Fordham Professor Appointed as New Theology Chair

By The Fordham Ram on February 12, 2014 • ( 0 )

By LAURA SANICOLA
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Hinze was honored for his scholarship, generosity and honesty, McShane said. (JOSHUA KIM/THE RAM )

Fordham professor Dr. Bradford E. Hinze was appointed as the newly installed Karl Rahner, S.J., Memorial Chair in Theology on Feb. 11. The chair, endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Bepler, was installed in honor of Karl Rahner, a German Jesuit Priest and one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. The ceremony took place in Tognino Hall in Duane Library at Rose Hill and was followed by Hinze’s inaugural lecture entitled “Karl Rahner’s Legacy as Chair and the Frontiers of Theology Today.”

Hinze is the current vice president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and is expected to become president in 2015. He previously served as president of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology from 2002-2008 and was president of the Catholic Theology Society from 2010-2012. Among his published works is Practices of Dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church: Aims and Obstacles, Lessons and Laments, a 2006 novel that discusses the influence of Vatican II on the development of participatory structures of governance in the Church.

In his lecture, Hinze reflected on Rahner’s life works, his theological relations with his contemporaries and his struggle to engage the community in an evolving Christian faith.

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, spoke briefly before the lecture on why it had been decided that Dr. Hinze was an appropriate holder of the chair.

“Brad is an accomplished scholar, a great mentor to our students, undergraduate and grad, deeply committed to the church,
said McShane. “Most of all, he is marked by generosity of spirit and honesty of heart.”

Stephen Bepler, FCRH ’64 and his wife Kim have contributed to many Fordham University scholarship funds and improvements to the physical campus. They also have supported renovations to University Church and the installation of the new Maior Dei Gloria organ. In 2007, they received the Fordham Founder’s Award and co-chaired the Campaign Planning Committee.

“[The Beplers] are ideal citizens of the university,” said McShane. “They are a couple who lives to be generous.”

At the end of Hinze’s lecture, an audience member asked what Hinze thought the biggest challenge is in bringing the university and outside community together.

“I’ve often said to my students when we get involved in service learning in neighborhood, ‘We need to move out in the neighborhood to get rid of awkwardness and apprehension and to get to know people,’” he answered. “Well-educated solidarity begins with moving out into the community and building bonds of relationships — that is our greatest challenge.”

The ceremony ended on a lighthearted note, when Sandra Lobo Jost, president of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and director of the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice, bestowed a final gift to Dr. Hinze.

“Since you so humbly told us earlier that tonight you would be ‘getting a chair,’ we would like to bestow this to you,” she said, pulling a wooden black chair before the audience.

A reception followed the ceremony and lecture in Tognino Hall.