Dr. Jamie T. Phelps, O.P., Ph.D.
Sister Jamie
T. Phelps, O.P., Ph.D., has been a member of the Adrian Dominican
Sisters since 1959. Currently she is a Professor of Systematic
Theology and Director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies of
Xavier University of Louisiana. Prior to this position she has been
a member of the faculty of the Catholic Theological Union and Loyola
University, both in Chicago, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor
of Theology in the Religious Studies Department at the University of
Dayton, Dayton Ohio.
Education
Dr. Phelps holds a B.A. in sociology
from Siena Heights University, Adrian Michigan, an M.S.W. in Social
Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago; a M.A. in Theology
from St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota and a Ph.D. in
Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. Her
formal education has been augmented by participating in national and
international seminars and conferences in the United States incl.
Puerto Rico; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Jamaica; Toronto, Ottawa & Nova
Scotia, Canada; Enugu, Nigeria; Johannesburg, Praetoria and Capetown,
South Africa; Zimbabwe; and Rome, Italy.
Publications
She has edited two books Black and Catholic:
The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk and co-edited Stamped in the
Image of God: African Americans as God's Image in Black. In addition
she has published more than 50 theological articles on issues of the
mission of the Church, evangelization, enculturation, Christology,
and spirituality. These have appeared in scholarly books and
journals including The Bible Today, Missiology, New Theology Review,
Theological Studies, U. S. Catholic Historian, Spiritual Traditions
for the Contemporary Church edited by Gabriel O'Donnell and Robin
Mass, A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Reflections on Evil and
Suffering edited by Emilie M. Townes, Taking Down Our Harps: Black
Catholics in the United States edited by Diana Hayes and Cyprian
Davis, and Black Faith and Public Talk, edited by Dwight N. Hopkins,
and The Spirit in the Church and the Word edited by Braford E. Hinze.
Most Recently she has written the 2008 Advent Meditation Booklet for
Pax Christi USA Be Watchful and Alert-Seeks God's Spirit in Our
World.
Teaching Fields
Primary Areas - Systematic Theology:
Ecclesiology (nature and mission of Church including evangelization,
social justice,
inculturation, communio etc.,) Trinitarian Theology, Christology,
Theology of Grace, Pneumatology, Faith and Revelation, Liberation
Theologies.
Secondary Areas - Sociology, Culture and
Race Theory.
Institutional Development
Sr. Jamie believes in developing
institutions to ensure the on-going growth and development of
theology and ministry in the Black Catholic Community. She was a
founding member of the Washington-based National Black Sisters
Conference in 1968; a major consultant for the founding of
The
Institute of Black Catholics Studies in 1982; the founding director
the Catholic Theological Union's Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry
Program which prepares Black Catholic laypersons for ministry in the
Archdiocese of Chicago inaugurated in 1990 and the re-founder of
The
Black Catholic Theological Symposium, a national interdisciplinary
theological society for Black-Catholics holding doctoral degrees in
theology and related fields in 1991.
Ministerial Experience
In her almost 50 years she has devoted
to public church ministry, Sr. Jamie has served the church and the
community as an educator, social worker, community organizer,
pastoral minister, consultant, lecturer, liturgist, spiritual
director, preacher, retreat director, administrator, scholar,
theologian, and author.
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