Folia Theologica 10. (1999)
John P. Galvin: Theology in the United States
FOLIA THEOLOGICA 10 (1999) 81 John P. GALVIN THEOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES Thank you very much for your very gracious introduction. Let me begin by thanking Prof. Mihály Kránitz, whom I know through a German Catholic theological society, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft katholischer Dogmatiker und Fundamentaltheologen, for the invitation to come to Budapest and to deliver two lectures on theology in the United States of America. I am honored by your invitation and am very pleased to be here. I am especially pleased that a former fellow-student of mine at the University of Innsbruck, Prof. Zoltán Rokay, now teaches philosophy at your University and is with us here today. This is my second trip to Budapest. I first visited Hungary in March 1970, as a doctoral student at Innsbruck. I was with two friends, both now pastors in Indiana, and we stayed in a small room with a family in an apartment building. For American citizens, obtaining a visa from the Communist government was complex and uncertain, but possible with advance planning and payment of a small fee. I am pleased to return under greatly improved political conditions, and hope that what I have to say today and tomorrow may be of interest and value to you in your important work. I regret that I cannot speak Hungarian, but trust that this lecture in my native tongue will be at least for the most part intelligible to you. When Prof. Kránitz invited me to come to Budapest to deliver two lectures on “Theology in the United States”, he noted in one letter that it would be appropriate for me to discuss “persons, directions, and schools”. It is of course impossible to present these matters thoroughly in two brief lectures, but I will try to provide at least an overview of the current situation. In view of my own background and interests, but also in view of this audience, I will concentrate especially though not exclusively on Catholic theology in the United States. In order to convey as much pertinent information as possible in the available time, I have divided these two lectures into three parts, each with some subdivisions. Part I will consider the institutional structure of Catholic theology, with particular attention to the location and nature of the major institutions where theology is taught. Part II will identify three major contemporary Catholic theologians in the United States — Avery
