Berkley Center

Christina Astorga, former Theology Department Chairperson of Ateneo de Manila, is currently Professor and former Chairperson of the University of Portland Theology Department. A recipient of several fellowships, she has been published in scholarly journals and was the best book awardee of the College Theology Society in 2014. Her current book project is "Postcolonial Feminism: Lifting the Veil of Asian Gender Resistance.”

Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dr. John Borelli, a historian of religions and theologian, is special assistant for Catholic identity and dialogue to President John J. DeGioia of Georgetown University. Borelli has been at Georgetown University since 2004, where he teaches, manages conferences and events, coordinates dialogues, facilitates workshops, and promotes university relations with offices and institutes of the Holy See.

José Casanova is one of the world's leading scholars in the sociology of religion and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center, where his work focuses on globalization, religions, and secularization. He is also professor emeritus at Georgetown University, where he previously taught in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. During 2017 he was the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North at the U.S. Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, where he worked on a book manuscript on Early Modern Globalization through a Jesuit Prism. He has published works on a broad range of subjects, including religion and globalization, migration and religious pluralism, transnational religions, and sociological theory. His best-known work, Public Religions in the Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 1994), has become a modern classic in the field and has been translated into several languages, including Japanese, Arabic, and Turkish. In 2012, Casanova was awarded the Theology Prize from the Salzburger Hochschulwochen in recognition of his life-long achievement in the field of theology. Casanova is a member of the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.

Fr. Charles Curran is a Roman Catholic priest and the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University, where he is affiliate with the Perkins School of Theology. He is an expert on fundamental moral theology, social ethics, the role of the Catholic Church as a moral and political actor in society, and Catholic moral theology. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Development of Moral Theology: Five Strands (2013), Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History (2008), and Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian (2006). He received his B.A. from St. Bernard’s College, S.T.L. and S.T.D. from Pontifical Gregorian University, and S.T.D. with specialization in moral theology from Accademia Alfonsiana.

Brian Doyle is professor and chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Marymount University, as well as the director of the Center for Ethical Concerns. His publications examine the Christian doctrine of God and its practical relevance for the believing community. Doyle is currently working on a systematic presentation of the theology of love, drawing from the biblical, philosophical, and literary sources in the presentation of a contemporary theology of love. He is active in the College Theology Society, having given several papers and convening the History of Christian Life and Thought Session. He obtained his B.A.U. from Xavier University, his M.T.S from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America.

Brian Flanagan is a senior fellow at New Ways Ministry and a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He was previously an associate professor of theology and religious studies at Marymount University. Flanagan's research focuses on ecclesiology and ecumenism. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Boston College, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of America.

Chester Gillis is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies who served as the dean of Georgetown College from 2008 to 2017. An expert on the U.S. Catholic Church, the history of Catholicism, and the papacy, including Pope Benedict XVI, his other areas of expertise include interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism. Gillis was the initial holder of the Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies and was a Berkley Center research fellow who directed the center's Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue; in 2008, he was the faculty mentor for the Berkley Center's undergraduate fellows program. Gillis has served on the faculty of Georgetown University since 1988. His publications include, among others, Catholic Faith in America (2003/2012), The Political Papacy (2005), and Pluralism: A New Paradigm for Theology (1993). He holds degrees in philosophy and religious studies from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.