Friar Leads New Program Using Neuroscience to Enhance Preaching

Catholic Theological Union was awarded a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. as part of the foundation’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. Under the leadership of Friar Edward Foley, OFM Cap. of the Province of St. Joseph, the program will partner with neuroscientists at the University of Chicago to conduct empirical studies on real-time preaching in Spanish and English.  The aim is to discover how compelling preaching impacts people’s brains and nervous systems.  This groundbreaking initiative is intended to help individual preachers become more effective as well as to assist in the formation of future generations of preachers.