Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo

Catholic Studies at The University of Toledo
2008 Spring Course Offerings
Christian Ethical Perspectives (REL 3420)
1/08/2008 - 4/24/2008	Tuesdays / Thursdays	11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.	Rocket Hall 1541
This course explores a variety of issues related to the ethical perspectives of the Christian heritage. The first half of this course will study the place of fundamental moral concepts including: freedom, conscience, sin and grace. Attention will also be given to the ways in which scripture, tradition, reason, experience and notions of natural law are appealed to for criteria to be used in moral decision-making. The second half of the course will consider applied ethics: 1) Christian sexual ethics with an extended consideration of the issue of homosexuality and 2) Christian social ethics with an extended consideration of the question of just war and Christian pacifism.
Mystery, Morality and the Monstrous: The Writing of Annie Dillard and Flannery O'Connor (HON 4960)
1/08/2008 - 4/24/2008	Tuesdays / Thursdays	2:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.	Sullivan Hall 1030
This course is closed and is not available for continuing education credit.
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Online Registration
Register now for one or both of the courses in Catholic studies offered by Dr. Richard Gaillardetz by utilizing the myUT online portal.
The Thomas & Margaret Murray and James J. Bacik Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies
Richard R. Gaillardetz, Ph.D.
Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz currently holds the Margaret and Thomas Murray and James J. Bacik Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. This chair became fully endowed in 2001. After receiving both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in Systematic Theology, from 1991 to 2001 Dr. Gaillardetz taught as an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Theology in Houston, Texas. He has published numerous articles and authored six books while co-editing a seventh. Dr. Gaillardetz was a Catholic delegate on the U.S. Catholic—Methodist dialogue, 2000-2005. He was recently elected (2006-8) to the Board of Directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He is a past recipient of the Sophia Award (2000), offered annually by the faculty of the Washington Theological Union in Washington D.C. in recognition of a theologian’s contributions to the life of the church. He has received numerous awards from the Catholic Press Association for articles he has written and is a popular speaker at theological and pastoral conferences (click on speaking schedule for his current speaking commitments). He is married to Diana Gaillardetz and they are the parents of four young boys: David, Andrew, Brian and Gregory.
History
On June 30, 2000, University of Toledo officials and Toledo Bishop James R. Hoffman signed an agreement to expand an existing professorship into the first fully funded chair in religious studies in UT's 128-year history, naming it the Margaret and Thomas Murray and James J. Bacik Chair in Catholic Studies. It evolved from an existing professorship established in 1992, the Thomas and Margaret Murray Professorship in Catholic Thought. That professorship was launched with a starting endowment of $450,000 in private contributions, $250,000 of it a gift of Sandusky attorney Thomas Murray and his wife, Ann. It was named in honor of Murray's parents, the late Thomas and Margaret Cummings Murray. The chair became a reality largely through the growth of the original gift and a new donation of $600,000 from the Lovell Foundation. That foundation was established in memory of Toledoan David Lovell, who founded the former Coulton Chemical Co. Lovell died in 1993. His widow, Lura Lovell, chairs the foundation and was on hand for the ceremonies marking the agreement between the diocese and UT. Although not a first nationally, the new UT chair is one of just a handful of similar professorships or chairs in Catholic studies at public universities around the country. While the chair is in Catholic studies, the university does the hiring and controls the endowment. The agreement between the diocese and the university stipulates that the money from the combined Murray and Lovell Foundation fund established by the diocese is to be held in an endowment by the University of Toledo Foundation. The principal is to be kept intact and re-invested. According to UT guidelines, up to 5.25 percent of the fund may be used for salary, benefits and related compensation for the professor who holds the chair.		At the June 30, 2000 gathering marking the establishment of the newly endowed Chair in Catholic Studies are: Most Rev. James R. Hoffman, sixth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo; JoDee Robertson, Lovell Foundation board member; Frank Jacobs, of Eastman & Smith; Jane Hartman, UT director of major and planned gifts; Lura Lovell, president of the Lovell Foundation; William Decatur, interim president of the University of Toledo (2000-2001); and Rev. James Bacik, pastor of Corpus Christi University Parish.