Schneiders, Sandra M. 1936- (Sandra Marie Schneiders)

PERSONAL:

Born November 12, 1936, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Alexander A. (a professor and psychologist) and Glen E. Schneiders. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Marygrove College, B.A., 1960; University of Detroit, M.A., 1967; École des Langues Orientales Anciennes, Paris, diplomas in Greek and Hebrew, 1971; Institut Catholique, Paris, S.T.L., 1971; Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, S.T.D. (summa cum laude), 1975. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, classical music, theater, films.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, 1735 LeRoy Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709; fax: 510-841-8536. E-mail—sschneid@jstb.edu.

CAREER:

Roman Catholic nun of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.H.M.), 1955—. Elementary schoolteacher, 1958 and 1960-62; teacher at Roman Catholic high school in Westchester, IL, 1962-65; Marygrove College, Detroit, MI, teacher, 1965-67; teacher and chair of religion department at a Roman Catholic high school in Akron, OH, 1967-68; Marygrove College, teacher, 1971-72; Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, staff member at Institute for Spirituality and Worship, 1976-97, executive coordinator of institute, 1976-78, professor of New Testament studies and spirituality, 1976—, distinguished faculty lecturer at Graduate Theological Union, 1987-88. University of Wisconsin—Madison, Lewis Lecturer, 1978; St. Mary Seminary, Cleveland, OH, Mullen Lecturer, 1986; Athenaeum of Ohio, Le Blond Lecturer, 1986; St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN, Madeleva Lecturer, 1986 and 2000; St. Paul's College, Washington, DC, Isaac Hecker Lecturer, 1989; Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD, Damien Kraus Lecturer, 1989; Newman Theological College, Edmonton, Alberta, Anthony Jordan Lecturer, 1990; The Oratory, Rock Hill, SC, Newman Lecturer, 1992; Princeton Theological Seminary, Frederick Neumann Memorial Lecturer, 1992; Trinity College, Dublin, Anne Donnellan Lecturer, 1993; Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, Walter W. Curtis Lecturer, 1994; St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Thomas Lecturer, 1994; St. John's University, Jamaica, NY, holder of Paul McKeever Chair in Moral Theology, 1993-94; University of Missouri, Newman Center, Newman Lecturer, 1995; St. Norbert College, Killeen Chair Lecturer, 1999; Santa Clara University, Santa Clara Lecturer, 2000; University of British Columbia, G. Peter Kaye Lecturer, 2001; Boston College, Evelyn Underhill Lecturer, 2003; Brite Divinity School, McFadden Lecturer, 2006; Nazareth College, Rochester, NY, William Shannon Lecturer, 2006; St. Paul's College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, John Hanley Memorial Lecturer, 2006; guest lecturer at other educational institutions in the United States and abroad; lectures also recorded on videotape and audio tape. Leadership Conference of Women Religious, national director of Summer Seminar Program for Religious, 1972; Consultation on Theological Education of Women for Ministry, member, 1978-80; International Commission on English in the Liturgy, member of Subcommittee on Discriminatory Language in the Liturgy, 1978-79; Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, member, 1997—. Care through Touch Institute, member of board of advisors, 1993—. Member of editorial board of the book series "Classics of Western Spirituality," Paulist Press, 1977—; member of editorial board, Christian Spirituality Bulletin, 1995—, Spirituality Today, 1988-92, Revue de SIDIC, 1973-75, and New Testament Studies, 1996-99.

MEMBER:

Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (member of governing board, 1992-98; president, 1997), Catholic Theological Society of America, Catholic Biblical Association of America, Society of Biblical Literature (president of western region, 1988-89), American Academy of Religion, Society for New Testament Studies, Women's Initiative in Theology, Delta Epsilon Sigma.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grant from Association of Theological Schools, 1979; honored scholar, Delta Epsilon Sigma, 1986; book of the year award, Human Development, 1987, for New Wineskins; D.Div., St. Bernard's Institute, Rochester, NY, 1988, and Lafayette College, 1993; Teresa of Avila Award, Long Island Women's Ordination Conference, 1994; Christian Culture Gold Medal, Assumption University, University of Windsor, 1994; grant from Lilly Endowment, 1997-99; D.Hum., St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, 1998; St. Elizabeth Seton Medal, College of Mount St. Joseph, 2002; Mary Emil Penet Award, Religious Formation Conference, 2005; D.Th., Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL, 2005; John Courtney Murray Award, Catholic Theological Society of America, 2006; Achievement Award, Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, 2006.

WRITINGS:

(Under name Sandra Marie Schneiders) Spiritual Direction: Reflections on a Contemporary Ministry, National Sisters Vocational Conference (Chicago, IL), 1977.

Women and the Word: The Gender of God in the New Testament and the Spirituality of Women, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), 1986.

New Wineskins: Re-imagining Religious Life Today, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), 1986.

Beyond Patching: Faith and Feminism in the Catholic Church, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), 1991, revised edition, 2004.

The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1991, 2nd edition, 1999.

Written that You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, Crossroad Publishing (New York, NY), 1999, revised edition, 2003.

With Oil in Their Lamps: Faith, Feminism, and the Future, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), 2000.

Religious Life in a New Millennium, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), Volume 1: Finding the Treasure: Locating Catholic Religious Life in a New Cultural and Ecclesial Context, 2000, Volume 2: Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life, 2001.

Contributor to many books, including Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation, edited by Joel B. Green, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1995; Christian Resources of Hope, edited by Maureen Junker-Kenny, Columba Press (Dublin, Ireland), 1995; Women's Spirituality: Resources for Christian Development, 2nd edition, edited by Joann Wolski Conn, Paulist Press (Mahwah, NJ), 1996; Doors of Understanding: Conversations in Global Spirituality in Honor of Ewert Cousins, edited by Steven Chase, Franciscan Press (Quincy, IL), 1997; and Exploring Christian Spirituality: An Ecumenical Reader, edited by Kenneth J. Collins, Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000. Contributor of articles, poetry, and reviews to periodicals, including U.S. Catholic, Commonweal, Cross Currents, Review for Religious, National Catholic Reporter, and Giving Voice. Editor, Christian Spirituality Bulletin, 1993-95; associate editor, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1979-87, Biblical Theology Bulletin, 1981—, Horizons, 1983—, The Way, 1987-90, Pacifica: Australian Theological Studies, 1987-90, Journal of Peace and Justice Studies, 1987-96, and Horizons in Biblical Theology, 1999—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sandra M. Schneiders once told CA: "My writing has emerged from the two major involvements of my life: living as a member of a Roman Catholic religious order, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which I entered at the age of eighteen in 1955; and teaching theology at the graduate level in an ecumenical and interreligious environment.

"As a theologian and biblical scholar, I have often been invited to speak to religious and lay people. Over the course of almost a quarter-century, I have had the occasion to do a great deal of reflecting on both the life I share with other Religious and on theological matters. I discovered that I had the ability to make complex theological and spiritual material clear to people. Writing was a way to reach many more people than I had time to address in person. Consequently I began writing articles for both scholarly journals and pastoral publications.

"My major books have been synthetic treatments of topics which have been the focus of my research: biblical interpretation and the Gospel of John; feminism and its relationship to faith and ecclesial participation; and Roman Catholic religious life.

"Motivation to write comes primarily from the reception of my work by the people for whom it is written. The service my writing offers to many people makes the work involved very worthwhile.

"Writing, for an academic, is always an exercise in ingenuity because writing is, on the one hand, expected, and on the other hand, not factored into the scheduled responsibilities a scholar is assigned within the institution. One learns to write in the ‘cracks’ of time and in spurts. I have found that I spend considerable time reflecting on topics in which I am interested before I even begin an outline, so that by the time I actually begin to write I am deeply involved, intellectually and affectively, in the material. That is a major incentive and driving force for the work. In the final analysis I suppose people write who find it worthwhile and find that they do it effectively. I think that is the case for me."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Lescher, Bruce H., and Elizabeth Liebert, editors, Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Sandra M. Schneiders, Paulist Press (New York, NY), 2006.