Endowed Chair in St. John's College

Paul E. McKeever Chair in Moral Theology
In the 1991-1992 Academic Year, the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John's University inaugurated the Paul E. McKeever Chair in Moral Theology.  Established as a living memorial to an esteemed colleague whose breadth and depth of theological vision embraced service as a peritus at Vatican II, presidency of the Catholic Theological Society of America and editorship of The Long Island Catholic and The Priest magazine, this Chair continues his commitment to rigorous theological studies and priestly ministry.  During each term the occupant of the Chair teaches graduate courses and also offers a public lecture on a current question of Moral Theology. 

2003-2004 - Daniel Sulmasy, O.F.M.
Dr. Sulmasy, a Franciscan friar, holds the Sisters of Charity Chair in Ethics at Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, St. Vincent's Manhattan, and serves as professor of Medicine and Director of the Bioethics Institute of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.  He received his A.B. and M.D. degrees from Cornell University and completed his residency, chief residency and post-doctoral fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the John's Hopkins Hospital.  His received his PH.D. in philosophy form Georgetown University in 1995.  From 1991-1998 he served on the faculty at Georgetown, where he was Director of the Center of Clinical Bioethics and Senior Research Scholar of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.  His is a Soros Faculty Scholar of the Project on Death in America.  His research interests include both theoretical and empirical studies of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and the ethics of cost-containment in medicine.  He is the author of a book on spirituality for health care professions, entitled The Healer's Calling, and is co-editor of Methods in Medical Ethics.  He begins service as editor-in-chief of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics in 2002.  His numerous articles have appeared in medical, philosophical, and theological journals and he has lectured widely both in the United States and abroad.

2002-2003 - Sidney Callahan, Ph.D.
Sidney Callahan, Ph.D. is an author, lecturer and licensed psychologist.  She earned her B.A. in English (magna cum laude) from Bryn Mawr College, her M.A. in Psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from the City University of New York.  Dr. Callahan was Professor of Psychology with Tenure at Mercy College, 1980-1997.  Sidney Callahan has written many articles, books, and columns devoted to religious, psychological and ethical questions.  She has been awarded many honors in the course of her career and served on many boards. 

She is author of In Good Conscience:  Reason and Emotion in Moral Decision Making (San Francisco:  Harper San Francisco, 1991), With All Our Heart and Mind:  The Spiritual Works of Mercy in a Psychological Age (New York:  Crossroads/Continuum, 1988).  Winner of Christopher Award, 1988; Abortion: Understanding Differences, Co-edited with Daniel Callahan.  (New York:  Plenum Press, 1984), and Parenting:  Principles and Politics of Parenthood (New York:  Doubleday, 1973) .

1997-1998 - Anne E. Patrick
Anne Patrick holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from the University of Chicago, 1982.  She also earned an M.A. in Divinity from the University of Chicago, 1976.  Since 1991 she has been Professor of Religion at Carleton College.  She has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Christian Ethics from 1987-91, and on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Religious Ethics, Religious Book Club, and Theological Horizons.

Publications include Liberating Conscience:  Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology, Continuum, 1996; and London:  SCM Publications, 1996.

1996-1997 - Kenneth Robert Himes
Fr. Himes holds a Ph.D. from Duke University in Religion and Public Policy, 1981.  He received an M.A. from Washington Theological Union, Moral Theology, 1975 and a B.A. from Siena College, History, 1971. Since 1980 he has been Professor of Moral Theology at Washington Theological Union.

He is the author of Fullness of Faith: Public Significance of Theology (with Michael Himes), and numerous articles. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and frequent contributor to conferences, colloquia, and task forces on religion and public issues.

1995-1996 - Edward Collins Vacek, S.J.
Fr. Vacek earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1978.  He studied at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology/Boston College, earning an M.Div. with distinction in 1973.  He received an A.B. in Philosophy and Classics (Magna cum Laude) and an A.M. in Philosophy, 1965-67 from Saint Louis University.  Fr. Vacek holds an S.T.L from Loyola University of Chicago and a Ph.L. from
Saint Louis University.

Since 1981 he has taught at Weston School of Theology as Associate Professor of Christian Ethics.  Publications include:  Love, Human and Divine: the Heart of Christian Life, Georgetown University Press, 1994.

1993-1994 - Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM
Dr. Schneiders is Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.  She has been on the faculty at Graduate Theological Union since 1976.  Dr. Schneiders received an S.T.D. from the Gregorian University, 1975; an S.T.L. from the Institut Catholique in 1971; her M.A. from the University of Detroit, 1967, and holds a B.A. from Marygrove College.

Publications include "The Bible and Feminism:  Biblical Theology."  Freeing Theology:  The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, 31-57, edited by Catherine Mowry LaCugna.  San Francisco:  Harper, 1993.  Dr. Schneiders is co-editor of Christian Spirituality Bulletin and associate editor of Biblical Theology Bulletin, Horizons, Journal of Peace and Justice Studies.

Her inaugural Lecture for the McKeever addressed the topic: "Scripture:  Tool of Oppression or Resource for Liberation?"

1992-1993 - Rev. John Kavanaugh, S.J.
Fr. Kavanaugh, S.J. received his Ph.D. from Washington-St. Louis in 1971.  He is professor of philosophy and Director of the Ethics Across the Curriculum program at Saint Louis University. His interests are the ethics of killing (euthanasia, abortion, war/terrorism), advertising/capitalism/ idolatry/iconography, and the theory of intrinsic value.

Publications include: On Christian Faith vs. Capitalism; Following Christ in a Consumer Society; and Faces of Poverty. Recent graduate seminars include: Taylor/Hegel; Hegel/Marx; Freud and Philosophy; and Aquinas and Natural Law. He is a columnist for America Magazine. He has worked in India and taught in Africa. He has lectured on consumerism/capitalism/advertising (critique) on all continents

1991-1992 - Rev. Enda McDonagh
Fr. Enda McDonagh, Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical University, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland, was named the first occupant of the Paul E. McKeever Chair in Moral Theology at St. John's University during the 1991-92 academic year.  Father McDonagh's expertise is in the areas of Christian ethics and social justice.  His current work is in the use and influence of the arts in the development and teaching of moral theology.

Fr. McDonagh holds doctorates in theology and canon law and has taught or held research positions at the University of Notre Dame, the Irish School of Ecumenics, the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge in England and other colleges and universities as well as at Maynooth and is the author of many books and articles.

The inaugural lecture was "The Artist and The Believer: A Christian Vision of Social Justice," given Monday, October 28, 1991, at 8:00 p.m. in Bent Hall Auditorium.