Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
2025
Bio:
In the letter nominating Fr. Kelly for the emeritus honor, Jocelyn M. Boryczka, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences wrote “As an educator, Fr. Kelly has made an indelible mark on generations of students across nearly a half-century of teaching in the English Department and then in the Religious Studies Department. Students, some of whom are on staff at Detroit Mercy, share Fr. Kelly’s impact on their learning as he invited them to engage critically with complex questions about the meaning of existence and faith by accompanying them through reading difficult theological texts. Teaching the difficult methods of textual analysis empowers students to reach further to expand their knowledge and to understand that no text, theories, or set of ideas is beyond their grasp. His impact stretches from undergraduate to graduate students, two of whom contributed to an endowed lecture series, in part, to recognize Fr. Kelly’s contributions to their transformative learning experience with him, one echoed across generations. Education anchors the Jesuit mission. Clearly, Fr. Kelly has lived that mission at the University of Detroit Mercy.”
Twenty-five literature and religious studies courses were taught by Fr. Kelly during his tenure with the university. These include Introduction to Religion; Study of Religion; Catholicism: Spirit and Methods; Bible as Religious Literature; Modern Catholic Theology; Christ in Faith, Fiction, and Film; Quest for God today; Theology and Literature; God and the Human Condition; Theology of Karl Rahner; Theology of Death and Resurrection; Religion and Psychology; Poets, Mystics, and God; Spiritual Autobiographies; Theology of the Imagination; Sexuality and Love in Contemporary Christian Thought; Shakespeare and the Christian Vision; Prayer and the Incarnation, and more.
Todd Hibbard, Chair and Professor, Department of Religious Studies, in support of Fr. Kelly’s emeritus nomination wrote “Justin’s teaching and writing have focused on the intersection of spirituality and theology, especially through the lens of literature. In his classroom, students have been challenged to think about the “big questions”: Who is God? What does it mean to be human? What is faith? In pursuing these questions, Justin has been especially interested in the work of the influential German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. Rahner’s thought and writing can be difficult to unpack, to put it mildly. However, Justin has helped scores of students come to understand his work and appreciate its value for approaching the modern world.”
Professor Todd Hibbard also noted Justin’s service to the UDM campus, especially the Department of Religious Studies. “He served a six-year term as department chair in the 1980s and in the early 2000s was instrumental in restoring the graduate program in religious studies. Justin has also regularly led study groups at the Manresa Jesuit Retreat House in Bloomfield Hills, extending the reach of the university to people who are not officially part of our campus community. Indeed, an important part of Justin’s impact as an educator has been expressed in teaching seminars and workshops to the larger Catholic community in metro Detroit. He understood this work to be an extension of his commitment to the UDM and Jesuit mission.”
Biographical notes provided by Fr. Kelly address his publications, lectures and presentations, and positions and memberships. Examples of his publication include: Absence into Presence: A Theology of Imagination, Warren Lecture, University of Tulsa; Knowing by Heart: The Symbolic Structure of Revelation and Faith, in Faithful Witness: Foundations of Theology for Today’s Church; The Poet as Theologian: Hopkins and the Transformation of History in Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America; Prayer and the Incarnation: An Approach to the Identity of Jesus Through Religious Experience in The Way Supplement; plus articles and book reviews in The American Ecclesiastical Review, The Critic, Drama Critique, Theological Studies, The Way, and Woodstock Letters.
Lectures and presentations given by Fr. Kelly include “Toward a Christology of Contemplation” given during a Catholic Theological Society of American Annual Convention; “Elizabeth’s Absence of Mind;” “Why Does Elizabeth Blush? Jane Austen and Shame Theory;” “Pride, Prejudice and Providence;” “Paradoxes of Love in Pride and Prejudice;” “The Religion of Jane Austen;” “Lifting the Embargo: Elizabeth and Darcy Forgive Each Other;” and other talks given to the Michigan Chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Lectures at the New American Lyceum include “The Darkness of God;” Ignatius Loyola: From Tavern Brawler to Saint;” “Literature, the Bible, and Me;” and “Hamlet and the Problematic Modernity.” Presentations given to the UDM community covered “The Enormous Privilege: Musings of an Accidental Theologian,” “Truth and Fantasy: How Imagination Shaped the Christian Tradition,” “My Half-Century at the University: A Personal History;” and “The Center is Everywhere.”
Fr. Kelly entered the Society of Jesus in Milford, OH in 1954; he studied Philosophy at West Baden College, Indiana (1958-61); taught English at St. Ignatius High School, Cleveland OH (1961-63). He earned a B.A. (1960) and M.A. (1962) from Loyola University, Chicago; and earned his S.T.B. in Theology at Woodstock College, Maryland (1961-67). Fr. Kelly served his Tertianship at St. Beuno’s College, N. Wales (1967-68); studied English Literature at Yale University (1968-72); where he was awarded his PhD in 1974; as an Assistant Professor he taught English at University of Detroit (1972-75); and taught Religious Studies at University of Detroit, later University of Detroit Mercy (1974-2024). Fr. Kelly was earned tenure in 1976 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1990.
Along with teaching at UDM, Fr. Kelly served as the Warren Distinguished Professor of Catholic Theology, University of Tulsa; as Adjunct Professor of Theology, Georgetown University; visiting professor, Gonzaga University for three summer sessions; St. John’s Provincial Seminary (Plymouth MI); and Institute of European Studies (Durham England). From the 1980s to the present Fr. Kelly was a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the American Academy of Religions, and from 1999 to the present a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America.
Citation:
Fr. Justin Kelly’s, S.J. nomination for Jesuit Professor Emeritus status was approved and conferred by Dr. Donald B. Taylor, President of the University of Detroit Mercy on May 13, 2025.