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John P. Falcone
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Back to  Faculty and staff directory
John P. Falcone

John P. Falcone Ph.D.

Ford Visiting Professor of Practical Theology
Theology

About

I grew up in the Bronx in a Southern Italian working-class family. After a post-undergrad year at St Louis Effort for AIDS in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (the "four pillars" of JVC are community living, simple lifestyle, spirituality, and social justice), I became a social worker and then got my master's degree in ministry. I became a religion teacher and campus minister at inner city Catholic high schools, including Cristo Rey New York - where kids from low-income families combine classroom learning with professional education (working at an entry-level, white-collar jobs for five days each month in order to pay for their college prep education).
With a PhD in theology and education, I've taught graduate and undergraduate ministry in the US and in the UK. During the COVID lockdown, I founded LectioEast, which creates online and in-person experiences of “lectio visceralis” (Ignatian reflection, improvised movement, and liberation-oriented prayer). I've been involved in critical pedagogy and community based ministry (LGBT, working class, youth work) for many years - as a teacher, a community organizer, and as a trainer / practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed, where improvisational theatre meets critical social analysis.
Interested in creative ritual, or activist art-making? Let’s talk!

Education

  • Ph.D., Theology and Education, Boston College
  • M.Div., (ministry, Biblical Studies, education), Union Theological Seminary NYC
  • B.A., Classical Languages, Fordham University

Professional Background

  • Unit Staff (social worker), Independence Center, St. Louis MO
  • Campus Minister, St. Catherine Academy, Bronx NY
  • Founding Religion Faculty & Campus Minister, Cristo Rey High School New York, Spanish Harlem NYC
  • Pastoral Assistant and Children's Worker, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London UK
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
  • Lecturer, St. Augustine's Theological College, Kent UK
  • Ford Visiting Professor of Practical Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary, University of Redlands Marin Campus

Publications

“Drinking from Our Own Wells in Ghana: Interfaith Education, Civic Engagement, and Resisting the Anti-LGBT Agenda.” With Davis Mac-Iyalla. British Journal of Religious Education (2024): 1–11. doi:10.1080/01416200.2024.2305859.

 

“Lectio visceralis – Embodied, Online Worship: Praying, Learning and Liberation in the Flesh at BIAPT 2022. Practical Theology 16, no 3 (2023): 384-396.

 

“Body and Spirit Together: Theatre of the Oppressed, Pragmatist Semiotics, and Practical Theological Method.” ARTS: Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies 30, no. 1 (2018): 57-71.

 

“Peirce, Pragmatism, and Religious Education: Participating More Deeply in God’s Imagination.” Religious Education 111, no. 4 (July/September 2016): 381-397.

 

“Training Lay People to ‘Practice’ Scripture Rhetorically: A Pedagogical Model with Biblical Precedent and Warrant from the Gospel of Matthew.” Journal of Adult Theological Education 13, no. 1 (2016): 4-17.

 

“Do Not Quench the Spirit: Rainbow Ministry and Queer Ritual Practice in Catholic Education and Life,” in Christine Firer Hinze and J. Patrick Hornbeck II, eds., More than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity in the Catholic Church, Volume I: Voices of Our Times. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014. 114-123.