Theological Institute features Dr. Bernard Prusak

Dr. Bernard P. Prusak has built an impressive toolbox in his 45 years teaching at Villanova University: Engaging presentation, expansive storytelling, topical and well-timed humor, something of a flair for the dramatic and an encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and his fellow theologians.

And he used all those tools Thursday evening as he opened the 2014 Theological Institute at the Nazareth Motherhouse.

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Prusak is  a professor for historical and systematic theology at Villanova, and author of “The Church Unfinished: Ecclesiology Through the Centuries.” In Concordia for the 24th annual Theological Institute presented by Manna House of Prayer and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph, his topic is “The Church in the Past, Present and Future.”

More than 50 sisters, priests and laypeople were in attendance as the program began Thursday evening. The institute concluded Sunday morning (July 13).

“Christianity needs to retell its story, as we learn more about how God operates and the universe in which we live,” he said. “Contemporary theology is about retrieving the full humanity of Jesus.”

Prusak, who as a student in Rome in 1965 attended Vatican II, has published extensively on the historical development of the Bible and its interpretation in the 20the and 21st centuries.

The Sisters of St. Joseph established the annual Theological Institute a way to continue their long-standing educational tradition, exemplified by the schools they founded and staffed, including Marymount College in Salina. The program is held each summer in Concordia.

The 2015 Institute is scheduled for July 2-5 and will feature Diarmuid O’Murchu, an Irish priest and social psychologist best known as a prolific author. His recent books include “In the Beginning was the Spirit,” “God in the Midst of Change” and “The Meaning and Practice of Faith.”