Leland J. White—a biographical sketch - Catholic theologian - Biography

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2002

Dr. Leland J. White's research interests were in two areas: the relationship between religion and culture and the U.S. value system as expressed in law.

His agenda was set during his theological studies in Rome from 1962 to 1966, where he witnessed the Second Vatican' Council in its entirety. At the Council, Catholics from across the globe with the generous help and advice of leaders and scholars of many religious traditions attempted to reinterpret Catholic thinking and practice to the needs of the contemporary world.

A primary victory achieved at the council was the Vatican's first recognition of the fundamental human right to religious freedom long established in U.S. culture. Implicit in this reversal of medieval teaching was the recognition that culture is inevitably a major factor in religious understanding and teaching.

To investigate culture across cultural lines, cross-culturally, Dr. White followed paths set by the social sciences, principally cultural anthropology. To pinpoint the major features of U.S. culture, and the American value system, he looked for the data embedded in U.S. law and legal traditions.

At the College of Charleston during Maymester and summer sessions since 1994, Dr. White taught a course on religion and society, focusing on how religion and society interact in U.S. life as exemplified in the role of religion in the marketplace and in law.

At St. John's University (New York), since 1982, Professor Leland J. White taught a variety of courses in which he interpreted religious thought and life in the framework of the culture from which they come or in which they are found. He showed, for example, how Mediterranean assumptions about persons and societies are embedded in the source materials for Christianity and how many European assumptions govern commonly cited modern materials.

The objective of his courses was to enable contemporary U.S. students, for example, to identify U.S. assumptions and cultural patterns and thus rethink and reapply the religious tradition to their own situations. Dr. White regularly taught Introduction to the Bible, The Synoptic Gospels, Jesus in Christian Thought, and Interpretation of the Bible.

Dr. White earned his Baccalaureate of Arts at St. Mary's University (Baltimore); his Baccalaureate and Licentiate in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome); a Master of Arts in Educational Counseling at the University of Michigan; a Doctor of Law degree at Seton Hall University; and a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Duke University.

Before joining the St. John's University faculty in 1982, Professor White was Chair of the Religious Studies Department, Siena College. There he established and directed the Reinhold Niebuhr Institute of Religion and Culture, which has sponsored programs for academic, governmental, community and religious leaders in the Albany area since 1977.

Prior to his appointment at Siena, he was a faculty member at St. Thomas the Apostle Seminary (Kenmore, Washington), St. John's Provincial Seminary (Plymouth, Michigan), and Nazareth College (Kalamazoo, Mchigan). He has taught and lectured at St. Bonaventure University, St. John's University in Minnesota, Creighton University, the University of Detroit, and the State University of New York at Albany, and he has served as regular summer lecturer at the College of Charleston.

A member of the Bar in both South Carolina and New Jersey since 1992, he was a member of the Attorney Ethics Committee of the South Carolina Bar and served as Associate Counsel to the New Jersey Law Revision Commission. He participated in the South Carolina Christian Action Council Task Force to draft the S.C. Religious Freedom Act of 1999. He was long-time member of the American Civil Liberties Union and active in the South Carolina and Charleston Democratic parries.

Author of a wide variety of publications, he served as Editor of BIBLICAL THEOLOGY BULLETIN from 1984 to 2001.

Born in Charleston, ordained in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in 1965, Dr. White was a priest of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, and served as a delegate to the Charleston Diocesan Synod in 1995.

Publications

Books

1998. RELIGION AND LAW IN AMERICA. South Orange, NJ: BTB Press.

1997. BIBLE, CHURCH AND CULTURE. South Orange, NJ: BTB Press.

1997. RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN AMERICA. South Orange, NJ: BTB Press.

1988. JESUS THE CHRIST: A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier.

1985. CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT: JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE CREEDS AND MODERN THEOLOGY. New York: Alba House.

1974. ACT IN THEOLOGY: A DRAMATIST INQUIRY INTO METHOD IN KARL BARTH AND BERNARD LONERGAN. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms.

Monographs

2001. Romans 1:26-27: The Claim that Homosexuality is Unnatural. Pp. 133-49 in SEXUAL DIVERSITY AND CATHOLICISM, edited by Patricia Beattie Jung, with Joseph Andrew Coray. A Michael Glazier Book. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.

1999. A Civic Ethic for Public Discourse and Education Beyond Values Clarification. Chapter 4 in CULTURE, CURRICULUM AND COMMUNITY IN NURSING, edited by Mary Lebreck Kelley & Virginia Macken Fitzsimmons. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.