October 11, 2002

Fall 2002 Yamauchi Lecture

Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of Religious Studies Thomas A. Smith, Ph.D., will deliver the fall Yamauchi lecture Sunday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Nunemaker Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In Smith's lecture titled "The End of the Catholic University: The Exaggerated Demise and Future Promise of Catholic Higher Education," he intends to explore the challenges facing Catholic universities today, the issue of Catholic identity, and some ideas about ways to move forward.

Smith has been a member of the Loyola faculty since 1988. After completing a degree in history at the University of Washington, he received a doctorate in historical theology from the University of Notre Dame in 1988. He specializes in early Christian thought, with particular interest in late Roman Gaul. The author of a book and several scholarly articles on early Christian thought, he has contributed articles and reviews to Augustinian Studies, Studia Patristica, the Journal of Early Christian Studies, Coptic Church Review, and a number of encyclopedias and dictionaries.

The Yamauchi Lectures in Religion series was begun in 1985 in memory of the Rev. H. James Yamauchi, S.J., former chair of the Department of Religious Studies who taught at Loyola from 1956 to 1966. Yamauchi was known for his effective communication of knowledge about religion to the New Orleans community, and this lecture series seeks to perpetuate his work by bringing the results of religious scholarship to a wider audience.

For more information, contact the Department of Religious Studies at 865-3943.