Cyril Orji

Associate Professor
Full-Time Faculty
College of Arts and Sciences: Religious Studies

Profile

Dr. Cyril Orji received his Ph.D. from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI and is currently engaged in critical constructive analysis of issues of contemporary significance in Christian theology. Dr. Orji has an interdisciplinary approach to general education, majoring in Philosophy and Education (M.ED) at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The Faculty Perspective

The wisdom of Lonergan remains ever true: "the insight that provokes the cry, Eureka, is just the last in a long series of slowly accumulating insights."

Research Interests

Dr. Orji specializes in systematic and fundamental theology with particular emphases on the theology and philosophy of Bernard Lonergan. He collaborates in inter-religious dialogue and engages in the intersection of religion and culture: inculturation, post-colonial critical theory, and Black and African theologies. He is also engaged in communal practices of communicative theology in the development of local/contextual theologies. He served as a group leader at the recently held Intercultural Communication: A Symposium on Communicative Theology, Fordham University, NY (Feb 28-March 1, 2008). Dr. Orji has an international perspective on conflict resolution and peace-building. He is currently researching on the significance of Lonergan’s "achievement" for Catholic intellectual tradition.

Selected Publications and Presentations

ARTICLES

"Lonergan and Pannenberg's Methodologies: A Critical Examination" Theological Studies 70 (September 2009): 555-76.

"Incarnation, Self-Transcendence and the Challenge of Inter-religious Dialogue," AFER 50 (2008): 95-114.

PUBLISHED BOOK

Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Africa: An Analysis of Bias, Decline, and Conversion Based on the Works of Bernard Lonergan (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University, 2008).

MONOGRAPH IN PROGRESS

Lonergan and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.

PRESENTATIONS

"Crisis of Meaning as Crisis of Character: A Search for Authenticity," presented at LEST VII International Conference, Leuven, Belgium (October, 2009).

"Heythrop as Impasse and Rome as Beyond in the Development of Lonergan’s Organon," presented at the Annual Meeting of Catholic Theological Society of America, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (June 2009).