Religious Studies Department
Edward Bennett Williams Fellow
Professor of Roman Catholic Systematic Theology
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Fields: Catholic systematic theology (especially the theology of Karl Rahner, SJ), modern Christian history, theological aesthetics, theology and visual art, critical responses to neoliberal capitalism
Email: pfritz@holycross.edu
Office Phone: 508-793-3501
Office: Smith 434
PO Box: Religious Studies
Office Hours: Fall 2023: M 11:30–12:50, Tu 10:00–12:00, W 10:00–11:00, and by appointment.
Biography
Peter Joseph Fritz has been involved with Jesuit education for over 25 years, from his first days at St. Xavier High School (Cincinnati) through his Honors BA in studio art and theology at Loyola University Chicago and MA in theology at Boston College up to his years teaching at Holy Cross (2011–present). He holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame, where he wrote his dissertation on the twentieth-century German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. At Holy Cross he teaches a wide variety of courses in Catholic theology, Protestant theology, modern history of Christianity, and reaching back to his studio art roots, courses in theological aesthetics and theology and contemporary art.
Peter has two main long-term scholarly projects. The first is a projected three-volume treatment of theological aesthetics in Karl Rahner. The first volume, Karl Rahner's Theological Aesthetics, was published in 2014 by Catholic University of America Press; the second volume, Freedom Made Manifest: Rahner's Fundamental Option and Theological Aesthetics, appeared with CUA Press in early 2019; the third volume, Love's Terrible Radiance: Rahner's Theological Aesthetics of Enworlded Truth, is in progress. The second is a two-book, co-authored project with Holy Cross colleague, Matthew Eggemeier. The first book, Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism, which was published in 2020 by Fordham University Press, critiques neoliberal capitalism from the standpoint of Catholic social teaching and the theology of mercy. The second, The Politics of Mercy: Catholic Life in an Age of Inequality, Racism, and Violence, which was published by Crossroad/Herder & Herder Publishing Company in 2020, gives an account of Christian hope based in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the activities of Catholic communities who are addressing crises of economic inequality, mass deportation, mass incarceration, war, and environmental destruction. In a related vein, Peter recently co-edited, with Matthew Eggemeier and Karen Guth, Religion, Protest, and Social Upheaval (Fordham University Press, 2022). Peter intends one day to write a volume on Catholic theological aesthetics and contemporary art.
Peter regards home as Cincinnati, Ohio, but for the past many years, he and his wife, Rochelle (a clinical psychologist), have made a new home in southern New England with their four young children.
Recent and Upcoming Courses
- Capitalism in Context (Fall 2023)
- Play+Work: God/Art/Corita (Fall 2023; co-taught with Prof. Rachelle Beaudoin)
- Theology of Making (Montserrat Fall 2021, Fall 2022)
- World(s) of Sense (Montserrat Spring 2022, Spring 2023)
- Theology & Art (Spring 2021)
- Theology of Thomas Aquinas (seminar) (Spring 2021)