Joe Holland
AN ECO-SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER & CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN, Joe explores the intertwined ecological, societal, and spiritual breakdowns of Modern Western Industrial-Colonial Civilization and the need for a Global Ecological-Spiritual Renaissance. That Renaissance, he argues, needs to promote a Postmodern Global Ecological-Humanistic Civilization and a Postmodern Global Ecological-Mystical Spirituality.
Joe holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in the field of Ethics & Society, which was structured as an interdisciplinary dialogue among Theology, Philosophy, and Social Science. At Chicago, he studied Theology with David Tracy, Philosophy with Paul Ricoeur, and Social Science with Gibson Winter. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in Sociology at the Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile during the last year of the democratic-socialist presidency of Salvador Allende, which was violently overthrown by the brutal military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in collaboration with military and intelligence agencies of the United States Government.
Joe is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy & Religion at Saint Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida, where he taught for 25 years, and he is a still-active Adjunct Professor in its School of Law. In addition, he is Permanent Visiting Professor at the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano in Puno, Peru; President of Pax Romana / Catholic Movement for Intellectual & Cultural Affairs USA and Editor of its Pacem in Terris Press, with both based in Washington DC; Vice-Chair of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, based in Boston, Massachusetts; a founding board member of the Spirituality & Sustainability Global Network, based in Virginia; and a member of the International Association for Catholic Social Thought, based at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Earlier, Joe served for 15 years as Research Associate at the Washington DC Center of Concern, created jointly by the international Jesuits and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to work with the United Nations on major global issues. Later, he taught at New York Theological Seminary in New York City, Drew University School of Theology in Madison, New Jersey, and the Florida Center for Theological Studies in Miami, Florida. Also, he has served as Pax Romana's NGO representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations at its international headquarters in New York City.
In addition, Joe served as Research Coordinator for the 1976 Theology in the Americas Conference. He also founded the American Catholic Lay Network and served as founding executive director of the Pallottine Institute for Lay Leadership & Research at Seton Hall University. In addition, he co-founded the National Conference on Religion & Labor, co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO, and Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice.
Joe has published 19 books and many articles. His book with Peter Henriot SJ, Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice, has approximately 100,000 copies in print, including 2 US editions, 5 foreign-language editions and 2 foreign English editions. He was also ghost-writer for the 1975 document This Land is Home to Me: A Pastoral Letter on Powerlessness in Appalachia by the Catholic Bishops of the Region, and for the 1995 20th anniversary sequel document from the Catholic Bishops of Appalachia At Home in the Web of Life: A Pastoral Message on Sustainable Communities (with lots of help for both from visionary figures in the Catholic Committee for Appalachia). Two of his recent books are Postmodern Ecological Spirituality and Roman Catholic Clericalism. Two books on which he is presently working are titled The Ecological Failure of Modern Philosophy and Deep Reform of Catholic Christianity.
In the United States, Joe has lectured at Georgetown, Harvard, Notre Dame, Princeton, and other universities. Internationally, he has lectured at Institut Catholique in Paris, France; Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; the Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo, Brazil; the Pontifical Catholic University in Porto Alegre, Brazil; the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, Bolivia; and the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano in Puno, Peru.
In 1986, Joe received the Boston Paulist Center's Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice; in 2002, the Athena Medal of Excellence from the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano in Peru; in 2012 the Premio Federico II per La Pace in Milan, Italy; in 2013, the Irish Echo's Labor Award for contribution to the US labor movement; and in 2021 the first annual Thomas Berry Award from the Thomas Berry Institute for Ecumenical Dialogue at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York.
Joe is married to Francisca "Paquita" Biascoechea-Martinez Holland, a native of Puerto Rico, and they have two grown children and four young grandchildren. His and Paquita's too infrequent hobby is sailing, especially in the beautiful green waters of the Caribbean Sea.