Theology

H. Richard Rutherford, C.S.C., Drs.Theol.

At the University of Portland since 1976

Position: Professor
Area: Pastoral Liturgical Studies
Phone: 503-943-7380
Email: ruther@up.edu  
Office: Buckley Center 451

Education:

• B.A. in Philosophy  University of Notre Dame 1961
• S.T.L.  Gregorian University 1965
• Drs.Theol. Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen Netherlands 1970

What's a UP priest professor doing crawling around photographing long abandoned and forgotten rubble of ancient structures in back country Turkey or the windswept coast of southern Cyprus?  Surely that is not the ordinary picture one has of theology professors these days - except, of course, when the priest is Holy Cross and the long abandoned and forgotten structures are early Christian churches.  Indeed, I discovered over half a century ago that there is nothing at all ordinary about being a Holy Cross priest professor and nothing unusual about Holy Cross faculty at UP engaging in extraordinary pursuits.
After some thirty years serving as professor of theology and pastoral liturgy and devoting most of those years to the studying and publishing of both scholarly and practical works about the Christian funeral and bereavement process, recently I returned to interests of my youth.  As a seminarian at Notre Dame in the 1950's I found myself "walking side by side" with Holy Cross religious and an international faculty who instilled in me a love of early Christianity and the roots of our Catholic liturgy.  Now, on the farther end of my academic career and with a reduced teaching load, I can pursue that lifelong love and the research projects that help keep alive an appreciation for the roots of our faith and worship.  Blessed with a Fulbright Research Grant to study the unique role early Christian Cyprus played in shaping the history and liturgy of Baptism I spent spring semester, 2010, on that historic island.  Back in the classroom I hope to bring with me the inspiration twenty centuries of Christian life and worship has bequeathed to our Church and our world.  No, there is nothing ordinary about being a priest professor following those "many footprints on the road" in the family of Holy Cross in the academic apostolate at the University of Portland.