Advisory Board

 

Catholic University Faculty

 

Marshall J. Breger

A Professor of Law at the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America, Dr. Breger has served as a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Solicitor of Labor, the chief lawyer of the Labor Department, and Acting Assistant Secretary for Labor Management Standards.  Additionally, Breger has acted as the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency, the Alternate Delegate of the U.S. to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, and Special Assistant to President Reagan and his liaison to the Jewish Community.  Breger is a contributing columnist to Moment magazine.  He has published as well in periodicals such as the Middle East Quarterly, The National Interest, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.   Breger is the editor of The Vatican-Israel Accord: Legal, Political, and Theological Issues (Notre Dame University Press, 2004); Public Policy and Social Issues: Jewish Sources and Perspectives (Praeger, 2003); and Jerusalem: A City and Its Future (with Ora Ahimeir)(Syracuse University Press, 2002).  With Thomas A. Idinopulos he is the author of Jerusalem’s Holy Places and the Peace Process (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998); and co-editor with David M. Gordis, of Vouchers for School Choice: Challenge or Opportunity? An American Jewish Reappraisal, (Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies, 1998).  Professor Breger holds a B.A. and an M.A from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.Phil. from Oriel College, Oxford University; and a J.D., magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.  Together with his wife, Jennifer, and two daughters, Sarah 18 and Esther 15, he lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

 

 

Charles B. Jones, Ph.D.

The founding executive director of the IISD, Dr. Jones received a Master of Theological Studies degree from the Divinity School of Duke University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia in 1996 with a specialty in Chinese Buddhism.  He has written numerous books and articles on Buddhism in Taiwan and the Pure Land School of Chinese Buddhism, and is writing a book on religious pluralism entitled Christianity in a World of Religious Diversity for Cowley Publications.  He lives in suburban Maryland with his wife Brenda, and son Trevor; his daughter Chenoa is grown.

 

James A. Wiseman, O.S.B.,

A Benedictine monk at St. Anselm's Abbey in Washington, DC, and an associate professor in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, where he served as a department chair for five years, James Wisman is also served as chair of the board of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue from 1994-1999 after having had a previous six-year term as a member of that board.  Since 1998 he has been editing the Bulletin of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which now appears on the Web (www.monasticdialog.com) as well as in a twice-yearly print edition. His work in interreligious dialogue has been largely in the area of Buddhist-Christian encounter.  This has taken him to Tibet, Japan, and India as well as to major dialogues in the United States, including two that were held at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky (1996 and 2002).  He was co-editor of the volumes that appeared in the aftermath of those two Gethsemani Encounters.  The first of these was published by Continuum in 1998 under the title The Gethsemani Encounter: A Dialogue on the Spiritual Life by Buddhist and Christian Monastics, while the latter was published by Doubleday in 2003 and was entitled Transforming Suffering: Reflections on Finding Peace in Troubled Times.  Fr. Wiseman also teaches courses in Christian spirituality, a field for which he has written numerous articles and co-edited an anthology of Christian mysticism: Light from Light (2nd ed., Paulist, 2001).  A third area of special interest to him is the dialogue between science and theology.  His book Theology and Modern Science: Quest for Coherence was published by Continuum in 2002.

 

Members of the Interreligious Study and Dialogue Community outside of the Catholic University

 

Mary Ann Cook, SND de Namur

The president of the Education + Parish + Service Foundation at Trinity College campus since 1991.  Founded as a special program of Trinity College in 1978, EPS has come to be regarded as a model for adult faith formation in the USA and beyond.  It offers Catholic women and men from a wide range of racial, cultural, occupational and socioeconomic backgrounds an opportunity to gain a solid intellectual and spiritual grounding in their faith, and equip them for volunteer service and leadership in their parishes, dioceses and civic communities.  She has been a lecturer for EPS programs in Washington, Northern Virginia and Connecticut, a member of the Provincial Leadership Team of the Maryland Province of the Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, and the Academic Dean of Trinity College as well as the Chair of the English Department there.  Her honors include Who’s Who of American Women, Millennium Edition, 2000-2001, a Vincent Pallotti Scholarship, American Council on Education Fellow, 1973-74 (Placement at Smith College, Northampton, MA), and Summer Fellowship, southeastern Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Duke University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill).  She has been the Chair of the Trinity College Board of Trustees and is currently the coordinator of the Notre Dame Lay Associates, Washington Chapter of the Maryland Province, a Delegate from the General Chapter, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and an occasional lectuer in parishes and other settings.  She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1954 and has been a participant in the national meetings of SND leadership from U.S. provinces.  She holds degrees in English language and literature and theology. 

 

Rev. John W. Crossin

Executive Director of the Washington Theological Consortium, Rev. Crossin was a Visiting Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in 1997-98 and was the president of the DeSales School of Theology in Washington from 1987 to 1997.  Father Crossin holds a doctorate in Moral Theology (1982) and Masters degrees in Roman Catholic Theology(1975) and in Psychology (1978) from the Catholic University of America.  His books are: What Are They Saying About Virtue (1985); Friendship: The Key to Spiritual Growth (1997), Walking in Virtue: Moral Decisions and Spiritual Growth in Daily Life (1998), and Everyday Virtues (2002).  He is a regular columnist for the Faith Alive series of the Catholic News Service.

 

Dr. J.G. Donders M.Afr.

A member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, Dr. Donders received his PhD at the Gregorian University (Rome) in 1961.  From 1962-1968 he was a Professor at several Seminaries in the Netherlands, and at the University of Tilburg (The Netherlands) and from 1968-1984 he served as Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the State University of Nairobi, Kenya and Chaplain to the Catholic Community.  Additionally, he has been a Visiting Professor at Catholic University, Executive Director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, Washington DC, Finian Kerwin OFM Chair of Mission and Cross-Cultural Studies at the Washington Theological Union, Emeritus Professor in Mission and Cross-cultural Studies, Washington Theological Union, and taught and lectured worldwide.  He is the author of many books, a.o. Jesus the Stranger (1979 US National Book Award, Inspirational), Non-bourgeois Theology; The Global Believer; Charged with the Spirit Mission is for Everyone; Praying and Preaching the Sunday Gospel; John Paul II, His Encyclicals in Everyday Language (Catholic National Press Book Award 1997); With Hearts on Fire, etc.  His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Korean, Indonesian, Polish, Italian and Swahili.  His scores of articles include Ministering in a Globalizing World: “The Challenge of Cross-Cultural Spirituality” in Handbook of Spirituality for Ministers and “The Consequences of the Choice of a Word: The Thick and Thin of Interreligious Dialogue” in Mission is a Must: Intercultural Theology and the Mission of the Church.

 

Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, O.S.M., Ph.D.

Professor of Social Ethics at the Catholic Theological Union, part of the ecumenical cluster of theological schools at the University of Chicago; Director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program in Catholic Theological Union’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center, Rev. Pawlikowski is a Priest of the Servite Order.  He is the author/editor of more than fifteen books including The Challenge Of The Holocaust for Christian Theology; Christ in the Light of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue, Jesus and the Theology of Israel (recently published in a Russian edition); Biblical and Theological Reflections on The Challenge of Peace, Justice in the Marketplace: Ctu’s Pastoral Commentary on the Bishops’ Letter on the Economy; The Ecological Challenge: Ethical, Liturgical and Spiritual Responses, Reinterpreting Revelation and Tradition: Jews and Christians in Conversation, Good and Evil after Auschwitz; and Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust.  He is a contributor to numerous edited volumes on issues related to the Holocaust and to Social Ethics, as well as a contributor to many journals.  He served for seven years as editor of the New Theology Review and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals concerned with social ethics and interreligious issues.  His writings have been translated into Russian, French, Polish, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Dutch and Hungarian.  Rev. Pawlikowski has been active for many years in numerous organizations that focus on social ethics, human rights, interfaith relations, genocide, and the Holocaust.  He has received honors from The American Jewish Committee, the Polish Council of Christians and Jews (Warsaw), the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Government of Poland, and Hebrew Union College among others.  He is currently at work on a book on the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis.  He frequently appearances on radio and television in the U.S. as well as in Canada, Australia, South Africa, Israel and on Vatican Radio.