Mark McInroy, assistant professor of theology in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas, has been named a recipient of the 2015 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise, formerly known as the John Templeton Prize for Theological Promise.
The annual award is presented to a select group of young scholars in recognition of outstanding doctoral or first post-doctoral works that address God and spirituality.
The Lautenschlaeger Award will be presented at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in May 2015 to 10 scholars from around the world. The presentation will be followed by a colloquium at the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum of the university.
McInroy and other award recipients will present and discuss their upcoming projects with Heidelberg colleagues and members of the board of external evaluators, which consists of an international, interdisciplinary board of distinguished scholars from different countries and disciplines. Award winners also will have the chance to propose an international and interdisciplinary colloquium on an academic topic.
McInroy joined the theology faculty at St. Thomas in 2011. His research and teaching focus on 20th century Catholic theology, especially the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Rahner, as well as ecumenical theology, including Christian understandings of salvation.
McInroy’s book, Balthasar on the Spiritual Senses: Perceiving Splendour, published by Oxford University Press in 2014, addresses a neglected aspect of Balthasar’s theology, namely the role of transfigured human perception in his theological aesthetics.
