DEAN’S MESSAGE In this issue of the Bridge, we peek into the worlds of our two endowed
chairs, Dr. Thomas Cattoi and Dr. Mia Mochizuki. Earlier this year I had the privilege of attending the inauguration of a new chair at a fellow Jesuit institution. My sister, Eileen Burke-Sullivan, S.T.D., was named the inaugural holder of the Barbara Reardon Heaney Chair in Pastoral Liturgical Theology. There I learned about the critical role of academic chairs in the life cycle of a university; how they uniquely link past, present and future; how they embody crucial partnerships between the worlds of scholarship, philanthropy, and faith. The donor of the chair expressed his belief in the importance of theology. Indeed, it is important and you, the friends of the Jesuit School of Theology ( JST), understand the unique value of this discipline and its impact on the spiritual and pastoral formation of our students — men and women from all over the world who come to Berkeley in order to return to their home towns, provinces, religious communities, and countries of origin to serve the Kingdom of God in a thousand different ways. At JST, we are privileged to host the Dwan Family Endowed Chair in Interreligious and Ecumenical Dialogue and to co-host (with the Graduate Theological Union) the Thomas E. Bertelsen, Jr. Chair in Art History and Religion. The enormous generosity and theological vision of our friends, John Schubert and the Dwan family, and Thomas Bertelsen, has brought to our school two brilliant scholars, Dr. Thomas Cattoi and Dr. Mia Mochizuki. In both cases, the donors of these chairs identified crucial places where theology meets the world we live in: the space where different religious traditions find and share what they know of God’s ways with us, on the one hand, and the intersection of art, imagination, religion, and theology, on the other. In both instances, our donors empowered us to meet the challenges placed before us by recent popes and Jesuit leaders to “go to the frontiers” and engage questions of faith in terms of the cultures that shape our languages and experiences of God. We are grateful to have this opportunity to remember and thank those who make it possible for Thomas and Mia to offer the services they provide to the worlds of interreligious dialogue and theological aesthetics, to the theological formation of the next generation of religious leaders, and to the academy which benefits in countless ways from their scholarship. As JST moves forward with its strategic planning over the next few years, we will discern what other aspects of our mission are worthy of the honor and support that goes with the name, “endowed chair.” Kevin F. Burke, S.J. Dean
BRIDGE FALL 2011
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