At Fordham, I am teaching a course this fall called “Evangelization: Faith and Culture.” As I have been finalizing the syllabus, I am making room to include Pope Francis’ visit to the USA in our theological study of evangelization.
I am assuming the media will be aswarm with coverage during 22-27 September, and it will be especially intense here in New York City, where Francis will be making a stop. Much of what we discuss in class over the semester will be, I imagine, crystallized in a few days during his visit, and I am anticipating a terrific opportunity to make of this cultural event an occasion for learning together in the classroom.
This part of the class will be linked, of course, to how I am planning to lay out a provisional frame for studying evangelization and to where I encourage our studies to go with it afterward, and will be significantly shaped by students’ thinking about and experience with evangelization.
I might say more about the framing of evangelization later — but for now in terms of resources that will accessibly raise some relevant matters for graduate students, I am planning on using Leonardo Boff’s recent book Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi: A New Springtime for the Church, translated by Dinah Livingstone (Orbis, 2014). The book thoughtfully and engagingly plays the two Francises off of each other in terms of their capacity for inspiring renewal regarding the mission and identity of the Christian churches in general and the Catholic Church in particular.
Boff takes quite seriously that Catholicism in many parts of the world faces challenges regarding membership, credibility, and social/moral relevance. He returns again and again to the sort of church that it is possible to imagine as responsive to the situation (as he well puts it: “What kind of church is in crisis?”), and how possibly to get there. I think this rather short and focused book will be a good traveling companion during the Pope’s visit and will open up matters that concern us all the way through the semester.
I wonder if there are other resources you might recommend that bear on the Pope’s visit that you might recommend to the APT community, whether for teaching or other purposes. Please feel free to reply and share– either on the blog our our Facebook page.
Tom Beaudoin, Fordham University
Associate Professor of Homiletics – Boston University School of Theology
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