Dr. Alison M. Benders, Senior Lecturer Emerita, Systematics (Santa Clara University, Jesuit School of Theology), is a Catholic scholar of theology and ministry, and a higher education leader who recently retired after twenty-five years of teaching and senior administration in Catholic institutions. She most recently served as the inaugural Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Santa Clara University, where she oversaw the university’s Jesuit Catholic mission, uniting its three service and formation units, Campus Ministry, Mission Santa Clara de Asis (the historic ‘Mission Church’), and the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education as Executive Director. Prior to this role, Dr. Benders spent seven years on the faculty of the Jesuit School of Theology, also serving as Associate Dean and Interim Dean. She was awarded Senior Lecturer Emerita status upon her retirement in 2024.
Dr. Benders’s scholarship focuses on racial justice, spirituality, and Catholic ministry, with a deep engagement in Ignatian theology and the thought of Bernard Lonergan. She is the author of America’s Original Sin: A Pilgrimage of Race and Grace (Liturgical Press, 2022), a theological and personal reflection on racial injustice in the United States. She has completed the first two of a trilogy of prayer books designed to support faith formation: Just Prayer: A Book of Hours for Peacemakers and Justice Seekers (Liturgical Press, 2015), winner of the 2016 Catholic Publishers Award for Spirituality, and Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for Renewing Creation (Liturgical Press, 2024, co-authored). She is currently writing a spiritual introduction to contemplative prayer. Topics in her writing and speaking portfolio include contemplative spirituality, discernment, and Catholic social teaching and mission.
Dr. Benders began her professional career as a corporate and antitrust litigator in Philadelphia, after graduating from law school and a clerkship with a federal appellate judge. In her transition to higher education, she held progressively more responsible leadership positions, including Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ohio universities. She holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Virginia School of Law, Boston College, and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. She has completed graduate coursework in Ignatian spirituality and spiritual direction at Loyola University of Chicago.
Dr. Benders continues to offer spiritual formation and professional development for individuals and faith-based organizations, integrating theological depth with practical application. She is a member of the NETWORK Lobby and Advocates Boards of Trustees, and an advisor for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER). She serves as a lector and supports formation at her home parish in Cleveland, Ohio. She is an avid quilter and an occasional gardener.
Education
PH.D. Boston College, Systematic and Comparative Theology, Dissertation: A Comparative Study of Self Awareness and Self-Transcendence (Lonergan and Sankara) (http://escholarship.bc.edu/dissertations/AAI3255941/)
S.T.L. Jesuit School of Theology, Systematic Theology
M.A. Boston College, Systematic Theology/Spirituality
J. D. University of Virginia School of Law
B.A. Yale University, Philosophy
- Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for Renewing Creation, Benders, Alison; Fullam, LIsa; Hens-Piazza (Liturgical Press 2024, forthcoming).
- Recollecting America’s Original Sin: A Pilgrimage of Race and Grace (Liturgical Press 2021)
- Reading, Praying, Living The US Bishops' Open Wide Our Hearts: A Faith Formation Guide. (Liturgical Press, 2020)
- "Genetic Moral Enhancement? Yes. Holiness? No." in Fullam, L. and Charles Curran, eds., US Moral Theology from the Margins: Readings in Moral Theology No. 19, Mahway, NJ: Paulist, 2020 (reprint of 2018 article)
- Review "Seeing race again: Countering colorblindness across the disciplines. Crenshaw, KW (Ed.).(2019). Univ of California Press. ISBN: 978-0520300996. $32.95. xviii+ 410." Teaching theology and religion 23.3 (2020): 209-211
- Quilting as Spiritual Practice and the Possibility of Redemption, GTU Doug Adams Gallery, Black Lives Matter Exhibit (Online, 2020)
- Just Prayer: A Book of Hours for Peacemakers and Justice Seekers (Liturgical Press, 2015)