ST. BONAVENTURE - St. Bonaventure University is inviting undergraduate college students across the country to experience a world of perspectives this summer without the expense of traveling abroad.
This intensive three-week program - The Franciscan Honors Seminar on Interreligious Dialogue - was created for students who want to pursue academic excellence in the area of interreligious dialogue.
The Franciscan Honors Seminar is inspired by the many interreligious encounters that have taken place in Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. As a Franciscan institution of higher education, St. Bonaventure mirrors the spirit of Assisi by sponsoring this academic partnership for the second year with a center for interreligious exchange of the highest caliber - The Chautauqua Institution.
Offered in residence at St. Bonaventure's campus from June 23 to July 13, 2013, the program is for the college student who has a particular interest or academic orientation in the field of interfaith dialogue, theology or religious studies. The interdisciplinary nature of the program aims to draw students from a variety of majors in the humanities and sciences. Applications for the program are now being accepted at www.sbu.edu/FranciscanHonorsSeminar13.
The three-credit program is created in collaboration with Chautauqua Institution, which has since 1874 been dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through religious, social and political issues of our times. Students will enjoy a series of programming at Chautauqua's 750-acre community, located just an hour from St. Bonaventure.
Greg Young, who enrolled in the 2012 program, said Chautauqua is a dynamic setting to hear leading intellectuals share their perspective on interfaith dialogue.
"The diversity seen on the grounds and the depth of the pedagogical content intersected in formative clarity, illuminating anew for me the issues of religion and politics in a multi-religious public square," said Young, a religion and philosophy double-major from Houghton College.
For the second year, St. Bonaventure will welcome Dr. Susan Abraham, assistant professor of ministry studies at Harvard University, and Fr. Daniel Horan, O.F.M., a Franciscan theological and spiritual writer, as faculty for the Honors Seminar.
Abraham joined the Harvard faculty in 2007 and served as associate director of the Center for the Study of World Religions from 2010 to 2012. A master teacher who enjoys engaging students in the great questions of our time, Abraham brings rich insight from her experiences in her native India and here in the West, as well as from her teaching and academic research, particularly in the areas of postcolonial and feminist theological practices invigorating contemporary communities of faith.
Horan is a Franciscan friar of the Most Holy Name of Jesus Province (New York) and a Ph.D. candidate at Boston College. A member of the International Thomas Merton Society Board of Directors, Horan's research focuses on the retrieval of medieval Franciscan theological insight for contemporary application. This is especially evident in his research on the work of John Duns Scotus. Horan's fourth book is set to be published in 2013.
The program is coordinated by the Rev. Terrance Klein, S.T.D., chair of St. Bonaventure's Department of Theology, who has more than 20 years of college and university teaching experience, including faculty appointments at Fordham University, St. John's University and The Pontifical College Josephinum.
The cost of the Franciscan Honors Program is $1,200, which includes tuition, room, and most meals. Students will be responsible for their lunches while at the Chautauqua Institution. During the program, students will have access to the St. Bonaventure campus dining hall, library, technology services and the recreation center.
All students will live together in a student apartment unit specifically designated for their use. This two-floor unit contains four apartments, each of which has single bedrooms that share common rooms.
For more detailed information about the Honors Seminar, visitwww.sbu.edu/FranciscanHonorsSeminar13 or email the Rev. Terrance Klein at tklein@sbu.edu.
