This issue concludes our two-volume celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Horizons. Over the course of volumes fifty and fifty-one, we have heard from former editors about the founding of Horizons and later developments in both the journal’s operations and its content. We reprinted significant articles from our corpus. The reprinted works of Raymond Brown, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Sandra Schneiders, and, in this issue, John Connolly are interpreted by respondents who illumine the theological arc of the past fifty years, identifying advances and innovations of our authors as well as errors and omissions then and now, all of which provides a meta-commentary of sorts on the life of the journal. Though we are concluding our anniversary celebration in print, Associate Editor Christopher Denny will be curating virtual anniversary theological roundtables on our Cambridge University Press website, allowing us to continue learning from former authors through the perspectives of current authors.
The golden jubilee of Horizons has prompted the editors to reflect on the identity of the journal. It seems appropriate, therefore, that this issue’s peer-reviewed articles coalesce around the theme of identity, both institutional and personal. C. Colt Anderson returns to the ecclesiological question of models and suggests that in the face of the ongoing sexual abuse crisis, the church itself might be understood as a “fragile state instead of a perfect society.” Kathleen Cavender-McCoy and Conor Kelly take us from corporate identity to the personal identity of married couples struggling to live out the church’s teachings on contraception, calling for an encounter between Catholic sexual ethics and Catholic social teaching to provide structural change within the church that enables couples to live their vision of Catholic marriage more easily and completely. Kristen Drahos invites readers to explore the powerful potential of iconographic pathography for supporting those who are ill as well as their caregivers, arguing compellingly “iconographic storytelling mediates divine grace and alters ill persons and the groups who surround them.” And Enrico Beltramini dives into the identity of Catholics in India in the Nehruvian era, mapping the ground of Catholic theology in India in search of a truly authentic Indian theology.
In addition to the peer-reviewed articles and anniversary roundtable featuring M. Shawn Copeland and Karen Teel as respondents to the reprint of John Connolly’s 1999 “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression: Black Theology’s Challenge for American Catholic Theology,” readers are invited to discover the rich offerings of the Seventieth Annual Convention of the College Theology Society and other CTS news by reviewing the CTS report, an annual part of the December issue.
Customarily, I conclude my note to readers with an expression of gratitude to the authors, readers, reviewers, and staff of Horizons. It is fitting, however, that in concluding our anniversary celebration this issue preserves and provides a record of the people who have guided the journal over fifty years as well as documenting how roles have changed over fifty years; their names appear at the end of this note. Some names might appear more than once as generous scholars volunteered their talent for different roles at different times. As I offer an expression of gratitude to the people who have served in the curating, editing, and production of the journal, I would be remiss if I did not offer hearty thanks to all the unnamed manuscript reviewers, book reviewers, and authors without whom Horizons simply would not exist. Their contribution of excellent scholarship to the journal, to the mission of faith seeking understanding, is most deeply valued.
As we enter the next fifty years of Horizons, may the journal go from strength to strength in the face of new challenges that the future will bring to theological scholarship and the teaching of theology in colleges, universities, and seminaries.
The Editors of Horizons
Bernard P. Prusak, 1974–1980
Rodger Van Allen, 1974–1979Footnote 1
Walter E. Conn, 1980–2007
Anthony J. Godzieba, 2004–2015
Elena G. Procario-Foley, 2016–present
The Associate/Assistant Editors of Horizons
Assistant Editor
Elena G. Procario-Foley, 2009–2012
Associate Editors
Elena G. Procario-Foley, 2013–2015
Gerald Beyer, 2016–2021
Christopher Denny, 2016–present
Timothy Brunk 2021–present
As Horizons developed and grew in stature, editor Anthony J. Godzieba determined that the journal would benefit from an assistant editor. In 2009, he instituted the position of assistant editor and invited me to assume the role. At that time, though, Horizons used the term “associate editors” for what was more commonly understood as an “editorial board,” hence the nomenclature of “assistant.” When, however, editor Godzieba and I undertook a major revision of aspects of the journal as part of the move to Cambridge University Press, we created an editorial board with relevant duties and discontinued the use of the term “associate editors” for what should be a board.Footnote 2 At this juncture, the assistant editor position was permanently changed to associate editor.
The Book Review Editors of Horizons
James E. Biechler
Walter E. Conn
Thomas J. Ryan
Joann Wolski Conn
Eileen Flanagan
Mary Doak
Christopher Denny
Colleen Mary Carpenter
Christopher McMahon
Mary Kate Birge, SSJ
John N. Sheveland
The Editorial Assistants of Horizons
Teresa C. Byrne
Irene C. Noble
Sarah Glaser
Christine Bucher
The Managing Editors of Horizons
Christine Bucher
Mary Pappalardo
It is important to note that the editorial assistants and the managing editors are the true lifeblood of Horizons. The dedicated professionals who have served in these roles have each brought fresh ideas and distinct talents to the job. As the journal grew, so did the responsibilities of this role and the job needed to be redefined. In 2016 the new position of managing editor was instituted along with distinct new qualifications for the role, replacing the editorial assistant.
The Business Editors of Horizons
This role was active from 1975–2012.
Thomas J. Ryan
Margaret Mary Reher
Anne McGuire
Ellen Murray, RSM
Gerald S. Vigna
The Members of the Editorial Board and/or “Associate Editors” of Horizons
As noted previously, from 1974–2015, the term “associate editors” was used for the group of advisors to the journal. Beginning with 2016, the journal moved to a rotating editorial board format. Those names with asterisks denote those scholars who served in both groups. The Horizons family is grateful for the support and guidance of these seventy-nine scholars. They are listed alphabetically and not chronologically as is the case with the lists for all other positions detailed in this historical recounting.
Susie Babka
Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer
Lieven Boeve*
Radu Bordeianu
Agnes Brazal
Lisa Sowle Cahill
Dexter E. Callender Jr.
Rosemary P. Carbine
Denise Lardner Carmody
Anne E. Carr
William Cenkner
David Cloutier
Bernard Cooke
M. Shawn Copeland*
Lawrence S. Cunningham
Charles Curran*
Nancy Dallavalle
Celia Deane-Drummond
Colby Dickinson
Margaret A. Farley
Silvio E. Fittipaldi
James W. Flanagan
Jeannine Hill Fletcher*
William P. Frost
J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Joris Geldhof
Anthony J. Godzieba, inaugural chair of the board, 2016
Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado
Donald Gray
M. Dennis Hamm*
Angela Kim Harkins
Derek C. Hatch
Mary Catherine Hilkert*
Roderick Hindery
Mary Ann Hinsdale
Christine Firer Hinze*
David Hunter
Natalia Imperatori-Lee
Mary Jo Iozzio*
Elizabeth A. Johnson*
Karen Kilby
Stefanie Knauss
Paul F. Knitter
Joseph A. La Barge
Reid Locklin
James P. Mackey
Elena Malits, CSC
Thomas J. Massaro*
Timothy Matovina
William E. May
John R. May, SJ
Cecilia A. Moore
Marianne Moyaert
Carmen Nanko-Fernández*
Paulinus I. Odozor, CSSp
Cyril Orji
Aristotle Papanikolaou
Pheme Perkins
Christopher Pramuk
Norbert J. Rigali, SJ
Brian Robinette*
Julie Hanlon Rubio
Jean-Pierre Ruiz
Albert William Sadler
Jame Schaefer
Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza*
William M. Shea
Gerard Sloyan
Jonathan Y. Tan
William M. Thompson
Maureen Tilley*
David Tracy
Wilhelmus Valkenburg
Mary Jo Weaver
Maria Assunta Werner, CSC
Sandra Yocum
Graduate Assistants of Horizons
Beginning in the mid-2000s the journal began employing graduate assistants from Villanova’s theology department, deepening the ongoing and mutually productive relationship between the journal and Villanova.
Denise Pimpinella
Elise Italiano
Rena Black
Siobhan Riley
Ben Winter
Luke Hopkins
John York
Andre L. Price
Céire Kealty
Tristan Mitchell
Connor Ritchie
