Dr John McDade SJ
Principal of Heythrop College and lecturer in Systematic Theology
Email: j.mcdade@heythrop.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7795 4206
Biography
John McDade is a Jesuit priest. He studied Modern Languages at Oxford and Theology at Heythrop. After teaching in secondary school, he did his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh on the interpretation of pre-existence language in Christology, using Paul Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor as an interpretative category. He has taught Systematic Theology at Heythrop since 1985, focusing on the main areas of God, Christ and Salvation. During his teaching, he became interested in the new theology of Christian-Jewish Relations and its impact on Christian theology. He is responsible for developing the Diploma in Christian-Jewish Relations and the MA in Contemporary Theology in the Catholic Tradition. For 9 years (1986-1995) he was Editor of The Month, a Review of Christian Thought and World Affairs, and wrote extensively during that time on a range of issues affecting Christian faith and the modern world and on contemporary cinema. He is President of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain (2008-10).
Academic interests
Christology
Trinitarian Theology
Soteriology
Christian-Jewish Relations
Blaise Pascal
Research interests
His research interests at the moment are Pascal, Jansenism, Bérulle and French 17th Century Spirituality and Religion. He is preparing a translation and edition of Pascal’s religious writings other than the Pensées and the Provincial Letters.
Publications
Editorials on a range of social, religious and theological topics in The Month 1986-1995
‘Reading von Balthasar’, The Month (1987), pp.136-43
‘The Trinity and the Paschal Mystery’, Heythrop Journal (1988), p.175-91
‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, The Month (1988), pp.901-5
‘The Maleness of Jesus’, The Tablet (25th February 1989), 220-1
‘Creation and Salvation: Green Faith and Christian Themes’, The Month (1990), pp.433-41.
‘The Continuing Validity of the Jewish Covenant’, The Month (1991), pp.376-81 ‘Catholic Theology in the Post-Conciliar Period’, in Modern Catholicism: Vatican II and After, ed. A.Hastings (SPCK, 1991)
‘The Evangelical Dimension of Catholicism’, The Month (1992), pp.256-63
‘The Ministries of Women’, The Month (1992), pp.458-60
‘The Epistle of James for Jews and Christians’, The Month (1993), pp. 115-20
‘The Death of Jesus and Sin’, The Month (1993), pp.340-7
‘The Death of Jesus and his Resurrection’ in A Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ed. M.Walsh (Geoffrey Chapman, 1994), pp.143-61
‘George Eliot’s Religion’, The Month (1994), pp.157-62
‘The Jewish People in the New Catechism’, The Month (1994), pp.237-9
‘Jesus and the Spirit’, The Month (1994), pp.49-503.
‘Gender Matters: Women and Priesthood’, The Month (1994), pp.254-59
‘Jesus: Peasant Messiah or Master-Builder?’, The Month (1995), pp.439-45
‘Kissing the Cross’, Priests and People (March 1998), pp.96-100
‘Jesus in Recent Research’, The Month (1998), 495-505
‘Making Sense of the God-Man,’ Priests and People (December 1999), pp.443-7
‘The Heart of the Sacred Body’, Priests and People (June 2000), pp.223-8
‘The Development of Doctrine’ in The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed. Adrian Hastings (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp.163-4
‘Devotion to the Sacred Heart’ The Way Supplement (March 2001)
‘The Jesuit Mission and Dialogue with Culture’ in Jesuit Higher Education 21: Conference Proceedings on the Future of Jesuit Higher Education (Philadelphia: St Joseph’s University Press, 2000), 56-66
‘Hopkins, Sacrifice and God’, The Hopkins Quarterly (Summer 2001), 233-6
‘Heaven, Then and Now', New Blackfriars (January 2002), 42-8
‘Divine Disclosure and Concealment in Bach, Pascal and Levinas’ New Blackfriars (January 2004), 121-32
Nostra Aetate and Interfaith Dialogue', The Pastoral Review (November 2005)
'Mine is the Kingdom', published in The Tablet, 20th January 2007.
‘A Promise Fulfilled, a Ransom Paid,’ The Tablet 8 October 2005
‘In the Depths of One’s Self: Philippe de Champaigne and Jansenism,’ The Tablet 23 June 2007, 14-5
‘Von Balthasar and the Office of Peter’, Studia Bobolanum 4 (2007), 15-29
‘Catholic Christianity and Judaism since Vatican II,’ New Blackfriars 88 (2007), 367-84
‘Simone Weil and Gerard Manley Hopkins on God, Affliction, Necessity and Sacrifice,’ Forum Philosophicum 13 (2008), 1-16
‘Christians and Jews: Competitive Siblings or the Israel of God?’ New Blackfriars 89 (2008), 267-79
'The Contemporary Relevance of Pascal', New Blackfriars 91 (2010), 185-96
Conference Papers:
‘The Credibility of Christian Faith and the Church in Europe’, Conference of Jesuit Theologians (Madrid, 1988)
‘One, Two or More Covenants?: Covenant in Christian-Jewish Relations’ Council of Christians and Jews Conference on Supersessinism (December 2001)
Redemptive Suffering: Catholic-Shia Muslim Conference at Heythrop June 2003
'The Work of Child Protection: the Enterprise of Faith', The Nolan Report – Five Years On: Conference July 11th 2006
Wallace Stevens and Some Issues in Philosophy and Theology Power of the Word Conference 2011
Unpublished papers
Rethinking the Christian-Jewish Relationship
Judgement and Purgatory, A Talk to the Priests of the Diocese of Westminster following The Mass for Deceased Clergy in the Cathedral on 11th November 2010.
Jesus: Son and Priestly Companion of God’s Throne
The Christology of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ