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Kenneth J Howell

Retired, None, Alumnus

History of Science and Religion +8

Kenneth J. Howell is the President and Director of Academic Research for the Eucharist Project, an international movement promoting the supreme sacrament of the Church. Dr. Howell taught in higher education for almost thirty years, most recently for over a decade as Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). At the same time, he served as the Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought of the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center located at the same university.Dr. Howell was a Presbyterian minister for eighteen years and a theological professor for seven years in a Reformed seminary where he taught Hebrew, Greek, and Latin as well as biblical interpretation and the history of Christianity. During his ministry and teaching, Dr. Howell's own reading on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist started him on a six-year journey that eventually led him to Catholicism. In 2000, he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award from John Paul II in recognition of his service to the Church (the lay equivalent of the title Monsignor). Kenneth Howell has been married to Sharon Canfield for forty-seven years and they have three children. and eleven grandchildren.

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Papers

Book Review: God's two books: Copernican cosmology and biblical interpretation in early modern science / University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, viii + 319 pp., 2002, ISBN 0-268-01045-5

Journal for The History of Astronomy - J HIST ASTRON, 2003

The Eucharist and the Life of Christ in the Preaching of John Chrysostom

Nova et vetera, 2021

A Semiotic Perspective on Linguistic Universals and Typology

Semiotics, 1983

The Eucharist as a Hermeneutical Lens in the Preaching of Peter Chrysologus

Toronto Journal of Theology, 2020

[Figure: see text] Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth centur... more [Figure: see text] Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read the texts of the gospels through a eucharistic lens. Like other patristic writers, Peter viewed the same realities of faith operating in both the gospel accounts and in the liturgy of the Church. This article explores that relationship under three aspects evident in his homilies, especially in Sermons 33–36 about the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21–43). Peter views the pericope under the three continuities of desperation, presence, and faith. Peter sees the Church’s faith, like the woman’s, as arising out of desperation or the hopelessness of finding a cure for its wounds. Yet, the same presence tapped by the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment can be touched in the Eucharist because the same presence that was present in the first century is operating in the liturgy of the fifth century. What is not so evident is that Peter’s audience will exercise the same faith as this desperate woman. In his highest expectations, Peter hopes that his own congregation will touch the Eucharist and so be healed like the hemorrhaging woman. While Peter never formulated a doctrine of the Eucharist per se, his proclamation assumes a profound continuity between the life of Christ and the sacramental life of the Church.

Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. John Hedley Brooke , George Basalla

The Journal of Modern History, 1994

Phonology in the Twentieth Century: Theories of rules and theories of representations . By Stephen R. Anderson

Historiographia Linguistica, 1986

The Hermeneutics of Nature and Scripture in Early Modern Science and THEOLOGY1

Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up …, 2009

Page 294. CHAPTER NINE THE HERMENEUTICS OF NATURE AND SCRIPTURE IN EARLY MODERN SCIENCE AND THEOL... more

On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and His Assistants, 1570-1601

The American Historical Review, 2001

... Finally, I owe more thanks than I can express here to my wife, Birgitte Christianson, who rea... more

Eucharist & Life of Christ Nov&Vetera

Nova et Vetera, 2020

This article shows how John Chrysostom tied the Eucharist to the events of Christ's earthly life... more

The Eucharist as a Hermeneutical Lens in the Preaching of Peter Chrysologus A DIFFERENT TENOR

Toronto Journal of Theology, 2020

Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read t... more Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read the texts of the gospels through a eucharistic lens. Like other patristic writers, Peter viewed the same realities of faith operating in both the gospel accounts and in the liturgy of the Church. This article explores that relationship under three aspects evident in his homilies, especially in Sermons 33-36 about the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21-43). Peter views the pericope under the three continuities of desperation, presence, and faith. Peter sees the Church's faith, like the woman's, as arising out of desperation or the hopelessness of finding a cure for its wounds. Yet, the same presence tapped by the woman who touched the hem of Jesus's garment can be touched in the Eucharist because the same presence that was present in the first century is operating in the liturgy of the fifth century. What is not so evident is that Peter's audience will exercise the same faith as this desperate woman. In his highest expectations, Peter hopes that his own congregation will touch the Eucharist and so be healed like the hemorrhaging woman. While Peter never formulated a doctrine of the Eucharist per se, his proclamation assumes a profound continuity between the life of Christ and the sacramental life of the Church. One of the most important contexts of many patristic figures in their interpretations of Scripture was the liturgy of the Church with its centrepiece in the Eucharist. 1 The fifth-century bishop of Ravenna Peter gives ample evidence of reading gospel texts through a eucharistic lens. In this paper, I will explore Peter's reading of a particular gospel pericope, the account of the healing of the woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21-43, esp. 25-34; Matt 9:18-26; Luke 8:41-56). I will argue that he reads the gospel text in a sacramental atmosphere by stressing the continuities between the first-century event and his fifth-century audiences. For Chrysologus, the liturgy functions as a place of re-enactment in which the meaning of the gospel text comes alive again for the generation to which he is preaching. It is not only that the liturgy is the proper context in which the sacraments are celebrated but that the liturgy itself opens a window on the mystery lying hidden in the text. This affords the opportunity for that underlying mystery to be actualized again and appropriated by hearers. This implies that Chrysologus reads the gospel pericope not only in an allegorical manner with a corresponding application to his audience but sees the text as a spur to stimulate faith in the same hidden power related in the text. 2 Peter, in other words, assumes and promotes a hermeneutic of participatory reading. In Peter's treatment of the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage, we find the literal and allegorical distinction collapsing into the mystery carried by event and text.

Beyond Literalism and Irrelevance: Catholic and Reformed Approaches to the Problem of Scripture and Nature Introduction: Setting the Context

Picturing the Scientific Revolution

The Catholic Historical Review, Jul 1, 2012

Two aspects of Roger Bacon’s semiotic theory in De Signis

Semiotica, 2000

Umberto Eco and John Deeley in their lectures on the historical foundations of semiotics at the F... more

<i>Picturing the Scientific Revolution</i> (review)

The Catholic Historical Review, 2012

Natural Knowledge and Textual Meaning in Augustine's Interpretation of Genesis: The Three Functions of Natural Philosophy

This originally appeared as chapter four in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up t... more

The Role of Biblical Interpretation in the Cosmology of Tycho Brahe

This paper originally appeared in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science in 1996. It co... more This paper originally appeared in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science in 1996. It concerns Tycho Brahe's attempts to grapple with the place of scriptural texts in his emerging cosmology. The substance of this paper is also chapter three of my book God's Two Books: Copernican Cosmology and Biblical Interpretation in Early Modern Science.

Did the Bulldog Bite the Bishop?

This paper treats the famous debate in 1860 between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Hu... more This paper treats the famous debate in 1860 between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley, a debate that is typically cited as an example of the tensions between science and religion. Here I show that the more foundational differences concerned two different philosophies of scientific knowledge.

Three Frameworks for Interpreting the Church Fathers

Book Review: God's two books: Copernican cosmology and biblical interpretation in early modern science / University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, viii + 319 pp., 2002, ISBN 0-268-01045-5

Journal for The History of Astronomy - J HIST ASTRON, 2003

The Eucharist and the Life of Christ in the Preaching of John Chrysostom

Nova et vetera, 2021

A Semiotic Perspective on Linguistic Universals and Typology

Semiotics, 1983

The Eucharist as a Hermeneutical Lens in the Preaching of Peter Chrysologus

Toronto Journal of Theology, 2020

[Figure: see text] Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth centur... more [Figure: see text] Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read the texts of the gospels through a eucharistic lens. Like other patristic writers, Peter viewed the same realities of faith operating in both the gospel accounts and in the liturgy of the Church. This article explores that relationship under three aspects evident in his homilies, especially in Sermons 33–36 about the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21–43). Peter views the pericope under the three continuities of desperation, presence, and faith. Peter sees the Church’s faith, like the woman’s, as arising out of desperation or the hopelessness of finding a cure for its wounds. Yet, the same presence tapped by the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment can be touched in the Eucharist because the same presence that was present in the first century is operating in the liturgy of the fifth century. What is not so evident is that Peter’s audience will exercise the same faith as this desperate woman. In his highest expectations, Peter hopes that his own congregation will touch the Eucharist and so be healed like the hemorrhaging woman. While Peter never formulated a doctrine of the Eucharist per se, his proclamation assumes a profound continuity between the life of Christ and the sacramental life of the Church.

Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. John Hedley Brooke , George Basalla

The Journal of Modern History, 1994

Phonology in the Twentieth Century: Theories of rules and theories of representations . By Stephen R. Anderson

Historiographia Linguistica, 1986

The Hermeneutics of Nature and Scripture in Early Modern Science and THEOLOGY1

Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up …, 2009

Page 294. CHAPTER NINE THE HERMENEUTICS OF NATURE AND SCRIPTURE IN EARLY MODERN SCIENCE AND THEOL... more

On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and His Assistants, 1570-1601

The American Historical Review, 2001

... Finally, I owe more thanks than I can express here to my wife, Birgitte Christianson, who rea... more

Eucharist & Life of Christ Nov&Vetera

Nova et Vetera, 2020

This article shows how John Chrysostom tied the Eucharist to the events of Christ's earthly life... more

The Eucharist as a Hermeneutical Lens in the Preaching of Peter Chrysologus A DIFFERENT TENOR

Toronto Journal of Theology, 2020

Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read t... more Peter Chrysologus, the bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the fifth century, tended to read the texts of the gospels through a eucharistic lens. Like other patristic writers, Peter viewed the same realities of faith operating in both the gospel accounts and in the liturgy of the Church. This article explores that relationship under three aspects evident in his homilies, especially in Sermons 33-36 about the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21-43). Peter views the pericope under the three continuities of desperation, presence, and faith. Peter sees the Church's faith, like the woman's, as arising out of desperation or the hopelessness of finding a cure for its wounds. Yet, the same presence tapped by the woman who touched the hem of Jesus's garment can be touched in the Eucharist because the same presence that was present in the first century is operating in the liturgy of the fifth century. What is not so evident is that Peter's audience will exercise the same faith as this desperate woman. In his highest expectations, Peter hopes that his own congregation will touch the Eucharist and so be healed like the hemorrhaging woman. While Peter never formulated a doctrine of the Eucharist per se, his proclamation assumes a profound continuity between the life of Christ and the sacramental life of the Church. One of the most important contexts of many patristic figures in their interpretations of Scripture was the liturgy of the Church with its centrepiece in the Eucharist. 1 The fifth-century bishop of Ravenna Peter gives ample evidence of reading gospel texts through a eucharistic lens. In this paper, I will explore Peter's reading of a particular gospel pericope, the account of the healing of the woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage (Mark 5:21-43, esp. 25-34; Matt 9:18-26; Luke 8:41-56). I will argue that he reads the gospel text in a sacramental atmosphere by stressing the continuities between the first-century event and his fifth-century audiences. For Chrysologus, the liturgy functions as a place of re-enactment in which the meaning of the gospel text comes alive again for the generation to which he is preaching. It is not only that the liturgy is the proper context in which the sacraments are celebrated but that the liturgy itself opens a window on the mystery lying hidden in the text. This affords the opportunity for that underlying mystery to be actualized again and appropriated by hearers. This implies that Chrysologus reads the gospel pericope not only in an allegorical manner with a corresponding application to his audience but sees the text as a spur to stimulate faith in the same hidden power related in the text. 2 Peter, in other words, assumes and promotes a hermeneutic of participatory reading. In Peter's treatment of the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage, we find the literal and allegorical distinction collapsing into the mystery carried by event and text.

Beyond Literalism and Irrelevance: Catholic and Reformed Approaches to the Problem of Scripture and Nature Introduction: Setting the Context

Picturing the Scientific Revolution

The Catholic Historical Review, Jul 1, 2012

Two aspects of Roger Bacon’s semiotic theory in De Signis

Semiotica, 2000

Umberto Eco and John Deeley in their lectures on the historical foundations of semiotics at the F... more

<i>Picturing the Scientific Revolution</i> (review)

The Catholic Historical Review, 2012

Natural Knowledge and Textual Meaning in Augustine's Interpretation of Genesis: The Three Functions of Natural Philosophy

This originally appeared as chapter four in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up t... more

The Role of Biblical Interpretation in the Cosmology of Tycho Brahe

This paper originally appeared in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science in 1996. It co... more This paper originally appeared in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science in 1996. It concerns Tycho Brahe's attempts to grapple with the place of scriptural texts in his emerging cosmology. The substance of this paper is also chapter three of my book God's Two Books: Copernican Cosmology and Biblical Interpretation in Early Modern Science.

Did the Bulldog Bite the Bishop?

This paper treats the famous debate in 1860 between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Hu... more This paper treats the famous debate in 1860 between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley, a debate that is typically cited as an example of the tensions between science and religion. Here I show that the more foundational differences concerned two different philosophies of scientific knowledge.

Three Frameworks for Interpreting the Church Fathers