James Bernauer SJ Named Professor Emeritus

The Philosophy Department is pleased to announce that James Bernauer, SJ has been awarded Emeritus status by the University! Fr Bernauer was the Kraft Family Professor and has taught in the Philosophy Department since 1980. He was also Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.

He entered the Jesuits right after graduation from Fordham Prep in 1962, two months before the opening of the Vatican Council II. He then attended Fordham University, graduating in 1968 (BA in Philosophy); immediately followed by MA (1968-69) at St. Louis University awarded 1970, with a thesis on Saint Augustine's City of God. Fr Bernauer then attended Woodstock College (1971-1974), graduating with M.Div. in Theology, awarded “with highest distinction”(1975). During these studies, he spent a year studying German theology in the University of Tübingen (1973-1974). From 1974 to 1976 he studied for the S.T.M. in Theology (1976) at Union Theological Seminary's (New York). From 1975-1980 he carried out doctoral studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, during which time he visited Paris and took courses at the Collège de France, 1978-80, attending the lectures of Michel Foucault among others. His dissertation, The Thinking of History in the Archaeology of Michel Foucault, directed by the late Hugh Silverman, was awarded in 1981.

He is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking publications in Contemporary European Philosophy, most notably on Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt, and for his research on the relations between Jews and Christians in the twentieth century. His current, original research project is a study of Jesuits and Jews during the period of the Holocaust. Bernauer was among the first in the USA to write on Foucault and indeed is responsible for making the work of Foucault known in America, with particular focus on Foucault’s relevance for theology.