JOSE MARIO C. FRANCISCO, S.J., Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophical and Systematic Theology
School President

Contact Information

Jesuit Residence
Ateneo de Manila University
Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Tel. (+63 02) 4265941

Courses

Theological Anthropology 1 (Creation, Sin and Eschatology), Theological Anthropology 2 (Grace), Asian Theology, Faith and Culture, Multidisciplinary Approaches to Theological Studies, Christology, Theology of Religions and Inter-religious Dialogue, Faith and Inspiration

Areas of Interest

In keeping with his background in science, cultural studies and theology, his research and teaching are focused on the interaction between these fields especially in Asian contexts. First, theological themes like “original sin” or “divine action in the world” are discussed in relation to their historical contexts and to their reception in different linguistic and cultural contexts. Second, literary works and cultural practices like 17th century sermons of Spanish missionaries or Tagalog-Spanish dictionaries are analyzed in terms of their religious worldview and ethos. Fundamental to his work in these two areas is the paradigm drawn from contemporary translation theory—that Christianity is translated as it moves from one context to another.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Ateneo do Manila University, Quezon City
Master of Arts in Literature, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City
Licentiate in Sacred Theology, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

Background

This native-born Filipino and current LST President completed his undergraduate degree (B.S. Chemistry) and first graduate degree (M.A. Literature) at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. Upon joining the Jesuits, he did his philosophical and theological studies at the same university. He finished his licentiate in theology (S.T.L.) at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and doctorate (Ph.D. Theology) at the Graduate Theological Union. His dissertation proposed a hermeneutical approach to religious narrative based on Gadamer, Habermas and Ricoeur, and applied it to a classic Tagalog poem of Christ’s Passion chanted during Holy Week rituals. He has been a faculty member at Loyola School of Theology, East Asian Pastoral Institute and Ateneo de Manila University, and taught at the Jesuit School of Theology (now part of Santa Clara University) and Boston College where he was the 2005-06 Gasson Chair Professor. He has organized and lectured at international conferences on theology and religious formation.

He is affiliated with the Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines (Dakateo) and has been appointed member of the government’s Technical Panel on Catholic Religious Education, Commission on Higher Education. He belongs to the Board of Trustees of Ateneo de Manila University, Haribon, the earliest local environmental group in the Philippines, and other foundations. He holds various staff consultancies in the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific and the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus.

Recent Publications 

• Chapter on The Philippines, in Christianities in Asia, ed. Peter C. Phan (West Sussex UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 97-127.
• “Mapping Religious and Social Spaces in Traditional and Charismatic Christianities in the Philippines,” Festschrift in honor of Fr. John N. Schimacher, S.J., Philippine Studies, vol. 58, nos. 1-2 (June 2010), 185-221.
• Speaking in Many Tongues: Translation and Transcendence in Early Filipino Christianity,” in Philosophy, Religions, and Transcendence:  Conférence Mondial des Institutions Universitaires Catholique de Philosophie, Manila 2008, ed. Philippe Capelle-Dumont, Budhi, vol XIII, nos. 1-3 (2009), 605-15.
• “Historias de Dios en la vida e historia de las gentes [Reading God’s Story in People’s Lives and Histories],” in Nuevos Horizontes para la Misión: por la voda digna y la justicia (Bilbao: Ediciones Mensajero, 2008), pp. 33-45.
• “Translating Christianity into Asian Tongues: Cultural Dynamics and Theological Issues,”  Asian Christian Review, vol. I no. 2 (Summer 2007), 70-84.
• “Christian without Borders: Impossible? Imperative? A View from Asia,” Christian Identity I/Christliche Identität I, Forum Mission, Yearbook Volume 2 (2006), 12-28.
• “Christianity as Church and Story and the Birth of the Filipino Nation in the 19th Century,” in History of Christianity Volume 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 528-41.
• “The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: End and Beginning of Christologies,” Jeebadhara, Vol. XXXVI (May 2006), 175-82.
• Science, Religion and Culture in the Jesuit Tradition: Perspective from East Asia, Co-Editor (Melbourne: Australian Theological Forum, 2006).