Gregory Heille, O.P.

BA (Mathematics), St. John's University, Collegeville, MN
M.Div., MA (Liturgy), Aquinas Institute of Theology
D.Min. (Preaching), Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI (Reformed Church in America)
Professor of Homiletics, at Aquinas Institute since 1994

Academic Dean and Vice President since 2007
heille@ai.edu

Webpage: The Word on the Web: An Internet Hotlist on Resources for Preachers.

In addition to serving as Academic Dean for Aquinas Institute of Theology, I serve nationally as chairperson of the Theology of Preaching workgroup of the Academy of Homiletics and as a member on the Governing Board of the Catholic Coalition on Preaching and on the Board of Directors of Partners in Preaching. As a Dominican friar of the Dominican Central Province of St. Albert the Great, I reside at St. Louis Bertrand Priory in St. Louis.

Academic Projects

In addition to continued sales of Theology of Preaching: Essays on Vision and Mission in the Pulpit, which I edited with eight Aquinas Institute Doctor of Ministry students (London: Melisende, 2001-available for $16 from Aquinas Institute), the following articles have been published in the past year:

Author of "A Christian Questions Curative Healing," in In Medio Ecclesiae: Essays in Honor of Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., on the Occasion of His 90^th Birthday, by Members of the Faculty of Aquinas Institute of Theology, edited by Richard A. Peddicord, O.P. Bloomington IN/Milton Keynes UK: Author House, 2007: 131-56.
Book review of A Living Stone: Selected Essays and Addresses by Michael Prior, C.M., edited with an introduction by Duncan Macpherson. New Blackfriars 88:1016 (July 2007): 503-04.
Book review of Watchmen Raise Their Voices: A Tallaght Book of Theology, edited by Vivian Boland, O.P. New Blackfriars 88:1017 (September 2007): 624-25.
A book chapter, based on a two-year Homiletics Consultation of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning of Theology and Religion: "Finding Support from School, Denomination, and Academy," Chapter 17 of Teaching the Practices of Preaching, ed. Thomas Long and Leonora Tisdale. Louisville:Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.

Projects in the 2007-2008 Academic Year

As a friar of the Dominican Central Province of St Albert the Great, I am eager to join this October with twenty-five members of the Province participating in an Interfaith Ceremony with the Dalai Lama at St Paul Catholic Center, the Dominican Newman Center at Indiana University. This interfaith service will be followed by three days of teaching by the Dalai Lama on an early Tibetan Buddhist text, hosted by the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington.

As President of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, I am serving as Project Director for a grant-funded project to work with twelve nationally prominent Catholic homiletics, liturgy, and scripture scholars to write a short book on The Preaching of the Sunday Assembly: A Pastoral Commentary on Fulfilled in Your Hearing as CATH’s contribution to the conversation surrounding the upcoming 2008 World Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the Life and the Mission of the Church. The Writing Team met at Aquinas Institute in St Louis in September 2007, at St Paul Seminary in Minnesota in November 2007, and again in St Louis in April 2008. I presently am writing an Introduction to the book, which in turn will be edited by James Wallace, C.Ss.R., Professor of Homiletics at Washington Theological Union.

As Academic Dean, I am collaborating with Assistant Professor of Homiletics Ann Garrido to co-direct an eighteen month faculty project on Pursuing a Culture of Engaged Conversation for School and Church, funded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. Project Description:While neither Aquinas Institute of Theology nor the Catholic Church are alone in confronting hard or at times disruptive conversations in faculty meetings, class, or field supervision, our Dominican heritage of collaborative learning in pursuit of truth requires intentional commitment to meaningful difficult conversation. As a school, we propose to learn and practice the art of difficult conversation through a facilitated faculty study of the Harvard Negotiation Project's book on Difficult Conversations and facilitated case studies of difficult conversations in our classrooms. By improving our difficult conversations in class, we intend to lay the groundwork for a successful all-school symposium on the neuralgic topic, "What is truth?" At grant's end, we will publish on what we have learned and then take a further step by teaching the art of difficult education to others in the community who collaborate with us in the formation of our students, especially field education supervisors.

I am working with Aquinas Institute MAPS in Preaching graduate Thomas Cummins in writing a paper on "Preaching and Prisoners: A Pauline Perspective"-to be jointly submitted to the Paul of Tarsus at 2000 Symposium to be held at Aquinas Institute in October and to the Academy of Homiletics Annual Meeting to be held in Boston in November

Of course, I also am deeply involved in my duties as Academic Dean and Vice President of Aquinas Institute: implementing the school’s strategic plan, animating the faculty, scheduling curriculum, assisting students, and working with faculty to more deeply embrace a culture of assessment, as well as a culture of engaged conversation, in theological and ministerial education.

Interests

The road that brought me to ministry at Aquinas Institute of Theology involved almost twenty years of pastoral ministry at the Catholic Campus Parish of South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD; Associate Pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Madison, WI ; Vocation Coordinator for the Dominican Central Province, Chicago, IL; priest for the St. Giles Family Mass Community, Oak Park, IL; and chaplain for Dominican Chapel/Marywood and founder and program director for Dominican Center at Marywood in Grand Rapids, MI.

My academic interests have to do with the theology of preaching, Christian healing, and the evangelization of culture, with particular interest in repairing the fractured relationship of men and women in our culture (Galatians 3:28). Though many years ago I chose Dominican life and ministry over a life in medicine, in recent years I have pursued my avocation for healing through a study of Reiki and Touch for Health. Reiki is a simple practice for drawing upon healing energy for relaxation and health. Touch for Health makes some of the healing benefits of applied kinesiology available to laypersons.

I continue to take any opportunity I can to hike in the American West. Favorite places include Mt Rainier National Park in Washington, Zion National Park in Utah, and Yosemite National Park and the Big Sur Coast in California. I will be hiking at Mt Rainier in August 2008.