The person who holds the Duffy chair should share Steve Duffy’s vision of Religious Studies. Steve Duffy’s vision was that the theological endeavor should be scholarly, critical, ecumenical, and look with openness toward the future. It should rise above the traditional theology of the past with a broader and fuller vision of the theological task. It should embrace not only Christianity but the religions of our seamless world. He or she should share in this vision, which is also held by other significant theological scholars nationwide and worldwide.

The person who holds the Duffy chair should be an excellent scholar, whose work epitomizes what the entire Religious Studies Department strives for. He or she should inspire and lead us by example, so that we likewise aspire to crafting excellent scholarship in our various fields of expertise.

The person who holds the Duffy chair needs to provide a point of theological focus for the entire department. In our departmental strategic plan we seek to build our theological identity around the message of the person who fills the Duffy chair. We hope that this vision will be one that speaks of global Catholicism and Christianity with an emphasis upon the themes of equity, inclusiveness, and justice.

The person who holds the Duffy chair should be a Catholic theologian who speaks meaningfully to our Religious Studies majors and the inter-departmental Catholic Studies minors so as to assist them in their theological matriculation to a full and meaningful Christian and/or Catholic identity.