War College, a new novel written by Thomas Barnico, tells the story of Jack Dunne, a student at an elite university who leaves campus to serve in the Vietnam War. War College depicts the various personal and political challenges faced by Dunne as he balances his duties as an Army intelligence officer with the anti-war sentiments of his friends back home. Barnico is a 1980 graduate of BC Law School and served as an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts for 30 years. He is a faculty member at BC Law, teaching the Attorney General Civil Litigation Program and Seminar and the Administrative Law Externship Seminar. More from BC Law Magazine.
A journey from campus to war and back
Posted in Alumni Authors, Boston College Authors
Tagged Boston College Law School, novel, war
Leave a comment
War, reinvented and endless
Legal scholar and historian Samuel Moyn will give a talk on his new book, Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/MacMillan, 2021), on November 10 at 7 p.m. (ET). His presentation will be in webinar format followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A. Humane explores the question: What if efforts to make war more ethical—to ban torture and limit civilian casualties—have only shored up the military enterprise and made it sturdier? Moyn looks back at more than a century of arguments about the ethics of using force and the post-9/11 shift of the U.S. Moyn contends that as American wars have become more humane, they have also become endless. Moyn is Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and a Professor of History at Yale University. His other publications include The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, Christian Human Rights, and Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. He also has written for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dissent, The Nation, The New Republic, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. Moyn’s appearance is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the International Studies Program and the Global Citizenships Project. Pre-registration is required.
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged foreign policy, International Studies, military
Leave a comment
Spiritual nourishment
Homilies in a New Key is a newly published collection of homilies by Boston College Professor Emeritus of Theology Harvey D. Egan, S.J., that rethink–creatively but in an orthodox way–significant aspects of Christianity. They are the product of Fr. Egan’s more than 60 years of Jesuit spirituality, philosophical-theological studies, graduate and undergraduate university teaching, scholarly research and publishing, as well as pastoral experience. The homilies, according to Fr. Egan, reflect years of prayerfully contemplating and thinking deeply about the great Christian heritage through the lens provided by the Second Vatican Council, the current state of biblical, historical, and theological scholarship—as well contemporary issues arising in American culture. Fr. Egan credits as inspiration the philosophical-theological thinking of Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan, the historical work of Bernard McGinn on the Christian mystical tradition, and the biblical scholarship of N. T. Wright. The homilies contained in Homilies in a New Key, focus on special liturgical feasts, on Jesus Christ, on spiritual topics, on the feasts of saints, and on special family occasions. Fr. Egan writes in the book’s introduction that these homilies may serve as guides for other homilists or for those who teach homiletics, adding “I sincerely pray that these homilies will help [the reader] to know Christ better, stir you to love him more deeply, and to follow him more closely.”
An environmental call to arms
Acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog, an alumnus of Boston College, presents four decades of his ground-breaking photography in the new book, The Human Element: A Time Capsule from the Anthropocene (Rizzoli, 2021). Balog has traveled well over a million miles from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and this volume presents 350 of his most iconic photographs, offering—literally—an unmatched view of the world. His photography and essays highlight that human needs, behaviors, and technologies are radically changing the nature of nature. The Human Element has been called Balog’s “magnum opus on the human impact on our planet” and “an environmental call to arms.” Balog writes: “In damaging nature, we are damaging ourselves. In protecting nature, we are protecting ourselves.” The Human Element features an essay by Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator emerita of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and foreword by James Fallows, longtime writer for the Atlantic and award-winning author. Balog is the author of eight books. His projects include the award-winning films “The Human Element” and “Chasing Ice,” and the Extreme Ice Survey, the most extensive photographic study of glaciers ever conducted.
Mystērion
Mystērion: The Theology Journal of Boston College is a newly launched undergraduate journal featuring essays by students from Boston College and beyond that address important—and difficult—theological questions. BC students Amanda Garza ’22, Paige McDonald ’23, Sean O’Neil ’23, and Connor Thomson ’23 all contributed to the inaugural issue, which explored the relationship of feminist theology to American religion, the historiography of the Salem Witch Trials, the role of prayer and language in the human experience, the Catholic Church’s evolving position on questions of church and state, and how comparative theology can help us better understand human suffering and liberation, among other topics. Senior Dennis J. Wieboldt III serves as the journal’s editor-in-chief and Walsh Professor of Bioethics Andrea Vicini, S.J., is the faculty advisor. Read more in BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors, Students
Tagged scholarship, theology, Theology Department
Leave a comment
Second chances
On her own after years in foster care, Cass Macklin finds herself broke, homeless, scared to death, and pregnant. Determined to build a stable life for herself and her child, Cass turns to the one person with the means to help her, the baby’s uncle—a professional baseball player with problems of his own. Cass is the protagonist in Catch Us When We Fall (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2021), the latest novel from bestselling author and Boston College graduate Juliette Fay. It is a story about second chances, redemption, and the power of hope. Fay’s previous novels, which have been translated into more than five languages, include Shelter Me, City of Flickering Light, and The Tumbling Turner Sisters, among others. Fay spoke with her hometown newspaper about Catch Us When We Fall.
Chicago takes center stage
Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance (Northwestern University Press, 2021) brings together leading historians to share the history of theater and performance in Chicago. Boston College Associate Professor of Theatre Stuart J. Hecht is one of the book’s co-editors, along with Megan E. Geigner (Northwestern University) and Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud (Seattle University). By putting space at the center of the city’s theater history, the essays in Makeshift Chicago Stages spotlight the roles of neighborhoods, racial dynamics, atypical venues, and borders as integral to understanding the work and aesthetics of Chicago’s artists, ensembles, and repertoires, which have influenced theater practices worldwide. Featuring rich archival work and oral histories, this anthology is a valuable resource for theater historians, as well as anyone interested in Chicago’s cultural heritage.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged American history, Chicago, Theatre Department, urban life
Leave a comment
Saint Teresa of Avila
An English translation of André Brouillette, S.J.’s revised and published dissertation has been released by Paulist Press. Teresa of Avila, the Holy Spirit, and the Place of Salvation looks at how the Spirit and salvation come together in the life and works of Saint Teresa of Avila. According to Fr. Brouillette, Saint Teresa—led by the Spirit—shows both humanity and the church what salvation looks like. Fr. Brouillette is an associate professor of systematic and spiritual theology at BC’s School of Theology and Ministry. He also is the author of the forthcoming book, The Pilgrim Paradigm: Faith in Motion.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Catholic, Jesuit author, saints, School of Theology and Ministry
Leave a comment
Dina Nayeri on the refugee experience
Dina Nayeri will give a reading from her acclaimed book, The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You (Catapult, 2019), on October 20 at 7 p.m. (ET). Her presentation will be in webinar format followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A. At age eight, Nayeri and her mother and brother fled Iran and lived in an Italian hotel-turned–refugee camp. Ultimately, she was granted asylum in the United States and settled in Oklahoma. In The Ungrateful Refugee, Nayeri weaves together her own story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers to shed light on what it is to be a refugee, to grapple with your place in society, attempting to reconcile the life you have known with a new, unfamiliar home. All this while bearing the burden of gratitude in your host nation. Nayeri is also the author of the novels A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea and Refuge. Her stories and essays have been published by The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, Granta New Voices, and Wall Street Journal. Nayeri’s appearance is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Fiction Days Series and the English Department. Pre-registration is required.
The Cross in Dialogue with Other Religions
The central Christian belief in salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ remains one of the most intractable mysteries of Christian faith. One of the important challenges for contemporary Christian theology involves exploring new ways of understanding the salvific meaning of the cross. Newton College Alumnae Professor of Western Culture Catherine Cornille has edited a new book that brings together Christian theologians with expertise in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and African religions to reflect on how engagement with these traditions sheds new light on the Christian understanding of atonement. In Atonement and Comparative Theology: The Cross in Dialogue with Other Religions (Fordham University Press, 2021), contributors illustrate the possibilities for comparative theology to deepen and enrich Christian theological reflection. Boston College graduate Bede Benjamin Bidlack, an associate professor of theology at Saint Anselm College is one of the book’s contributors.
BC Bookmarks 