Faith and Belief Beyond Modernity

John A. Dick, PhD, STD (Sacrae Theologiae Doctor) will give a talk on Faith and Belief Beyond Modernity at Dominican Center at Marywood (DCM). We at DCM are delighted and honored to have the opportunity to host Dr. Dick here in Grand Rapids. 

The program date and time are Tuesday, October 15, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the  Dominican Chapel at Marywood (2025 Fulton Street East, Grand Rapids, MI 49503) -- click on map at right to enlarge.

THE PROGRAM

When we do theology we necessarily express ourselves in the symbols, words and rituals that are products of our culture. In fact all of our concepts and our experiential interpretations are shaped and influenced to a great extent by the culture and the language out of which they emerge.

There is no theology without culture; but there can be a culture without theology. This of course is the situation in which many people find themselves today: in a theological desert. The process has been ongoing for some time; and therefore, my concern about faith and belief beyond
modernity.

Today we need to find a way to articulate the human experience of the Divine that reduces it neither to the extreme secularity of the post-theistic theologians nor to the unthinking and closed-minded certitude of the hypertheistic.

We need to find a way to understand the positive, substantive and normative meaning of transcendence as it makes a claim on human beings within contemporary historical existence—within contemporary culture. We need to find a new theological language.
 

THE PRESENTER

Born in Lawrence, Michigan and married 43 years, Dr. Dick is a  US citizen living in Belgium for more than thirty years. He has one son who works at the US Embasy in Brussels, Belgium. Before going back to Belgium in 1983, he was a part-time instructor at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids and Nazareth College, Kalamazoo and actively engaged in catechetical ministry in Kalamazoo.

John is a non-ordained graduate of Sacred Heart Seminary high school and college in Detroit. His postgraduate education was in Louvain and Nijmegen, greatly influenced by Edward Schillebeeckx who directed his STL in Nijmegen. He has two doctorates, magna cum laude, from University of Louvain: one in Religious Studies (PhD) and the second (STD) in historical theology.

Before retiring, five years ago, (the law was then mandated retirement at age 65!)  from the University of Louvain he held a number of academic teaching and administrative positions: Titularis for the Chair for the Study of Religion and Values in American Society, Professor of Religion and Catholicism in the United States, Director of Research and Program Development in the Louvain University Center for Christian Ethics, and professor and Academic Dean at the American College, Catholic University of Louvain. For twenty years, in the summers he was also visiting professor of historical theology at St. Michael's College in Vermont or Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.  John is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion and Values in American Society at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

Among books he has written or edited are: The Malines Conversations Revisited, and a three-volume philosophical series, Tradition and Renewal. Other of several of his most recent book (May 2013) is Aggiornamento? Catholicism from Gregory XVI to Benedict XVI. And he is currently working on Paul’s Man in Washington (Expected publication date summer 2014.) about Archbishop Jean Jadot former Apostolic Delegate to the United States.

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