Keenan Lecture

Spalding University and the School of Liberal Arts is proud to welcome Dr. Kathleen Duffy, Director of the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College, for the 42nd Annual Keenan Lecture. This event will be held in the Egan Leadership Center’s Troutman Lectorium. A virtual option is available, and the link will be sent the day of event.

This Year’s Topic: Hope in a Chaotic World – The Relevance of Teilhard de Chardin’s Thought to our Current World Situation

Revisiting the early 20th century priest, scientist, and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin helps draw us into the dynamism of our creative world, its evolutionary direction, and its beauty. Here we can come to know a divine presence who is immanent, alive, and active, drawing us ever into the future. All that the universe reveals gives us the hope we need to carry out our roles as co-creators of the ongoing evolution, especially in chaotic times.

About the Speaker

Kathleen Duffy, SSJ is Professor Emerita of Physics at Chestnut Hill College, Director of the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College, President of the American Teilhard Association, and serves on the Board of Cosmos and Creation. She is associate editor of Teilhard Studies, a biannual publication of the American Teilhard Association. Her current research interest concerns the religious essays of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the relationship of his synthesis to modern developments in science. She has published Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution (Orbis 2014), Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution (Orbis 2019), two edited volumes of essays about Teilhard’s life and work: Rediscovering Teilhard’s Fire (St. Joseph’s University 2010) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: The Mass on the World, The 100-year Anniversary (Amazon 2025), as well as several book chapters and articles about Teilhard. Kathleen also guides evening, weekend, and weeklong retreats on topics related to Teilhard’s life and work.

About the Keenan Lecture

The Keenan Lecture was established in 1982 to honor the memory of Dr. Mary Emily Keenan, S.C.N. Her career in the fields of religious studies and classical languages was distinguished by fifty years of teaching at Spalding University, during twenty of which she served as chair of the Religious Studies Department. The Keenan Lecture is now sponsored by the Spalding University interdisciplinary School of Liberal Arts. The School of Liberal Arts is grateful to the friends and graduates of Spalding University, and in particular to those friends and students of Sister Mary Emily Keenan whose encouragement and support inspires and sustains this annual event.

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