William Woody of Bryn Mawr Graduates from Honors Program

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William Woody, University of Scranton Honors Program graduate

SCRANTON, PA (07/27/2011)(readMedia)-- William Woody, Bryn Mawr, was among the 22 members of The University of Scranton's Class of 2011 who graduated from the Jesuit university's Honors Program. The Honors Program supports The University of Scranton's tradition of excellence and its dedication to freedom of inquiry and personal development. It challenges outstanding students with a rigorous education that stresses independent work and intense engagement with faculty and other Honors students both in and out of the classroom. A student's work in the Honors Program culminates in a year-long senior project.

Woody's thesis was "Human Facticity and the Vocation to Trinitarian Life: The Event of Personhood in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger." He was mentored by Cyrus Olsen, Ph.D., assistant professor, theology/religious studies.

"My thesis seeks to elucidate a more authentic idea of personhood in the light of the Christian faith and, specifically, through the mystery of the Trinity," Woody said. "Drawing primarily from the works of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, I argue that personhood unfolds as an ongoing event or process, a 'living' of the human vocation to share in the Trinitarian life rather than positing personhood as an innately possessed, static entity."

Woody majored in theology and philosophy with a minor in French. He was a member of the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program and the Catholic Studies Program. He was the recipient of the Frank J. O'Hara Bronze Medal in 2008, the Frank J. O'Hara Silver Medal in 2009 and 2010 and the 2010 Rose Kelly Award for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Woody will enter the Jesuit Novitiate in Syracuse, N.Y.

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William Woody, Bryn Mawr, was among the 22 members of The University of Scranton's Class of 2011 to graduate from the Jesuit university's Honors Program. His thesis was "Human Facticity and the Vocation to Trinitarian Life: The Event of Personhood in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger." Standing from left are Cyrus Olsen, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology/religious studies; Woody and Joseph Kraus, Ph.D., director of the Honors Program and associate professor of English and Theatre.