Dr James Sweeney CP

Head of Pastoral and Social Studies
Email: j.sweeney@heythrop.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7795 4230

Biography

James Sweeney is a priest of the Passionist Congregation. He studied philosophy at University College, Dublin and theology at Clonliffe College, Dublin. After some years in pastoral ministry, during which time he studied social sciences at the Open University, he took a masters in pastoral theology at Heythrop and a doctorate in sociology of religion (on transformations in the Passionist Congregation since 1945, particularly the option for the poor) at the University of London. In 1999 he became senior research fellow at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College, Cambridge and visiting tutor at Heythrop in the sociology of religion. He joined the Heythrop staff full time in 2003 as convenor of the pastoral studies programme.

Publications

Books:

The New Religious Order:  A Study of the Passionists in Britain and Ireland, 1945-1990 and the Option for the Poor, London, Bellew, 1994.

Keeping Faith in Practice: Aspects of Catholic Pastoral Theology, with Gemma Simmonds and David Lonsdale (eds.), London: SCM, forthcoming 2011

Talking about God in Practice:‘Theological Action Research’ as an Approach to Practical Theology, with H. Cameron, D. Bhatti, C. Duce & C. Watkins (eds.), London: SCM, forthcoming 2011

Chapters:

‘Religious Life after Vatican II’, in Michael Hornsby-Smith (ed.) English Catholics 1950-2000, London: Cassell (1999), pp. 266-287
‘The Experience of Religious Orders’, in Bernard Hoose (ed.) Authority in the Roman Catholic Church: Theory and Practice, London: Ashgate (2002)

'Catholicism and Freedom: Dignitatis humanae – the Text and its Reception’ in Elisabeth Arweck & Peter Collins (edd.) Reading Religion in Text and Context, Aldershot, Ashgate (2006)

‘Values in Living: Changes and Continuities’ in Patrick Riordan (ed.) Values in Public Life: Aspects of Common Goods, Münster: LIT Verlag (2007)

 ‘Catholic Social Thought as Political’, in Johan Verstraeten (ed.) Scrutinizing the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel: Proceedings of the Expert Seminar Leuven-Louvain-La-Neuve, 9-11 September 2004 Leuven: Peeters (2007)

‘Receptive Ecumenism, Ecclesial Learning and the “Tribe” ’, in Paul D. Murray (ed.) Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2008)

‘Revising Secularisation Theory’ in Graham Ward & Michael Hoelzl (eds.) The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics, London: Continuum (2008)

‘Catholic theology & practice today’, in James Sweeney, Gemma Simmonds and David Lonsdale (eds.), Keeping Faith in Practice: Aspects of Catholic Pastoral Theology, London: SCM, forthcoming 2011

‘Practical theological research: a case study’, in James Sweeney, Gemma Simmonds and David Lonsdale (eds.), Keeping Faith in Practice: Aspects of Catholic Pastoral Theology, London: SCM, forthcoming 2011

Reports:

From Story to Policy: Social Exclusion, Empowerment and the Churches – A Research Report, with D. Hannah & K. McMahon, Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge (2001)

Going Forth: An Enquiry into Evangelisation & Renewal in the Roman Catholic Church in England & Wales, with C. Watkins, P. Knights & D. Bhatti, Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge (2006)

Living Church in the Global City: Theology in Practice, with D. Bhatti, H. Cameron, C. Duce & C. Watkins, Heythrop College, University of London (2008)
 
Recent Articles:

‘Religion’s Fate and Function’ in Heythrop Journal (HeyJ XLV (2004) )

‘Public Theology & Changing Social Values’ (with Kenneth Medhurst) in Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol.17.2 (August 2004)

‘Recent Trends in British Sociology of Religion’ in Irish Theological Quarterly (vol 69, No 3, 2004)

‘Marriage and Family – A Covenantal Relationship’ in The Pastoral Review, vol 2, Issue 5 (Sept-Oct 2006)

‘Engaging with consumerism’ in The Pastoral Review, vol 4, Issue 4 (July-Aug 2008)

‘How should we remember Vatican II?” in New Blackfriars, vol 90, no. 1026 (March 2009)