Catholic education, particularly Catholic schooling, has taken place under the auspices of members of a variety of religious orders and has been
profoundly influenced by the spiritual traditions of those founding orders. This course is an exploration of the richness of the spiritual traditions of the Catholic Christian tradition and the pedagogical practices that are rooted in them. In an era when schools are moving into the hands of lay teachers and administrators, a thorough grounding in the school’s founding charism is necessary for understanding and enacting the schools educative mission.
SMP 3410/6410
Catholic Spirituality & Education
- Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Cameron
- Day: Tuesday
- Time: 17:00-19:00
- Location: TF 203
Dr. Cynthia Cameron
Patrick and Barbara Keenan Chair in Religious Education
Assistant Professor of Religious Education
- PhD, Theology and Education (Boston College)
- MA, Catholic School Administration (Catholic University of America)
- MAR, Hebrew Scriptures (Yale Divinity School)
- cynthia.cameron@utoronto.ca
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100 Wellesley St. W, Room 206
Teaching and Research Interests
- Religious Education
- Catholic Education
- Catholic Schools
- Theological Anthropology
- Feminist Theology
- Liberative Pedagogy
- Adolescents and Young Adults
Dr. Cynthia Cameron is Assistant Professor of Religious Education and the Patrick and Barbara Keenan Chair in Religious Education at the Faculty of Theology. Dr. Cameron teaches core courses within the Masters of Religious Education program, including Faith Development Across the Lifespan and Catholic Educational Documents, as well as a wide variety of elective courses in religious education.
Dr. Cameron completed her BA at Denison University and has master’s degrees from Yale Divinity School and the Catholic University of America; she did additional theological studies at Washington Theological Union. She earned her PhD in Theology and Education at Boston College in 2017 and served as assistant professor of religious studies at Rivier University in New Hampshire and as an adjunct instructor at Sacred Heart University, Boston College, and Loyola University, New Orleans.
A specialist in ministry and education with youth and young adults, her research tends to focus on the flourishing of mid-adolescents and the ways that the Church can support these young people in a healthy development towards adulthood. In particular, Dr. Cameron is interested in female adolescence, questions of theological anthropology, and practices of Catholic schooling. She is currently developing a project that involves wondering about the theological themes surfaced by theologians who work or have worked in Catholic all-girls’ schools. A second developing project involves questions of flourishing and perfectionism among North American adolescents.
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SMP 3400
Education, Media and Evangelization
Summer 2023- Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Cameron
- Day: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Time: 14:00-17:00
- Location:
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Winter 2023
- Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Cameron
- Day:
- Time:
- Location:
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SMP 3410/6410
Catholic Spirituality & Education
Winter 2023- Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Cameron
- Day: Tuesday
- Time: 17:00-19:00
- Location: TF 203
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SMP 3441/6441
Education and Liberation
Fall 2022- Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Cameron
- Day: Monday
- Time: 17:00-19:00
- Location:
- Cynthia L. Cameron, Lakisha Lockhart-Rusch, and Emily A. Peck, eds., Nobody's Perfect: Redefining Sin and Mistakes in Adolescent Christian Education (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, forthcoming 2025).
- Cynthia L. Cameron and Christopher J. Welch, Life Abundant: God and the Created Order in Catholic Social Perspective (Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2022).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, "Gender and the Rhetoric of Relationships," in Nobody's Perfect: Redefining Sin and Mistakes in Adolescent Christian Education, ed. Cynthia L. Cameron, Lakisha Lockhart-Rusch, and Emily A. Peck (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, forthcoming 2025).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, "Faith and Justice: The Mission of Catholic Schools and the Outcomes of Religious Education," in Conceptualizing the Outcomes of Religious Education" ed. Jon A. Levisohn (accepted for publication; forthcoming 2022).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, “Francis’ Theological Anthropology of Young Adults: Christus Vivit as Resource for Undergraduate Theological Educators,” in The Human in a Dehumanizing World: Reimagining Theological Anthropology and Its Implications ed. Daniel Horan and Jessica Coblentz (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2022).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, "Hidden Self-Injury and Public Liturgy," in Liturgy+Power, ed. Brian Flanagan and Johann M. Vento (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2017).
- Review of Homophobia in the Hallways: Heterosexism and Transphobia in Canadian Catholic Schools by Tonya D. Callaghan in "Reading Religion," American Academy of Religion (2023)
- Review of What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundations by Thomas H. Groome in Religious Education 117, no. 3 (2022):261-262.
- Review of The Spirituality of Anorexia: A Goddess Feminist Thealogy by Emma White in “Reading Religion,” American Academy of Religion (2021).
- Review of Human Dependency and Christian Ethics by Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar in “Reading Religion,” American Academy of Religion (2020).
- Review of The Church as Woman and Mother: Historical and Theological Foundations by Cristina Lledo Gomez in Horizons 46, no. 2 (December 2019): 392-394.
- Review of Into Silence and Solitude: How American Girls Became Nuns, 1945-1965 by Brian Titley in “Reading Religion,” American Academy of Religion (2019).
- Review of Daughters in the Hebrew Bible by Kimberly D. Russaw in “Reading Religion,” American Academy of Religion (2019).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, "Genders, Sexualities, and Catholic Schools: Towards a Theological Anthropology of Adolescent Flourishing," British Journal of Religious Education (summer 2024).
- Cynthia L. Cameron, "You Are the Now of God: Christus Vivit and the Need for a Theological Anthropology of Youth," Horizons 50, no. 1 (June 2023): 110-135.
- Paper: "The Flourishing of Girls: An Intersectional Theology of Vulnerability and Flourishing, College Theology Society, Denver CO, May 2024.
- Paper: "Living into Freedom: A Developmental Framework for a Theology of Freedom for Children and Adolescents," Catholic Theological Society of America, Milwaukee WI, June 2023.
- Panel: “Making Race an Object of Reflection: A Developmental Framework for Anti-Racist Education in the Religious Studies Classroom,” co-panelist: Christopher J. Welch, Rivier University, College Theology Society, June 2022.
- Paper: “Francis’ Theological Anthropology of Young Adults: Christus Vivit as Resource for Undergraduate Theological Educators,” College Theology Society; June 2021.
- Panel: “Learning from Particulars: What Happens When Scholars from Different Traditions Pursue the Question of the Desired Outcomes of Religious Education Within Their Particular Traditions?” co-panelists: Jon Levisohn, Brandeis University, and Mona Abo Zena, University of Massachusetts Boston, Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit, American Academy of Religion; Boston MA, November 2020.
- Paper: “Something to Talk About: A Pedagogy of Dialogue in the Catholic Studies Classroom,” The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Challenges and Opportunities for the Catholic University in the 21st Century Conference at Sacred Heart University; Fairfield CT, October 2020.
- Paper: “Mea Culpa: Practices of Confession among Adolescent Girls in Catholic Schools,” Second International Conference on Catholic Religious Education in Schools; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, February 2020.
- Paper: “Will You Talk With Me? Welcoming the Faithful and the Skeptical in an Undergraduate Religious Studies Course,” Religious Education Association; Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 2019.
- Paper: “Adolescent Girls and Experiences of Grace: Considering Cognitive Development and the Possibility of Experiencing Transcendence,” Catholic Theological Society of America; Indianapolis IN, June 2018.
- Panel: “Stubborn and Resourceful: Narratives of Resistance in Communities of Women," panel title: Theological Reflection and Call the Midwife: Women’s Stories of Caring for Others, Mentoring among Women, Resisting Injustice and Embodying the Persona Christi, co-panelists: Katherine Greiner, Carroll College, Kimberly Humphrey, Boston College, Mary Kate Holman, Fordham University, Women at the Well: Religion, Resilience, and Grace at Carroll College; Helena MT, March 2018.
- Invited Panel: "Walking Together; Meeting People Where They Are: Relationships and Listening as Core Practices of Adult Faith Formation for a Synodal Church," co-panelists: Carol Kuzmochka, Anne Walsh, and Daryold Winkler, Adult Faith Formation Symposium, Centre for Religious Education and Catechesis, St. Paul University, Ottawa ON, February 2024.
- Public Lecture: "The Goodness of Adolescence: Pope Francis' Contributions to a Theological Understanding of Young People," Alumni Lecture, University of St. Michael's College, Toronto ON, May 2022.
- Invited Panel: “Teaching for Dialogue," panel title: Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti amidst US Political Polarization, co-panelists: Daniel Cosacchi, Loyola University, Chicago; Meghan Clark, St. John’s University; Brian Stiltner, Sacred Heart University; moderator: Brent Little, Sacred Heart University, New England-Maritime regional meeting of the American Academy of Religion, April 2021.