ROGER HAIGHT SJ
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Professor Roger Haight received the B.A. (1960) and the M.A. in Philosophy (1961) from Berchmans College, Cebu City, Philippines; the S.T.B. from Woodstock College, Maryland (1967); the M.A. in Theology (1969) and the Ph.D. in Theology (1973) from the University of Chicago; and the S.T.L. from the Jesuit School of Theology at Chicago (1981). His Ph.D. thesis was on Roman Catholic Modernism at the turn of the twentieth century. He taught successively at four Jesuit graduate schools of theology in Manila, Chicago, Toronto, and Cambridge, MA. He has also been a visiting professor in Lima, Nairobi, Paris, and in the Indian city of Pune, renowned for its educational institutions and known as “the Oxford of the East.”
While Roger Haight was on staff at Baptist Theological Union he was named the Divinity School’s Alumnus of the Year for 2005. His Alumnus of the Year address was titled: "How My Mind Was Ruined, or Saved: Later Reflections of a Nice Catholic Boy Who Came to The Divinity School in 1967,"
Many may know that Fr Haight has been investigated for his writings. Early in 2009 he was further barred from working in his field. Here is an excerpt from the blog archive. The full statement can be read at commonwealmagazine.org.
Jesuit theologian Roger Haight, whose writings on Christology, especially in his 1999 book “Jesus: Symbol of God,” led the Vatican to bar him from teaching in Catholic institutions, has received a further punishment: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has barred Haight from writing on theology (he may continue a work in progress on Ignatian spirituality) and he is forbidden to teach anywhere, even non-Catholic institutions.
What follows are excepts from a statement issued by Catholic Theological Society of America. You may find the full statement at ctsa-online.org/haight.html
Board of Directors' Statement
With Respect to the Notification Issued by the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith
concerning the book, Jesus: Symbol of God by Rev. Roger Haight, S.J.
and
Prohibiting Fr. Haight from Teaching Catholic Theology
As members of the Board of Directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America, we wish to express our profound distress at the actions taken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against the Rev. Roger Haight, S.J., a former President of the Catholic Theological Society of America. As Fr. Haight’s colleagues, we wish to publicly affirm that he is a person of the highest character as well as a respected theologian and teacher who pursues his theological vocation as a service to the Church.
Fr. Haight’s book Jesus: Symbol of God has done a great service in framing crucial questions that need to be addressed today. He has welcomed critique and dialogue about his own work. Since the time that his book appeared, the theological community has been in the process of engaging in a lively debate over the strengths and weaknesses of his speculative proposals. Indeed, an open forum on Fr. Haight's book was held at the Catholic Theological Society's Annual Convention in 2002, where he willingly and graciously explained his views and responded to his colleagues' critical observations. In many ways, the theological community has been engaging in precisely the kind of internal debate and mutual correction that has been encouraged by the Magisterium. Ironically, rather than promote greater criticism of the book, the Congregation’s intervention will most likely discourage debates over the book, effectively stifling further criticism and undermining our ability as Catholic theologians to openly critique our colleagues. In short, the Congregation’s intervention in this case gravely threatens the very process of serious, systematic, internal criticism which the Congregation and the bishops have long been encouraging among theologians. While this process of internal critique can never replace the proper teaching and disciplinary roles of the Magisterium, the intervention of the Magisterium should be a last resort, reserved for situations where this process has clearly failed.
Haight, 72, will not be able to teach nor publish any new writings on theological topics, though he will be able to complete a project on the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order.
Commonweal, 1-26-07
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JEROME BAGGETT
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Jerome Baggett is Associate Professor of Religion and Society at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union. He will speak about the “Emerging Catholic” from the perspective of the research he did for his most recent book: Sense of the Faithful.”
Baggett began his degree studies at Boston College then obtained his M.T.S. at Weston School of Theology. Dr Baggett completed his S.T.L. at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and his Ph.D. at Theological Union, University of California, Berkeley.
Baggett’s first book Habitat for Humanity: Building Private Homes, Building Public Religion, is a study of successes and problems arising from differences in social class between volunteers and homeowners, the impingement of the market, and the individualism of the volunteer culture. Baggett argues that, “Habitat is an example of a particular social form of religion, the para-denominational organization, that is uniquely adapted to the climate of the modern world. It is one of the vital forms that voluntarism takes today.”
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