Dr. David Hollenbach, S.J., to Address Ohio Dominican Spring Graduates

March 14 , 2007

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Ohio Dominican University will hold its 87th commencement exercise at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 12, 2007.  The University will confer degrees on approximately 380 graduates, joined by hundreds of family and friends on the Oval in front of Erskine Hall on Ohio Dominican’s main campus, 1216 Sunbury Road.  (In the event of rain, commencement activities will take place across the street in Alumni Hall, directly west of Sunbury Road.)

On Friday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m., the traditional hooding ceremony will take place at the Baccalaureate Mass in Alumni Hall. The homily will be delivered by the Most Reverend Frederick F. Campbell, Bishop of the Diocese of Columbus.

David Hollenbach, S.J., Professor of Theology at Boston College, will address graduates at commencement. During the ceremony, the University will confer an honorary degree, Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, on Dr. Hollenbach.

Dr. Hollenbach is the Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College as well as the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Professor of Catholic Theology. He teaches theological ethics and Christian social ethics.  His research interests are in the foundations of Christian social ethics, particularly in the areas of the human rights, theory of justice, the common good, and the role of religion in social and political life. A prolific author, his most recent book is The Global Face of Public Faith: Politics, Human Rights, and Christian Ethics (Georgetown University Press, 2003). 

Before coming to Boston College, Hollenbach taught at Georgetown University and at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. He has been a visiting professor of Social Ethics at Hekima College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, and at the Jesuit Philosophy Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In 1990, he conducted the annual Winter School of Theology in six cities in Southern Africa, sponsored by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Southern Africa.           

Hollenbach is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Religious Ethics and the steering committee of the Consultation of Religion and Human Rights of the American Academy of Religion. He served as President of the Society of Christian Ethics (1995-1996) and on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America (1982-84). He assisted the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in drafting their 1986 pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 

In 1979 he received a Walsh-Price Fellowship for travel in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt to do research on religion and human rights in the Middle East.  In June, 1998, Hollenbach received the John Courtney Murray Award for outstanding contributions to theology from the Catholic Theological Society of America.

Hollenbach holds a B.S. in Physics from St. Joseph's University; an M.A. and Ph.L. in Philosophy from St. Louis University; and a Ph. D. in Religious Ethics from Yale University.