Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley: Donald L. Gelpi, S.J.

Professor Emeritis

Phone: (510) 549-5008
Fax: (510) 841-8536
Office Hours: 9:00 a.m. to noon on the days I teach.
During the first semester I will teach on Tuesdays, and during the second semester, on Mondays.

Download a syllabus for the following courses:
ST 5835: Advanced Christology
ST 4730: Origins of the Church

Donald L. Gelpi, S.J. was born in New Orleans on May 30, 1934. He entered the Jesuit order in 1951 and completed his novitiate and humanistic studies at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, LA, between 1951 and 1955. He studied philosophy at St. Louis University between 1955 and 1958. There he received a B.A. in Philosophy and Letters magna cum laude in 1957, and in 1958, received both a Ph.L. and a master's in philosophy magna cum laude.

He taught at Jesuit High School in New Orleans between 1958 and 1961. He did two years of theological studies at College St. Albert in Louvain, Belgium and, and two more years at St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, KA, where he received a Th.L. in 1965. He completed his training as a Jesuit at Auriesville, NY, in the academic year 1965-1966. He completed his residency for a doctoral degree in philosophy at Fordham University between 1966 and 1968. The following year he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Ralph Waldo Emerson's notion of religion experience in Cambridge, MA.

In 1968 he became actively involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University in 1969. He taught philosophy at Loyola University in New Orleans between 1969 and 1973. In the fall of 1973, he joined the faculty of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, where he helped found and coordinate the Institute for Spirituality and Worship, a one-year theological renewal program. He was voted an Outstanding Educator of America in 1974.

In 1979, he co-founded and still participates in the John Courtney Murray Group, a post-doctoral research seminar in theological inculturation. He delivered the Bellarmine lecture at Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH in 1979; the Gorman-Garrett lecture at the University of Dallas, TX in 1988; and the Ignatian Year lecture at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA in 1991. He was a Luce Fellow at the Graduate Theological Union during the academic year 1993-1994, when he also studied the problem of inculturation in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

He became an Emeritus Professor at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in 1999 but continues both teaching and publication. In the spring of 2001, he held the Beckman Chair in Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Every year on Saturdays, he leads hikes in the parks in the San Francisco Bay Area; and in the fall, winter, and spring of every school year he sponsors wilderness trips to a National Park. Besides hiking and backpacking, he plays the ukulele, does needlepoint, and sketches with oil pastels.

Publications
Prof. Gelpi has authored more than 20 books. His most recent titles include:

Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Post-Modernism (The Liturgical Press, 2000)
The Firstborn of Many: A Christology for Converting Christians (3 vols.; Marquette University Press, 2001)
The Gracing of Human Experience: Rethinking the Relation between Nature and Grace (The Liturgical Press, 2001)
Pierce and Theology: Essays in the Authentication of Doctrine (University Press of America, 2001)

He has also just sent off for publication a one-volume textbook version of his Christology and has completed the initial draft of a theological autobiography entitled: Closer Walk: Confessions of a US Jesuit Yat. He has also written numerous articles, the most recent being "Pierce, Lonergan, and the Logic of Theology."

2002-2003 Classes
Fall Semester: "Christology: Introduction" (intermediate and advanced students)
Spring Semester: "Trinity and Christ" (intermediate and advanced students)