Maria Clara Bingemer

This profile was current as of 2016, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.

Maria Clara Bingemer (PhD, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome) is a noted Brazilian theologian. A full professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC), she focuses her research on systematic theology, mysticism, and in particular on Latin American and liberation theology. Bingemer’s current research project is on Mysticism and Testimony: a study of knowledge, language and praxis in contemporary mysticism.

As a former Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow Bingemer worked with Faculty Fellow Peter Casarella on their joint book project “God in America: A Comparative Analysis in Latin American and Latino/a Theology.” The project opened a dialogue between the two theologies, examining such topics as the question of God, the link between faith, politics, economics, and human rights, and the impact of theology on the religious horizons of the Americas, both north and south.

Bingemer is widely published in many languages. Her English works include A Face for God: Reflections on Trinitarian Theology for Our Times (Convivium, 2014), Witnessing: Prophecy, Politics and Wisdom (edited with Peter Casarella, Orbis, 2014), and Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor (with Ivone Gebara, Wipf and Stock, 2004). More recently, she published Simone Weil: Mystic of Passion and Compassion (Wipf and Stock, 2015), The Mystery and the World: Passion for God in Times of Unbelief (Wipf and Stock, 2016), and Latin American Theology: Roots and Branches (Orbis, 2016).

The former dean of the Center of Theology and Human Sciences at PUC, Bingemer held the first Duffy Lectures Chair at Boston College in spring 2015. She serves on the editorial boards of many theological journals, including Concilium.