Brian E. Daley

Brian Edward Daley, S.J. (born in 1940) is an American Catholic priest and theologian. He is currently the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and was the recipient of a Ratzinger Prize for Theology in 2012.

Daley's primary academic field is Patristics, the study of the Fathers of the Church. The Patristic topics on which he has published include Christology, eschatology, Mariology, philanthropy, and scriptural exegesis.^[1]

In addition to his academic commitments, Daley is active in ecumenical dialogue and serves as the executive secretary of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation.

Biography

Background and education

Daley was born in 1940 in Orange, New Jersey, USA. He attended the Jesuit St. Peter's Preparatory School and did his first undergraduate degree at Fordham University, where he received a B.A. in cursu honorum in Classics in 1961.^[2] Daley was the first Fordham alumnus to receive a Rhodes Scholarship, which he used to read Literae Humaniores (also known as "Greats") at Merton College, Oxford.^[3] While there, he was tutored by the philosopher J. R. Lucas.^[4] He obtained a B.A. in 1964 and entered the Society of Jesus the same year.^[5]

After receiving a Ph.L. at Loyola Seminary (Shrub Oak, New York) in 1966, Daley returned to Oxford and obtained an M.A. in 1967.^[6] He was ordained a priest in 1970 and then traveled to Frankfurt, where he studied at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology and worked as the research assistant of Aloys Grillmeier, S.J.^[7] In 1972, he earned a Lic.theol. from Sankt Georgen, after which he returned to Oxford again to pursue a D.Phil. at Campion Hall under the supervision of Henry Chadwick.^[8] He defended his thesis, entitled "Leontius of Byzantium: A Critical Edition of his Works, with Prolegomena," in 1978.^[9] His examiners were Kallistos Ware and Lionel Wickham.^[10]

Professional and ecumenical work

From 1978 to 1996, Daley taught at the Weston School of Theology. In 1996, took a position at the University of Notre Dame, where he is currently the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology.^[11] He was president of the North American Patristics Society from 1997 to 1998.^[12]

Daley has long been committed to ecumenical dialogue and was one of the signatories of the 2003 "Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity," which was sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.^[13] He is also the current executive secretary for the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, which is co-sponsored by SCOBA, the USCCB, and the CCCB.^[14]

In October 2014, Daley presented "The Eastern Catholic Churches - A Roman Catholic Perspective Fifty Years after Orientalium ecclesiarum" at the conference "The Vatican II Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches, Orientalium ecclesiarum - Fifty Years Later" organized by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies held at the University of Toronto.^[15]

Honors and awards

A Festschrift was published in Daley's honor in 2008.^[16] Notable contributors include Lewis Ayres, John Anthony McGuckin, and Rowan Williams.^[17]

Daley received the Ratzinger Prize for Theology on October 20, 2012.^[18] At the conferral ceremony, Pope Benedict XVI praised Daley for his ecumenical work with the following words: "Father Daley, through his in-depth study of the Fathers of the Church, has placed himself in the best school for knowing and loving the one and undivided Church, though in the richness of her diverse traditions; for this reason, he also performs a responsible service in relations with the Orthodox Churches."^[19] The other recipient of the Ratzinger Prize in 2012 was the French philosopher Rémi Brague.

In 2013, Daley was awarded the Johannes Quasten Medal by the School of Theology and Religious Studies of the Catholic University of America.^[20]

Selected works

Books authored or co-authored

• The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991; repr., Peabody: Hendrickson, 2003).
• Eschatologie in der Schrift und Patristik, Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte IV.7a (Freiburg: Herder, 1986).
• Soteriologie in der Schrift und Patristik, Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte III.2a (Freiburg: Herder, 1978).

Books translated

• Gregory of Nazianzus (London: Routledge, 2006).
• Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, by Hans Urs von Balthasar (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003).
• On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1998).

Journal articles

• "'In Many and Various Ways': Towards a Theology of Theological Exegesis," Modern Theology 28, no. 4 (2012): 597-615.
• "'One Thing and Another': The Persons in God and the Person of Christ in Patristic Theology," Pro Ecclesia 15, no. 1 (2006): 17-46.
• "The Nouvelle Théologie and the Patristic Revival: Sources, Symbols, and the Science of Theology," International Journal of Systematic Theology 7, no. 4 (2005): 362–382.
• "Universal Love and Local Structure: Augustine, the Papacy, and the Church in Africa," The Jurist 64 (2004): 39-63.
• "'Heavenly Man' and 'Eternal Christ': Apollinarius and Gregory of Nyssa on the Personal Identity of the Savior," Journal of Early Christian Studies 10, no. 4 (2002): 469-488.
• "'At the Hour of Our Death': Mary's Dormition and Christian Dying in Late Patristic and Early Byzantine Literature," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55 (2001): 71-89.
• "Revisiting the 'Filioque': Part One, Roots and Branches of an Old Debate," Pro Ecclesia 10, no. 1 (2001): 31-62.
• "Revisiting the 'Filioque': Part Two, Contemporary Catholic Approaches," Pro Ecclesia 10, no. 2 (2001): 195-212.
• "Building the New City: The Cappadocian Fathers and the Rhetoric of Philanthropy," Journal of Early Christian Studies 7, no. 3 (1999): 431-461.

Notes

External links

• Notre Dame faculty page