Dr. Reinhard Huetter, professor of Christian theology at Duke Divinity School, has been named the Rev. Robert J. Randall Professor in Christian Culture at Providence College for the 2012-2013 academic year

I will let the press-release give the details:

Expert on St. Thomas Aquinas Selected New Randall Chair

Dr. Reinhard Huetter, professor of Christian theology at Duke Divinity School, has been named the Rev. Robert J. Randall Professor in Christian Culture at Providence College for the 2012-2013 academic year.

The Randall Professorship was established in 2002 as the College’s first endowed chair. It is named for the priest and scholar who taught at PC for more than 25 years in the Department of English, the Development of Western Civilization Program, and the Liberal Arts Honors Program.

Huetter is the ninth scholar to serve as the Randall Professor. He will teach a course in the Liberal Arts Honors Program, Thomas Aquinas on Faith, which he said will be an introduction to Aquinas’ theology as well as an introduction to thinking about the Christian faith.

He also will present lectures to the College community during the fall and spring semesters.

“I am thrilled about — and grateful for — the opportunity to teach and write for one year at Providence College, and I am very much looking forward to meeting the students and the faculty,” said Huetter. “I already have some friends on the faculty and am looking forward to making new friends and becoming, for one year, part of an academic community about which I have heard so many good things.”

A native of Lichtenfels, Germany, Huetter holds a master of theology degree from Duke University and a doctor of theology degree from the University of Erlangen in Germany. He teaches systemic and philosophical theology and has developed a special interest in the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

His new book, Dust Bound for Heaven: Explorations in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Eerdmas, 2012), will be published in late summer. Among his other works are Reason and the Reasons of Faith (T&T Clark Int’l, 2005), edited with Paul J. Griffiths, and Ressourcement Thomism: Sacred Doctrine, the Sacraments, and the Moral Life (The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), edited with Matthew Levering.

Huetter was awarded the Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology. He has been a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Religion, University of Chicago; a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton Theological Seminary; and a visiting professor at the University of Jena, Germany.

In addition, he is an elected member of the American Theological Society, president of the Academy of Catholic Theology, a distinguished fellow of The Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and an ordinary academician of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas.     

“We are indeed thrilled to have a scholar of such high reputation at Providence College,” said Dr. James F. Keating, associate professor of theology and chair of the Randall Chair Committee. “His background in Protestant theology and recently acquired expertise in Catholicism and, in particular, the thought of Thomas Aquinas, will enhance our students’ learning and the overall intellectual culture of our academic community.”

— Vicki-Ann Downing

From here: http://www.providence.edu/news/headlines/Pages/randall-chair-2012.aspx

It will be a great joy to have Dr. Hütter join Providence College next year as the Randall Chair. Students in our Graduate Program in Theology will especially benefit, as Dr. Hütter is tentatively scheduled to teach a graduate seminar on the Virtue of Religion in Thomas Aquinas.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Hütter this coming semester.