Jim Fodor bio - St. Bonaventure University

Fodor/CV

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Details

Name: Jim Fodor Home Address
6 Devereux Drive
Institutional Address Allegany, NY 14706
Department of Theology Tel. (716) 372-0798
St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure, NY 14778 E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: (716) 375-2418
Fax. (716) 375-7857

Education (1) Undergraduate

Period of Study Institution Discipline Degree
1973-1974 B.A.(Rel.)
1975-1979 University of Alberta Natural Sciences
1979-1981
North American Baptist College Religious Studies

University of Toronto, Philosophy &

St. Michael's College Religious Studies

(2) Graduate

1981-1984 Regent College Christian Studies M.C.S.

1987-1991 University of Cambridge Theology Ph.D.

Theses/Dissertations

1. M.C.S. "Gadamer vs. Hirsch: History and Objectivity in Interpretation"

2. Ph.D. "'Reference' in Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutical Theory and its

Implications for Assessing Theological Truth Claims"

1992-1994 (3) Post-Graduate
Visiting Scholar and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Duke Divinity School, Duke
1994-1995 University, Durham, NC
1996-1997 Research Associate, Duke University
Research Associate, Duke University

Scholarships/Awards/Other Forms of Achievement

1992-94 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship
1990-91 The Burney Studentship (Cambridge - research in philosophy of religion)
1989-90 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship
1989-90 North American Scholarship (Wolfson College, Cambridge)
1989-90 Canadian Centennial Scholarship (London, England)
1987-90 Overseas Research Students Award (Cambridge University)
1983-84 Board of Govenors Prize for General Proficiency
1981-82 Theology Prize
1981-82 Board of Govenors Prize for General Proficiency
1980-81 Faculty Scholar in Recognition of Academic Work Accomplished with High Distinction
1980-81 The James Melady Scholarship
1979-80 The Basil R. Sullivan Scholarship
1979-80 The Religious Studies Prize

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Teaching Experience

A. General

2000-present Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ethics, St. Bonaventure

University, St. Bonaventure, NY

1998-2000 Assistant Adjunct Professor, Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC

1997-1998 Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Meredith

College, Raleigh, NC

1995-1996 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, Washington & Lee

University, Lexington, VA

B. Specific Teaching undergraduate theology courses in “Philosophy of Religion”; “Christianity and
Society”; “Introduction to Christian Ethics”; “Health Care Ethics”; “Environmental
2000-present Ethics”; “Friendship Ethics”; “Christian Business Ethics”; and a graduate course
“Contemporary Moral Theology” at St. Bonaventure University; teaching undergraduates
1998-2000 in a core liberal arts curriculum, including “The Intellectual Journey”, “The Good Life”,
“The Catholic & Franciscan Heritage”, and “Foundational Religious Texts of the West”.
1997-1998 Teaching second year Divinity students in "Introduction to Christian Ethics" and first
1996-1997 year Divinity students in "The Love of Learning and the Desire for God" at Duke
1995-1996 University Divinity School
Teaching undergraduates in "Ethics and the Christian Tradition" and "Introduction to
1993-1994 Biblical Literature and History" at Meredith College
1990-1991 Graduate Seminars: "Happiness, Friendship and the Moral Life" and "The Virtues" at
1989-1991 Duke University
Instruction to undergraduates at Washington & Lee University: courses/seminars in the
1983-1984 Christian Tradition; Biomedical Ethics; Hermeneutics & Ethics; Metaphor and Religious
Language; and Friendship and the Moral Life
Introduction to Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School (M.Div. students)
Supervising postgraduate students in Modern Theology, Cambridge University
Supervising (i.e. tutoring) third year undergraduates for Cambridge University Tripos for
lecture courses: "Background to Modern Theology" and "Biblical Authority and
Interpretation Since 1800"
Teaching Assistantship in Systematic Theology, Regent College

Professional Experience

2005-present Head of Theology department, St. Bonaventure University

2003-present Member of Bogoni Gerontology GRACE Project, St. Bonaventure University

2002-2004 Member of Governance Task Force, St. Bonaventure University

2002-present Consulting board member of the Journal of Textual Reasoning, an E-Journal of the

Society of Textual Reasoning, a community of contemporary Jewish thinkers given to

exploring overlapping practices of Jewish philosophy and textual interpretation arising

out of a confluence of postmodern philosophy, pragmatism, and cultural theory coupled

with the dialogical and hermeneutical Jewish philosophies of Hermann Cohen, Martin

Buber, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas.

2001-present Editorial board member of the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, an E-Journal of the

Society of Scriptural Reasoning, a publication of a network of Jewish, Christian and

Muslim scholars promoting religious readings of scriptures within the Academy.

2001-present Editorial board member of Cithera: Essays in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition

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2001-present Member of the Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board at Olean General
2000-2003 Hospital, Olean, NY
2000-present Member of Diversity Curriculum Committee, St. Bonaventure University
Co-editor, Modern Theology, a leading international journal with an ecumenical
1999-present editorial policy dedicated to publishing exceptional scholarly articles addressing issues
specific to the discipline of theology and wider issues from a theological perspective.
1997-2000 Member of the steering committee of the National Society for Scriptural Reasoning
committed to the study and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures of Abrahamite
traditions.
Managing Editor, Modern Theology

Publications and Research Projects

A. Publications
Forthcoming

(1) “The Beauty of the Word Re-membered: Scripture Reading as a cognitive/aesthetic practice”,
forthcoming in proceedings of the 15th Annual Wheaton College Theology conference, “The Beauty
of God: Theology and the Arts” (InterVarsity Press).

(2) “‘Alien Beauty’: Parabolic Judgment and the Witness of Faith” in “Beauty of all things beautiful”:
Theology and the Arts, Oleg Bychkov and Jim Fodor, eds. (forthcoming in 2007 by Ashgate
Publishers).

(3) “Beauty of all things beautiful”: Theology and the Arts, Oleg Bychkov and Jim Fodor, eds.
(forthcoming in 2007 by Ashgate Publishers).

(4) Review of John. P. O’Callaghan, Thomist Realism and the Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect
Form of Existence (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003) in Modern Theology.

(5) Review of Randi Rashkover, Revelation and Theopolitics: Barth, Rosenzweig and the Politics of
Praise (T&T Clark International, 2005) in Theology.

(6) Review of Peter M. Candler, Jr., Theology, Rhetoric, Manuduction, or Reading Scripture Together
on the Path to God (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006) in Modern
Theology.

2005

(1) “Postliberal Theology” in The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology in the
Twentieth Century, 3rd edition, David F. Ford and Rachel Muers, editors (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers), pp. 229-248.

(2) Review of Graham Hughes, Worship as Meaning: A Liturgical Theology for Late Modernity
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) in Modern Theology Vol. 21 no. 4 (October), pp.
682-685.

(3) “Usury, Scriptural Economics and Eschatological Time” in The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning,
Vol. 5 no. 2 (August) Rachel Muers, guest editor. an e-journal published by the E-Text Center,
University of Virginia at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/ssr/

2004

(1) “Scripture Reading: Rehearsing Identity/Practicing Character” in Blackwell Companion to
Christian Ethics, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers),
pp. 141-155.

(2) "Performing Faith: The Peaceable Rhetoric of God's Church" (co-authored with Stanley Hauerwas)
in Stanley Hauerwas, Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence, (Grand
Rapids, MI: Brazos Press), pp. 75-109.

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(3) Review of James O. Grunebaum, Friendship: Liberty, Equality, and Utility (New York: SUNY,
2003) in Cithera: Essays in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition, Vol. XLIII no. 2 (May), pp. 54-57.

(4) Aquinas in Dialogue: Thomas for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Jim Fodor and Frederick
Christian Bauerschmidt, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2004).

2003

(1) Review of Garrett Green, Theology, Hermeneutics and Imagination: The Crisis of Interpretation at
the End of Modernity in Pro Ecclesia Vol. 12 no. 1 (Winter), pp. 118-120.

2002

(1) “Hermeneutics and the Just” in Between the Human and the Divine: Philosophical and Theological
Hermeneutics, Andrzej Wiercinski, editor (Toronto: The Hermeneutic Press), pp. 408-426.

(2) “Textual Reasoning as Social Performance: Meeting Over the Text” in the inaugural issue of
Textual Reasoning: Rereading Judaism After Modernity Vol. 1 no. 1 (Spring), Steven Kepnes and
Shaul Magid, editors. an e-journal published by the E-Text Center, University of Virginia at
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/tr/

2001

(1) Review of Paul J. Griffiths, Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Practice of Religion,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) in Modern Theology Vol. 17 No. 4 (October), pp. 529-
531.

(2) Review of Peter Ochs, Peirce, Pragmatism, and the Logic of Scripture (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998) Pro Ecclesia Vol. 10 no. 4 (Fall), pp. 496-498.

(3) “Selected Annotated Bibliography: 1971-2001” with John Berkman, in The Hauerwas Reader,
edited by John Berkman and Michael Cartwright (Durham and London: Duke University Press), pp.
673-698.

2000

(1) "Performing Faith: The Peaceable Rhetoric of God's Church" (co-authored with Stanley Hauerwas)
in Rhetorical Invention and Religious Inquiry: New Perspectives, eds. Walter Jost and Wendy
Olmsted (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), pp. 381-414.

(2) "Christian Discipleship as Participative Imitation: Theological Reflections on Girardian Themes,"
in Violence Renounced: René Girard, Biblical Studies, and Peacemaking, edited by Willard M.
Swartley (Telford, PA: Pandora Press), pp. 246-276.

1999

(1) Review of Fergus Kerr, Immortal Longings: Versions of Transcending Humanity (Notre Dame, IN:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1997) in Modern Theology, Vol. 15 No. 1 (January), pp. 102-104.

(2) Review of Andrew Linzey and Dorothy Yamamoto, eds., Animals on the Agenda: Questions about
Animals for Theology and Ethics (London: SCM Press, 1998) in Studies in Christian Ethics. Vol.
12, No. 2, pp. 85-88.

1998

(1) "Remaining in Babylon: Oliver O'Donovan's Defense of Christendom" in Studies in Christian
Ethics, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 30-55.

(2) Review of Daniel W. Hardy, God's Ways With the World: Thinking and Practising Christian Faith
(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1996) in Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 291-292.

(3) Review of Paul Ricoeur, Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination Trans. David
Pellauer, Editor Mark I. Wallace (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995) in Pro Ecclesia., Vol. VII No. 3
(Summer), pp. 371-372.

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1997

(1) "The Tragic Face of Narrative Judgment: Reflections on Paul Ricoeur's Narrative Theory", in Paul
Ricoeur and Narrative: Context and Contestation, edited by Morny Joy, (Calgary, Alta.: University
of Calgary Press), pp. 153-173.

(2) "Remaining in Babylon: Oliver O'Donovan's Defense of Christendom" (with Stanley Hauerwas) in
Stanley Hauerwas, Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth Century Theology and Philosophy
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press), pp. 199-224.

(3) Review of Dan R. Stiver, The Philosophy of Religious Language: Sign, Symbol & Story (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1996) in Anglican Theological Review Vol. 79 No. 1, pp. 108-109.

(4) Review of Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge, and the Ethics of
Interpretation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996) in Anglican Theological Review,
Vol. 79 No. 4, pp. 605-607.

1996

(1) Review of John Howard Yoder, "The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical"
Modern Theology, Vol. 12 No. 2 (April) pp. 260-262.

1995

(1) Christian Hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur and the Refiguring of Theology, (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
(2) Review of Joseph Dunne, Back to the Rough Ground: 'Phronesis' and 'Techne' in Modern

Philosophy and in Aristotle, in Modern Theology, Vol. 11 No. 2 (April), pp. 274-276.

2004 B. Research Projects
2002
1998 “Reading as Spiritual Exercise: Philosophical and Theological Practices of Intellectual
1997 Ascent in a Post-Critical Mode”
1992 “Reading as Liturgical Performance: Reading, Reasoning and the Repair of Ecclesial
1992 Imagination”
1992-1994 “Religious Reading and Spiritual Exercise: Explicating the Ethical Dimensions of
Scriptural Reasoning”
Curriculum development for a graduate course in "Biomedical Ethics" for Meredith
College's Masters of Health Administration degree program.
“Do You Know the Way to San Jose? or Misdirections in Contemporary Christian
Discussions of Prudence”
“Imitation and Emulation: Training in Practical Christian Judgment”
The role of practical rationality (phronesis) in the formation, maintenance and
transformation of Christian character and self-identity with a view to the work of Stanley
Hauerwas, Alasdair MacIntyre, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor.

2004 C. Conference/Seminar Papers and Invited Lectures
2002
“‘Alien Beauty’: Parabolic Judgment and the Witness of Faith” International Conference on
Theological Aesthetics at St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY, May 19-23.

(1) “Hermeneutics and the Just” International Congress on Hermeneutics at St. Bonaventure
University, St. Bonaventure, NY, May 5-12.

(2) Reason, Revelation and the University: The Possibilities of Hermeneutics and History, invited
response to Basit Kashul, “Beyond the Reason/Revelation Divide: On Abraham the
Philosophizing Prophet”, at the Inauguration of IQRAR, the Society of Qur’anic Reasoners of
the Society of Scriptural Reasoning, University of Virginia, March 21-23.

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1995 "Remaining in Babylon: Oliver O'Donovan's Defense of Christendom" (with Stanley
1994 Hauerwas) The New Testament and Ethics: Problems and Prospects, A Symposium at
Duke University, March 30-April 2, 1995
1991
1990 (1) The Unbearable Lightness of Language: Christian Reflections on Contemporary Themes in
1989 Philosophy of Language (symposium, Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, Ontario,
1988 Canada)

(2) Response to Willard Swartley, 'Discipleship and Imitation of Jesus/The Suffering Servant:
The Mimesis of New Creation' (René Girard Colloquium, Associated Mennonite Biblical
Seminary, Elkhart, IN)

(3) The Tragic Face of Narrative Judgment: Reflections on Paul Ricoeur's Narrative Theory
(Conference on Ricoeur's Use of Narrative, Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

(1) Stanley Cavell, External-World Skepticism, and Linguistic Discontent (Cambridge
Seminar)

(2) Absorbing Worlds/Fusing Horizons: Frei and Ricoeur on Biblical Narrative (Cambridge
Seminar)

"The Ways of Theodicy and the Strategies of Wisdom" (Oxford University)
"Narrativity, Truth, and the Transformation of Theological Consciousness or Are the Stories

We Tell Simply a Lot of Hot Air?" (Cambridge Seminar)
"Referring to God" (Cambridge Seminar)

Specializations/Competencies/Interests

A. Specialization

Theological and Philosophical Hermeneutics; Philosophical Theology; Theological Ethics

B. Competencies

Modern, Systematic & Historical Theology; Philosophy of Religion; Philosophy of Language

C. Activities/Recreational Interests

tennis, swimming, cycling, travel, films, the novels and fictional work of Graham Greene, Iris Murdoch,
Flannery O'Connor, David Lodge, Margaret Atwood, Walker Percy, Anthony Trollope, Mary Gordon,
etc.

Referees L. Gregory Jones Prof. Stanley M. Hauerwas
Dean and Professor of Gilbert T. Rowe Professor
Prof. N. L. A. Lash Theology Theological Ethics
former Norris-Hulse The Divinity School The Divinity School
Professor of Divinity Duke University Duke University
The Divinity School Durham, NC 27708 Durham, NC 27708
St. John's Street USA USA
Cambridge, CB2 1TW Tel. (919) 660-3434 Tel. (919) 660-3420
England Fax. (919) 660-3473 Fax. (919) 660-3473
Tel. (0223) 332593 Email. [email protected] Email. [email protected]
Fax. (0223) 332582
Email [email protected]

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Addenda

Graduate Transcripts

Cambridge University does not issue academic transcripts, as the Ph.D. is primarily a research
program with the dissertation and its oral defense constituting the sole basis on which the degree
is awarded. The Cambridge Ph.D. candidate is, of course, encouraged to pursue courses and
attend seminars which the student deems useful to their research, but no formal record of these
studies is kept by the University and hence no transcripts issued. Listed below, however, are the
lecture courses I have taken and the seminars attended during my time at Cambridge (1987-
1991), as well as the seminars in which I have been a participant at Duke during the tenure of my
post-doctoral fellowship (1992-1994).

Duke University

Seminars

1. Christian Ethics in America (Stanley Hauerwas)
2. Wittgenstein Seminar (William Poteat)
3. Seminar in Theological Ethics (Stanley Hauerwas)
4. Pragmatism, Ironism, and Identity (Owen Flanagan)
5. Seminar on Aristotle's Ethics (Alasdair MacIntyre; 1995)
6. Seminar on Catholic Moral Theology (Stanley Hauerwas)

University of Cambridge

Lecture Courses
1. Background to Modern Theology
(Nicholas Lash, Stephen Sykes, John Drury, Don Cupitt, Brian
Hebblethwaite, etc.)
2. Methods, Sources and Norms of Theology
(Nicholas Lash and Stephen Sykes)
3. Biblical Authority and Interpretation Since 1800
(Nicholas Lash, Stephen Sykes, Soskice, William Horbury, Christopher
Rowland)
4. The Study of Theology: Aquinas and Calvin
(Nicholas Lash and Janet Martin Soskice)
5. Theology and Power
(Stephen Sykes)
6. Analogy
(Nicholas Lash)
7. Modern Critical Theory
(George Watson, English Department)
8. General Linguistics
(John Lyons, Department of Linguistics)
9. Meaning, Speech Acts and Truth
(Jane Heal, Department of Philosophy)
10. The Development of Social Theory, 1920 to the Present
(John B. Thompson, Department of Social and Political Science)

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(University of Cambridge, continued)
Seminars
1. Systematic Theology Seminar: Dietrich Ritschl's The Logic of Theology
2. Systematic Theology Seminar: Nicholas Lash's, Easter in Ordinary
3. Systematic Theology Seminar: The Chalcedonian Confession
4. 'D' Society Seminar: Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
5. 'D' Society Seminar: Selected Topics in Philosophy of Religion (including
Religious Pluralism; Ethics in a Post-Christian Society, Sources of Modern
Atheism, Modernity and Post-modernity, etc.)
6. Wittgenstein Seminar (Renford Bambrough, Department of Philosophy)

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