Sunday at the Abbey – Fr. Michael Patella, OSB

Watch Fr. Michael Patella’s presentation, “The Garden of Eden and the Human Condition: Nostalgia or Anticipation.”

Original presentation on January 19, 2019
Abbey Chapterhouse

The story of Adam and Eve, originating over two-and-a-half millennia ago, arose at a time when the anthropological worldview was vastly different from our own. While we now stand under the light of the Big Bang Theory and evolutionary biology, this Genesis account of the human condition is still the basis for Christian salvation history. Prompted by the results of scientific discovery, Fr Michael Patella will explore the questions science raises for our concept of sin and as well as pose an alternative framework for twenty-first century Christians to employ in their thinking about redemption.

Fr. Michael Patella, a monk of Saint John’s Abbey, holds a License in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a Doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the École biblique et archéologique française in Jerusalem.  Fr. Michael is a professor of New Testament at Saint John’s University in Collegeville and teaches in its School of Theology and Seminary, where he also serves as the seminary rector and director of the Holy Land Studies program.  He chaired the Committee on Illumination and Text for The Saint John’s Bible, for which his work, Word and Image: the Hermeneutics of The Saint John’s Bible (Liturgical Press, 2013), addresses the theology, art, and interpretation.  In addition, he has written in the area of Luke-Acts, Paul, Mark, and angels and demons.  Currently, he working on the Gospel of Luke for the Jerome Biblical Commentary, Fully Revised Edition.    Fr. Michael is a member of the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical Literature.