Director of Ministerial Formation
Areas of Teaching and Research
Deepan Rajaratnam is an award-winning theologian and ministry professional with a breadth of ecclesial experience. He teaches in the area of pastoral ministry and synodality.
Biography
Rajaratnam researches the sense of the faithful through the lens of local church to advance a synodal reception of Vatican II. Accordingly, Rajaratnam creates space for a stronger consideration of culture and place in Catholicism as it is lived.
Rajaratnam’s most recent peer-reviewed publication, “Do Culture, Place, and Local Church Matter?: A New Schema for the Sensus Fidei for a Synodal Church” and his current projects are at the forefront of synodality. He is working on his first monograph focusing on the sense of the faithful in a synodal church in light of culture, place, and periphery. Rajaratnam is also writing two articles on the influence of ressourcement ecclesiology on Pope Francis’ synodal vision church and on a more synodal, local, and ministerial understanding of the theologian’s vocation. Additionally, Rajaratnam brings theology to publics beyond the academy offering his theological charism to the local church and regularly contributing to Sacred Heart University’s public theology forum, Go, Rebuild My House.
As a minister, Rajaratnam has served Catholic youth, young adults, and families as a parish youth minister, accompanied undergraduates as a graduate campus minister, and supported parishes and diocesan staff as a diocesan director and formator. Through these diverse ministry experiences, Rajaratnam recognized the need for theology to more deeply engage the lived reality of Church and consequently, Rajaratnam developed a strong research interest in theological ethnography.
At SJU, Rajaratnam continues his theological research as he teaches and forms the next generation of lay and ordained ministers for the Catholic Church. To learn more about his scholarship, visit www.DeepTheology.com/scholarship.
Select Publications
- Do Culture, Place, and Local Church Matter?: A New Schema of the Sensus Fidei for a Synodal Church.” In Theology and Media(tion): Rendering the Absent Present, edited by Stephen Okey and Katherine Schmidt, 69:103–14. The Annual Publication of the College Theology Society. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2024.
- Review of Pope Francis as a Moral Leader, by Thomas Massaro. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 44, no. 2, November 2024.
- “The Challenge of Race and Place for Local Synodality.” Go, Rebuild My House (blog), May 20, 2024. https://sacredheartuniversity.typepad.com/go_rebuild_my_house/2024/05/the-challenge-of-race-and-place-for-local-synodality.html.
- “Finding Meaning Under the Stars.” Humanities Moments: A Project of the National Humanities Center (blog), July 5, 2021. https://humanitiesmoments.org/moment/finding-meaning-under-stars/
Research interests
- Synodality
- Sense of the Faithful
- Theological Ethnography
- Local Church
- Mission, Ministry, & Discipleship
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Race & Inculturation
- Ecclesiology
- Pneumatology