Ever Ancient, Ever New: Holding it Together

Award Recipient

James L. Heft S.M., University of DaytonFollow

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Publication Date

2025

Description

James Heft (Marianist) is a priest in the Society of Mary and leader for more than 30 years in Catholic higher education. Heft spent many years at the University of Dayton, serving as chair of the Religious Studies Department for six years, Provost of the University for eight years and Chancellor for 10 years. He left UD in 2006 to found the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he served as the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion and the Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute until returning to UD in the summer of 2023. During his time as president, the Institute published 20 books. His lecture begins:

One accurate description of a pattern in my life as a Marianist has been that I try to keep together things that are best understood by being kept together, things like faith and reason, grace and freedom, the past and the present, dogmas and daily life, and Scripture and tradition. Put simply, I am a sort of both/and thinker. ... I can see now that a lot of the way I think can be traced back to my earlier life, including my childhood. ... I will begin by describing three personal events in my life that have had a profound impact on my faith and eventually my scholarship. The first has to do with the family with which I was blessed, the second my education in a Marianist high school and university, this university, and the third a moment of crisis that dramatically shifted what and where I did graduate studies.

Recommended Citation

Heft, James L. S.M., "Ever Ancient, Ever New: Holding it Together" (2025). Marianist Award Lectures. 21.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uscc_marianist_award/21