By
Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor of Historical Theology Khaled Anatolios has been selected as one of only seven Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2011-2012.
The Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology program supports the research of leading scholars in theological studies whose projects offer significant and innovative contributions to the church and the general public.
“I was thrilled to get the phone call that I had been awarded this fellowship,” said Anatolios. “I love teaching, but this fellowship will afford me the opportunity to conduct serious and rigorous scholarship that can be shared with other scholars.”
The fellows will engage in year-long research and then gather at the annual Luce Fellow Conference, where they will present their findings for publication and discuss with current and past Luce Fellows how their work may impact the life of the church and the broader society.
Anatolios’ project, Deification Through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Soteriology, will entail the development of a manuscript about the meaning of the cross in Eastern Christianity.
“Many modern scholars contend that Eastern Christians downplay the significance of the cross in favor of the resurrection and Western Christians do the reverse,” said Anatolios. “I believe that characterization distorts the reality.”
Anatolios, an Eastern Christian, says he will write a comprehensive treatment of soteriology—the doctrine of salvation through Christ—that will demonstrate that the main historical currents of Eastern soteriology bear central reference to the salvific value of the cross.
"Khaled's selection as a Luce Fellow-—richly deserved—offers a quite distinguished recognition of a remarkable academic career, and a mark of approval for STM's esteemed faculty,” said STM Dean Rev. Mark Massa, SJ. “I couldn't be happier."
Anatolios’ teaching and research interests are early Christian theology (Greek fathers, Augustine, Patristic Exegesis), contemporary Trinitarian theology and Christology, Eastern Christianity and Moslem-Christian Dialogue. He is the author of the forthcoming Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine; Athanasius: The Coherence of his Thought, and the Athanasius volume of the Routledge Early Church Fathers series. He also is the editor of the forthcoming The Trinity in the Life of the Church. Anatolios is on the steering committee of the Boston Colloquy in Historical Theology and a member of the board of directors of the Pappas Patristic Institute at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto and a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston College.
Established in 1993, the Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology are administered by the Association of Theological Schools, the accrediting and program agency for graduate theological education in the United States and Canada. Its 235 member institutions are Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant schools of theology, including freestanding seminaries and university-related divinity schools. The Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology program is supported by a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, honoring the late Henry Luce III.
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (STM) was formed in 2008 when the former Weston Jesuit School of Theology and BC’s Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry joined to offer a full array of ministerial and theological courses and degrees. Both a graduate divinity school and an ecclesiastical faculty of theology regulated by the Apostolic Constitution Sapientia Christiana, STM offers both master's and doctoral degrees, civil and ecclesiastical degrees, New Testament Abstracts, and a wide variety of continuing education offerings.