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“The sporting event is more of an event than in the past. Look at the advertisements that portray fans in the parking lot, drinking before the game. It’s part of the ritual. You see it at Duke men’s basketball games, where students wait in line for tickets. There is a party atmosphere.” Christian End, social psychologist, in the Fort Worth Star Telegram
“You’ve got to ask yourself, what is it that attracts people to cities? It’s a mix of uses and lively street life.” History professor John Fairfield talking about urban land development on MSNBC.com
“Don’t think life is separate from faith. I can’t go to work, place my values on the shelf then come home and be a good person. People often feel that way.” James Buchanan, director for The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue, in the Hamilton Journal News
“What I’m trying to say is no religion, including my own, can hold itself up as the only way to God or as having the fullness of truth. That’s impossible because all religions are human enterprises, and that means they’re limited. Pluralism states there are many valid religions, and no religion can set itself up as superior. And that [stance] is what Pope Benedict is so afraid of.” Professor emeritus of theology Paul Knitter in the Religion News Service on the new pope’s accusation that some Catholic theologians are teaching relativism, which is the idea that all religions are the same and moral principles are based on your culture and therefore subject to individual choice. Knitter says he promotes pluralism, which is the idea that many religions are valid ways of searching for meaning.
“March Madness comes at exactly the right time of the year. It creates a real buzz.” Associate vice president for enrollment management Jim McCoy in Crain’s Chicago Business on the impact of the NCAA basketball tournament on recruiting prospective students
“The church is looking inward. It feels it needs to shore up those foundations and structures upon which the tradition is built. Ratzinger ran that tradition and oversaw it.” James Buchanan, director for the Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue, on the new pope in The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Millennial students do not learn in the traditional ways of 50, 30 or even 10 years ago. We need to adapt our campus to their needs and changing times.” University President Michael J. Graham, S.J. on the new academic quadrangle in The Cincinnati Post
“Because the world has become so large that we can’t push the world away from us, we’re trying to get clarity on what is right and what is wrong. It’s a phenomenon in all religions.” James Buchanan, director for The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue, in the Deseret (Utah) Morning News
“[Fans think] ‘I can still think of us as being the better team, It’s just that we’re managed by, you know, a dolt.’” Christian End, professor of sports psychology, in the Washington Post, on fan loyalty
“Players and business executives get the same message: Just get the job done. We don’t care how. Just don’t let us know about it.” Paul Fiorelli, director for the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, on the usage of steroids in baseball in The Cincinnati Enquirer
“He really charted his own course. He went from a huge Afro and a dashiki to French cuffs and cuff links from the president.” Political science professor Gene Beaupré on Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in the Kansas City Star
“Being a sports fan provides an opportunity to get away from stress, the daily grind. Social identification theory states that a part of our self-concept is determined by the groups we belong to. Part of how we feel about ourselves is determined by the group’s successes. We argue that you are motivated to belong to things that make you feel good about yourself.” Christian End, a social psychologist, in The Albuquerque Tribune
“It has become only more and more intense. If we really understand Jesus, then we realize that we have to open ourselves with love and trust and dialogue with persons who follow other ways. I think we’re starting to understand that more and more.” Paul Knitter, professor emeritus in the The Kansas City Star, Toronto Star, Saskatchewan Leader-Post and Seattle Times
"A major part of being on that global stage now is the fostering of inter-religious dialogue. He has established a tradition, a momentum, that is really going to have to continue." James Buchanan, director for the Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue in New York Newsday
"Since the '60s, every decade has had major ethical scandals.” Paul Fiorelli, director for the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Investor's Business Daily
“We’re excited to be a trendsetter here and hope to see a lot [of schools] follow us. If hospitals are redesigning to have the CNL role, then schools need to be preparing CNLs.” Susan Schmidt, chair of the department of nursing in NurseZone
“This is a really, really dark day for Catholicism, for Muslims, for women, for Africans. John Paul II had brought more publicity and power to the Holy See. Benedict now comes in with far greater expectation and ability to wield power as a result. He also comes with a kind of ideological commitment, a religious fundamentalism, that makes him doubly dangerous. I met Ratzinger on one occasion and it was clear he was not a supporter of interreligious dialogue … This is particularly bad news for Africans, for culture of life, since Ratzinger has been such an opponent of the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. All in all, it seems like part of an onslaught of regressive forces making the world a very dangerous place for all of us.” Farid Esack, chair of ethics/religion and society program, on the election of Benedict XVI in the Kansas City InfoZone
“The changes that many progressive Catholics were hoping might come to be will simply not happen in the near future.” Brennan Hill, professor of theology, on the election of Benedict XVI in The Cincinnati Post
