Holy Cross Professor to Receive Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Scholarship and Intellectual Life’

WORCESTER, Mass. – David O’Brien, Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies in the department of history at the College of the Holy Cross, has been selected to receive the University of Dayton 2005 Marianist Award. The award is presented annually to "a Roman Catholic who has made an outstanding contribution to scholarship and intellectual life," according to University of Dayton officials.

He will be presented the national award and give a speech at the ceremony on Sept. 21 in Dayton, Ohio. Recipients are asked to present an address in which they reflect on the connection between their faith and their scholarly work.

O’Brien is an historian of American Catholicism, specializing in Catholic social and political thought and religion and politics. A faculty member at Holy Cross since 1969, he is a Notre Dame graduate and earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Rochester. He served as President of the American Catholic Historical Association, he holds six honorary degrees and he received the Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for distinguished service to Catholic higher education from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

"We asked David O’Brien to accept the award because of his achievements as an historian of U.S. Catholicism, especially of U.S. Catholic higher education. I don’t know of anyone who has been more faithful in insisting that American Catholics, especially lay people, keep thinking about how to keep the church alive and lively in the post-Vatican-II era," said Una Cadegan, associate professor of history at the University of Dayton and chair of the forum that nominated O’Brien.

O’Brien is the author of several books including The Renewal of American Catholicism (Oxford University Press, 1972), Public Catholicism: The American Church and Public Life, 1789-1989 (Macmillan, 1989), Isaac Hecker an American Catholic (Paulist Press, 1991) and From the Heart of the American Church: Catholic Higher Education and American Culture (Orbis Books, 1994) and was co-editor of Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage (Orbis Books, 1992).

He frequently provides expert commentary for the media; he has been quoted in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Catholic Reporter, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Associated Press. He has also penned numerous op-eds for The Boston Globe and Telegram & Gazette (Worcester), among others.

O’Brien was the founding director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross. He also developed the Peace and Conflict Studies concentration, a multidisciplinary program for students who wish to complement their major field of study with courses focused on peace, conflict, justice and human dignity.

The University of Dayton has presented the Marianist award annually since 1986. Recent recipients include Peter and Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, Mary Douglas, Mary Ann Glendon and Marcia L. Colish.