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{shortcode-8c0dd475ea3269f67b1a4d37d27db5cc232a1fc2}hen Jeannine Hill Fletcher was preparing her Harvard Divinity School doctoral application nearly 30 years ago as a master’s student, she sought guidance from HDS professor Francis Schüssler Fiorenza.

It was late November, and Fiorenza had just returned from the American Academy of Religion’s annual conference. But on holiday from Harvard, the night before Thanksgiving, Fiorenza met Hill Fletcher in his office and reviewed the entirety of her application.

“That, to this day, is just mentoring that is far beyond what most of us would be willing to do,” said Hill Fletcher, now a theology professor at Fordham University.

Fiorenza, a leading Roman Catholic theologian who taught at Harvard for nearly four decades, believed in being a mentor to make mistakes with, according to Hill Fletcher. He died in July at the age of 84.

An Architect of Modern Theology

Upon his retirement in July 2021, Fiorenza gave a lengthy interview with Hill Fletcher describing his early motivations for entering religious studies, which was published on the HDS website. A practicing Catholic, Fiorenza was one of the first theologians never to join the clergy.

“When I was in the fifth grade, my teacher found out that I hated my name, Francis, because classmates had teased me that I had a girl’s name,” he said. “When this teacher learned this, she took me to the library and said, ‘Stay here until you read this book.’”

That book — which told the story of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy — pushed Fiorenza to become an altar boy and later, into theological work. After receiving his doctorate in theology at the University of Münster in Germany, Fiorenza returned to the United States, where he taught at Villanova, Notre Dame, and the Catholic University of America before arriving at Harvard in 1986.

His research focused on questions of foundational and political theology, ranging from discussions of modern approaches to Biblical interpretation to issues of work and welfare.

“He just brought this kind of openness and breadth that was really just superb, a model for other faculty members and for the kind of intellectual engagement that the University really benefits from,” said David C. Lamberth, a professor of philosophy and theology at HDS.

Fiorenza published more than 150 essays and several books. In 2005, he was awarded the Henry Luce III fellowship for his research on twentieth-century Catholic thought.

He also believed Catholicism should lead people to believe deeply in social justice, he recounted in 2021. At just 22, he attended the 1963 March on Washington with a group of Catholic organizers. He was also opposed to the Vietnam War.

“We have to reckon with the fact that the church went out trying to missionize the world,” he told Hill Fletcher in 2021. “We often downplay or overlook that that missionization of the world was colonization.”

In that interview, he said the study of theology had slowly become more diverse in both its participants and topics of study. Fiorenza was optimistic that the trend would continue.

“We have to look forward to HDS becoming even more diverse than it has been, although I think it’s been one of the more diverse divinity schools in the country,” he said. “I’ve been happy at Harvard Divinity School, and I look forward to seeing how it continues to transform and change.”

‘An Expert, Willing to Laugh at Himself’

Beyond his own research, multiple former students described Fiorenza as committed to helping young scholars find their footing in the discipline.

Margaret M. Gower, an HDS alum who now teaches at St. Mary’s College, wrote in a statement that Fiorenza’s dedication to mentorship helped her find her own career path.

“I remember how he took the time to get to know me well enough to help me see that a professional goal for my own career was to teach at a women’s college,” she wrote.

“He could see how important that was to me, and he helped me to articulate it as a goal for the kind of career I wanted to have, and the kind of life I wanted to have, and it helped me to chart my course from those days in the early 2000s till now.”

Mara A. Brecht, also an HDS alum and associate professor at Loyola University, remembered him as joyful and encouraging.

“His intellect, or his wide-angle understanding of Roman Catholic systematic theology — especially in the 20th century — never got in the way of the fact that talking to people about theology, supporting students, made him happy,” she said.

“He was just really positive,” Brecht added.

Hill Fletcher, who took a class with Fiorenza early in her master’s degree program at HDS, said he encouraged students to believe their questions were worth exploring.

“I can remember him as being an instructor, being a professor who really heard the questions that people would ask, and who would really pause across an enormous room, and say, ‘That’s a good question,’ or ‘That’s the question we’re really pursuing,’” she said, recalling the class.

Once he became her mentor, Hill Fletcher said that Fiorenza pushed her to explore ideas and make mistakes freely.

“I swear, he says something like ‘Your mentor is the one you show your sins to,’” she added.

Brecht said that by focusing on inquiry and intellectual discovery rather than achievement, Fiorenza made space for joy.

“I can picture him in our room, smiling and laughing and encouraging people to pursue their ideas and their arguments from this place,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, what do you have to add? What do you have to say?’”

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at julia.karabolli@thecrimson.com.