good, because created by the good and only God, and that the human body is especially holy because God became a human being in Jesus Christ.

Irenaeus of Lyons (circa CE 180) mentions the “Gospel of Judas” when he finishes his tour of contemporary Gnosticism in his book Against Heresies. Irenaeus’ analysis of Gnosticism has been borne out by the truly significant discovery of the Nag Hammadi library. After surveying the larger groups of Gnostics, Irenaeus mentions a tiny fringe group who venerate Cain and other “bad guys” in the Jewish Scriptures because they would not worship what they considered to be the minor god who created the evil physical universe. Irenaeus writes:

Still others say that Cain came from the Absolute Sovereignty above, and Esau, Korah, and the men of Sodom, along with every person of this sort, have the same origin. They were hated by the Creator because though attacked they suffered no harm, for Sophia took to herself what was her own in them. The traitor Judas was the only one of the apostles who possessed this knowledge (cf. John 13:27). For this reason he brought about the mystery of the betrayal; through him all things on earth and in heaven were destroyed. They provide a work to this effect called the “Gospel of Judas.” (Against Heresies, 1.31.1)

The “Gospel of Judas” was thus written by a group of second century Gnostics who rejected the Creator God. This group attempted to co-opt Jesus away from the Catholic Church for Gnosticism. Jesus is portrayed teaching typically Gnostic doctrines, e.g. the imprisonment of the soul in the flesh, the multiplicity of divine aeons, the creation of the world as an act of rebellion by a lesser aeon (namely, the God of Jews and Christians). Judas is portrayed as the true Gnostic who liberates Jesus from his physical body and who is rejected by the Catholic Church, represented by the Twelve Apostles, who worship “their God,” the rebellious aeon who created the evil, physical cosmos. The anti-Christian character of the “Gospel of Judas” is further shown by its portrayal of Jesus as mocking the Eucharist and vilifying the Church’s ministry. What little Christian veneer the “Gospel of Judas” has is taken from the four canonical Gospels, albeit in garbled Gnostic form. Irenaeus of Lyons quite accurately describes the “Gospel of Judas.” It was neither secret nor hidden; it simply did not excite sufficient interest to be copied very often because it was written by a tiny fringe group.

An English translation of this work is available in PDF format on the National Geographic website. The website also provides a history of the badly damaged third century manuscript that can be identified as a Coptic translation of the second century Greek “Gospel of Judas” mentioned by Irenaeus. The talk of the Church conspiring to hide the truth is nonsense. The Catholic Church has played no role at all in the entire affair. Indeed, the manuscript was lost and hidden and is so badly damaged because of the greediness of antiquity dealers. The Church has played no role other than to authenticate the document by the public description in Irenaeus’ work.

I invite anyone who is interested to read the document itself before reading the historically uninformed sensationalism of journalists. Then one can clearly see that the “Gospel of Judas” cannot stand up as a Gospel in comparison with any one of the canonical four. The “Gospel of Judas” was clearly derived from and written in relation to existing Christian traditions about Jesus; and the canonical Gospels’ portraits of Jesus simply could not have developed from the portrait of Jesus in the “Gospel of Judas.” The document illustrates second and third century Gnosticism, but it has nothing to do with the historical Jesus.

Fr. Gregory writes from the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, where he has spent the last semester doing research. He will teach the Johannine corpus and the Pauline corpus in the fall.

Discover Tenebrae this Holy Week!

by Boniface Willard, OP (originally printed in the Arch & Vine)

Tenebrae will be celebrated at St. Albert’s Priory the mornings of the Triduum at 7:00am. All are invited to join the Dominicans in this prayer.

From the Latin word for “darkness,” Tenebrae is the term given to the liturgical office of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday as it was observed prior to the 1955 reform of Holy Week by Pope Pius XII. Dominicans have continued to pray Tenebrae each year as a particular tradition of our Order.

Tenebrae has roots as early as the 7th century, when those celebrating the Office would do so in almost complete darkness – the only light coming from a large candelabra, called a hearse. While the number of candles on the hearse has varied, today there are usually fifteen tapers.

Although there have been many changes, the contemporary Office of Tenebrae retains many traces of the ancient rite. There is no introductory verse or Invitatory, and the “Glory to…” after each psalm and canticle is omitted. After each psalm or canticle, a set of candles is extinguished – symbolizing the Apostles’ desertion in the Garden of Olives – until there is only one left, the so-called Christ candle. During the singing of the Benedictus, this candle is not extinguished but is carried out of the Church, symbolizing Christ’s death and burial.

The psalms are punctuated by three lessons taken from the Book of Lamentations: a collection of poems which grieve over the Babylonian destruction, in 587 BC, of the temple in Jerusalem and the ruin of the people of Israel. By describing the horrible situation which they now endure, the poems exhort the Israelites to mourn for having turned away from God to worship foreign, pagan gods. Each stanza begins with a Hebrew letter. When the Hebrew alphabet is used this way, it is able to express completeness or fullness; here, the complete and full desolation of Israel. The great “Prayer of Jeremiah,” which ends Tenebrae on Saturday, is a plea to God to relent in punishment and rescue the people, despite what they have done.

One cannot take part in these prayers without being impressed by their simple dignity and majesty. Today, we can make these psalms and lamentations our own. As we pray them, we can seek pardon for our sins, as well as the sins of the whole world. We can reflect on any of the ways in which we have turned away from being “the image and likeness of God.