2025 Mary Milligan, R.S.H.M. Lecture in Spirituality featuring Kristin E. Heyer, Ph.D.
"My Bones are Your Bones: Discipleship in an Era of Fear and Division"
Fear of others abounds in our current climate and too often fuels our collective imagination. It divides families and communities, endangers certain lives, and is weaponized for political gain. Understanding the operations of fear, sin, and conversion can clarify dominant dynamics as Christians seek to live another way. A retrieval of philosophical resources on fear (Ami Harbin), theological insights on sins of captivity and nonvoluntary structural sin (Joseph Barndt, Pope Francis), Ignatian spirituality on the affections, and from poetry (Ada Limón, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay) and narrative (Min Jin Lee) on shifting perception can help disrupt the damaging functions of fear and renew a discipleship rooted in trust in God, resistance, and solidarity.
Thursday, March 20, 2025 | 7 p.m.
Loyola Marymount University
Ahmanson Auditorium
REGISTER (in-person attendance)
REGISTER (virtual attendance)
Reception to follow.
About Kristin E. Heyer, Ph.D.
Kristin E. Heyer is the Joseph Professor in Theology at Boston College and an affiliate faculty member in International Studies and the Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy. Her notable works include Kinship Across Borders and Prophetic and Public, both published in the Georgetown University Press Moral Traditions Series. She has co-edited six volumes, including The Moral Vision of Pope Francis (2024) and Christianity and the Law of Migration (2021). Her articles appear in journals such as Theological Studies and Journal of Catholic Social Thought. Dr. Heyer co-chairs Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, is Past President of the Catholic Theological Society of America (2024-2025), and has served on various editorial boards. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. from Boston College. She has taught at Santa Clara University and Loyola Marymount University and lives in Newton, MA, with her husband and two sons.