Theology

John H. Ahtes III, 48, of Wallingford, a history and theology professor and archaeological detective, died at home Sunday, July 11, of a heart attack. His family had a history of heart disease. Since 2002, Mr. Ahtes had taught at Immaculata University. For the last year he also had taught church history at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. Before joining Immaculata, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania and La Salle and Drexel Universities. "John's classes were always full, and his world religion class was one of the most popular courses at Immaculata," said William E. Watson, chair of the history department and a longtime friend.

The merits of Hail Mary notwithstanding, Desmond Ryan really should study his theology before reviewing a film about "the Immaculate Conception of Jesus. " The dogma of the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's having been born without original sin, which is a separate theological issue from the Virgin Birth, which this so-called enlightened film purports to be about. J.E. Iannucci Havertown.

The Rev. Edward A. Malloy, a University of Notre Dame administrator and associate professor of theology, yesterday was named to succeed the nation's longest-reigning active university president, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh. The Notre Dame Board of Trustees picked Father Malloy, 45, from among five finalists to take the job held for the last 35 years by the enormously popular and often outspoken Hesburgh, 69, who is retiring in May. A native of Washington, D.C., Father Malloy now serves as associate provost of the university.

Over the last dozen years, Donald R. Schultz would take donations, often at Christmas, to the Tzotzil Indians in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. "This last Christmas, I had to beg and plead with him not to go" because cancer had weakened him, his son, Erik, said in an interview. He didn't go. The former Jesuit seminarian and Villanova University theology teacher had a special concern for the Indians of Chiapas, 45 of whom had been massacred Dec. 22, 1997, by paramilitary forces.

The Rev. Angus N. Carney, 95, an Augustinian priest who taught theology at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill from 1970 to 1980, died Thursday, Sept. 13, of heart failure at St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery in Villanova. Before retiring in 1993, he also served as a parish priest in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Born in Marcus Hook, Father Carney graduated from the Augustinian Academy in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1935, earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at what is now Villanova University in 1940, and was ordained a priest in 1943.

There might not be any better place on earth to ponder heaven and hell. One theology student looks out the window and says she sees a prostitute wrapping up some business. That reminds another of the morning he walked into the driveway and found a litter of crack vials. But for the church professionals enrolled at the Center for Urban Theological Studies, located in an old house on the corner of Hunting Park Avenue and Old York Road, such bedevilment is the stuff of ministry.

The Rev. John J. Scanlan, 75, who taught the theology of marriage at St. Joseph's University for nearly 20 years and performed so many wedding ceremonies for his students he was known as "Marrying Sam," died Monday at the Loyola Center Infirmary at Saint Joseph's. "He did a lot of personal counseling and was much loved by the students," said the Rev. Donald Clifford, a professor of theology at St. Joseph's. At St. Joe's, he taught in the evening college where the students were a little older than regular students, Father Clifford said.

The silence in an upstairs room at the Friends Center is so loud on this Saturday every sound seems amplified: the tap of raindrops on a window; a police siren outside; the tick-tock of a grandfather clock. Inside, six members of the Lilac Breeze Sangha meditation group seek internal peace and presence of mind. They sit still. They breathe slowly. They walk in a circle, as if in slow motion. This is the regular alternate-Saturday meeting of a meditation group started by Quakers and since joined by people from other faiths, or from none at all. The Lilac Breeze Sangha, which meets for 2 1/2 hours every other Saturday in Center City, is a meditation group that combines theology, practice and philosophy.

An age-old religious debate about fate vs. freedom has taken on a new urgency among evangelical Christian scholars and may result in the expulsion of two established theologians from a biblical research organization. The question: Are all events predestined by God, or do human beings have a free will that shapes their future? On one side of the debate are traditionalists who believe that God controls everything and has planned the future, knowing completely what will happen as time goes by. On the other side are scholars such as Clark H. Pinnock and R. William Hasker, proponents of a viewpoint called open theism.

NEW YORK - Dear Lord, what is that joyful noise rising to heaven from the spirited, snazzily habited stage nuns at the Broadway Theatre? Could it be - the Philadelphia Sound of the '70s? Could it be - the new Broadway musical Sister Act , fashioned from Whoopi Goldberg's movies and counting her among its producers? Is it - reset to take place in Philly? If you answered yes to all three questions, you are now free to study your catechism without interruption. Or better yet, save it for later and go get the well-worn lessons that make the American musical form work again and again: Good goes up against big-time evil, but wins.

Robert W. Patterson served as a welfare adviser in the Corbett administration When Philadelphia Magazine compiled 76 reasons "Why We Love Philly" in December, the editors placed Tenth Presbyterian Church's Christmas Eve service in the 23d spot. "The spine-tingling, haunting sound of the congregants' collective a cappella 'Silent Night,' " the monthly observed, "is as serene and unifying as . . . Christmas. You feel chills, and not from the night air. " Yet, just as Philadelphia gets lost in the shadows of New York and Washington, the historic church that graces the southwest corner of 17th and Spruce Streets rarely competes in the media's estimation with such better-known Protestant houses of worship as Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, the popular Southern California megachurch, and Riverside Church of Manhattan, the iconic cathedral of liberal Protestants founded by John D. Rockefeller.

At Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, the girls study the usual subjects: math, history, English. They also learn about ministry, service, and the teachings of the Sisters of Mercy. In a new class designed by the school's head of ministry and service, Amy Cedrone Cymerman, 12 seniors go outside the classroom and volunteer at a North Philadelphia school for low-income students. Gwynedd Mercy, an all-girls private school in Gwynedd Valley, focuses on the spirit of compassion and ministry based on the teachings of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy.

The Rev. Angus N. Carney, 95, an Augustinian priest who taught theology at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill from 1970 to 1980, died Thursday, Sept. 13, of heart failure at St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery in Villanova. Before retiring in 1993, he also served as a parish priest in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Born in Marcus Hook, Father Carney graduated from the Augustinian Academy in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1935, earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at what is now Villanova University in 1940, and was ordained a priest in 1943.

'We are tolerant, but we have our limits," says a city official. Somehow 17th-century Amsterdam sounds oddly familiar, especially when it comes to immigrants, religious broad-mindedness, interfaith romances, and radical new ideas. And so this play by David Ives, New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 , at Lantern Theater, launches an absorbing, 2½-hour theological debate. The Portuguese Jews had fled persecution and found refuge in Holland, but their safety came at a price: obedience and silence.

VATICAN CITY - The Legion of Christ religious order, already discredited for concealing the crimes of its pedophile founder, suffered another blow to its credibility Tuesday after its superior admitted he knew in 2005 that his most prominent priest had fathered a child, yet allowed him to keep teaching and preaching about morality. The admission by the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera is likely to enrage members of the Legion and its lay branch who have endured years of apologies, hypocrisy and explanations for the crimes of the Catholic order's founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who sexually abused his seminarians and fathered three children with two women.

Sister Mary Ann Shambo, 78, a Franciscan nun who worked for 30 years in South Jersey, died of renal failure on Thursday, April 19, at Assisi House, her religious order's retirement home in Aston, Delaware County. Sister Shambo also taught at the former St. Elizabeth School at 18th and Croskey Streets in Philadelphia from 1956 to 1962 and ministered at the former St. Agnes Medical Center in South Philadelphia in 1994 and 1995. Born in Stiles, Lehigh County, Sister Shambo graduated from Central High School in Allentown and after a year of college entered the Franciscan Order in 1953.

Over the last dozen years, Donald R. Schultz would take donations, often at Christmas, to the Tzotzil Indians in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. "This last Christmas, I had to beg and plead with him not to go" because cancer had weakened him, his son, Erik, said in an interview. He didn't go. The former Jesuit seminarian and Villanova University theology teacher had a special concern for the Indians of Chiapas, 45 of whom had been massacred Dec. 22, 1997, by paramilitary forces.

JERUSALEM - He's considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time. But Sir Isaac Newton was also an influential theologian who applied a scientific approach to the study of scripture, Hebrew, and Jewish mysticism. Now Israel's national library, an unlikely owner of a vast trove of Newton's writings, has digitized his theological collection - 7,500 pages in Newton's own handwriting - and put it online. Among the yellowed texts are Newton's famous prediction of the apocalypse in 2060.

RICK SANTORUM's recent comments calling into question the president's religious convictions as phony, pronouncing that education should be out of the realm of all government, calling birth control an excuse for lascivious activity and deeming amniocentesis as a means to identify disabled children so we can cull them from the population show what we here have always known: Santorum is a one-trick pony who wants to be Preacher-in-Chief. Even Republicans are distraught at this loose cannon and that he may win this thing.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lashing out on two fronts, Rick Santorum on Saturday questioned President Obama's Christian values and attacked GOP rival Mitt Romney's Olympics leadership as he courted tea-party activists and evangelical voters in Ohio, "ground zero" in the 2012 nomination fight. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator known for his socially conservative views, said Obama's agenda is based on "some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology. " He later suggested that the president practices a different kind of Christianity.