Mon/Wed/Fri

Instructor:  Prof. Peter Feldmeier

This course will consider the diverse forms of religious authority within Christianity, with special attention to issues related to the authority of the Bible.  We will look into the history of the creation of the canon and how the relationship between Bible and Christian tradition developed.  We will also investigate different Christian perspectives on the Bible and the various ways the Bible operates as authoritative in those Christian communities.  We will also investigate and assess various interpretive strategies and discuss their respective utility.  Finally, we will look at how the biblical text can be used to transform one’s Christian consciousness.

Mon/Wed/Fri

Instructor:  Prof. Peter Feldmeier

This course is designed to investigate the theology of Christian marriage, understood as a covenant relationship and as sacrament, that is, an effective sign of God’s love in our world.  Students will also examine contemporary data from the social sciences and cultural attitudes toward sexuality, marriage, and the family in light of Christian theology.

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.