• J. Donald Monan, S.J., Professor of Theology Theology Department Boston College
• The Genome Project: More than a Medical Milestone --available by permission of author

Lisa Sowle Cahill is J. Donald Monan, S.J., Professor at Boston College, where she has taught theology since l976. She is a past president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America (l992-93), and the Society of Christian Ethics (l997-98).

Lisa Cahill received her B.A. in Theology from Santa Clara University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, where she studied under James Gustafson. Her areas of special interest are method in theological ethics, especially in the Roman Catholic natural law tradition; use of Scripture in ethics; ethics of sex and gender; medical ethics; and history of Christian ethics.

She was a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, in l986; and a Visiting Professor of Catholic Theology at Yale University in l997.

Other Professional Affiliations:

Lisa Sowle Cahill is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has held office in the American Academy of Religion.

She has served as an editor or on the editorial boards of Concilium, Journal of Religious Ethics, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Religious Studies Review, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Horizons, Journal of Law and Religion, Second Opinion, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal.

She has been a member of the Catholic Health Association Theology and Ethics Advisory Committee, the National Advisory Board for Ethics in Reproduction, and serves on the March of Dimes National Bioethics Committee.

She is the convener of an international study group on "Genetics, Theology, and Ethics," that meets annually at the Jesuit Institute of Boston College.

Publications and Other Scholarly Work:

Lisa Cahill's most recent book is Family: A Christian Social Perspective (Fortress, 2000). She also is the author of Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, l996); 'Love Your Enemies': Discipleship, Pacifism, and Just War Theory (Fortress, l994); Between the Sexes: Toward a Christian Ethics of Sexuality (Fortress and Paulist Presses, l985); Women and Sexuality (Paulist, l992); and, with Thomas A. Shannon, Religion and Artificial Reproduction: An Inquiry into the Vatican Instruction on Human Life (Crossroad Press, l988). She has edited Embodiment, Morality and Medicine with Margaret A. Farley (Kluwer Publishers, l995), and, with James Childress, Christian Ethics: Problems and Prospects, a collection in honor of James M. Gustafson (Pilgrim Press, l996).

She is the author of over 100 scholarly essays in books and journals, including Theological Studies, Journal of Religion, Journal of Religious Ethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Law, Medicine, and Health Care, Horizons, Interpetation, Thought, Concilium, and the Journal of Law and Religion.

Lisa Sowle Cahill holds honorary degrees from St. Mary's College, Moraga CA; Lasell College, Newton MA; University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara CA; Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley CA; St. Peter's College, Jersey City NY ; Regis College, Toronto; Providence College, Providence RI; and Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

She is Alumna of the Year 1999 of the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Activities in Relation to the Roman Catholic Church

Lisa Sowle Cahill has served as a theological consultant to the U.S. bishops in preparation for the l987 Synod on the Laity; in preparation of a pastoral document on AIDS (l987); at a theological-episcopal conference on marriage and divorce (sponsored by the University of Dayton, in Chicago, l987); at a consultation with members of the USCC Marriage and Family Life Committee, on "domestic church," (l992); and to a committee of the NCCB on the implementation of the Vatican's Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities (l992).

In February 1998, Lisa Sowle Cahill delivered a paper on "Women's Health and Human Flourishing," at a Vatican conference on "Women's Health Issues," conducted under the aegis of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

She was an invited participant in the first "Cardinal Bernardin Conference" of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative (l997), and in 1998 joined the Initiative Committee.