In their new book, four faculty members help explore the politics and theology of Pope Francis through an interdisciplinary lens.
When Christine Gustafson, Ph.D., chair of the politics department, and Paul Manuel, Ph.D., former Saint Anselm politics department chair, gathered in 2014 at the infamous Tombs restaurant near Georgetown University, along with their colleague, Alynna J. Lyon, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, the plan was to catch up over a drink. The three, who were in town presenting on a book volume at Georgetown’s Berkley Center, soon found the conversation drifting toward recently elected Pope Francis. Before they knew it, their original plan had evolved, and now included laying the framework for what would become their next book, Pope Francis as a Global Actor: Where Politics and Theology Meet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
“We just got to talking about Pope Francis and how interesting he was, and how excited people were by him, and we noticed how he seemed to scramble our categories,” says Gustafson. “He didn’t seem left or right, conservative or liberal, and how interesting that was, and how much of a voice he was on the world stage—he really captured our imagination.”
The book, which included contributions from theologians and political scientists from around the United States, as well as a preface written by Abbot Isaac Murphy, O.S.B. (who was then Br. Isaac Murphy, O.S.B.), went on to do very well.
Fast forward to 2022, when Gustafson, who was still very much interested in the work of Pope Francis, was shifting her focus from being academic dean at the college back to a full-time faculty member. “I really wanted to get back to the classroom, and I thought this would be a perfect time to reach out to Paul and Alynna, and get the band together,” she says. “So much had happened with Pope Francis, and I thought we had another book in us.”
Gustafson’s instincts were spot on, as their publisher had the same thought, and reached out about the possibility of a second volume, which became Pope Francis Reconsidered: The Politics and Theology of a 21st-Century Global Leader (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026).
This time, in addition to including several of the previous book’s contributors, Gustafson looked to the Hilltop. “This came about organically, and I looked to colleagues I knew had overlapping interests,” she says. She first thought of theology professor and director for the Center for Ethics in Society, Marc Rugani, Ph.D. “Marc and I were having coffee, and we both think a lot about Catholic social teaching, and when he asked me what I was working on and I told him, he was excited, and it just seemed natural for him to contribute,” she says.
Rugani’s interest in synodality (walking together in Christ) became the focus of his chapter. “When Christine mentioned she was working on the second volume of her book, it came at an interesting time,” says Rugani. “We were about 10 years into Pope Francis’ papacy, and we had been through a lot, we had experienced the pandemic. It was at this point that Pope Francis had been entering into this path of synodality, which, the idea behind it, is bringing all voices from around the world, from the farthest-flung margins to the center of the church’s conversation and its vision for what the church looks like.”
For Rugani, it was an incredible opportunity to dive deeper into this notion and explore Pope Francis as a leader. “I saw a real change in Pope Francis’ approach to leadership,” he says. “In the past, the pope was a hierarchical leader, from the top down, but Francis, in many ways, incarnates this humility, a self-emptying of himself of the power and privileges in order to join in and to bring a richer unity in the church’s diversity.”
Through his research, Rugani came across many who feel Pope Francis’ approach to leadership could serve as a model for communities, and even companies and corporations. “Instead of a business hierarchy, it’s the notion of working together, walking together, and stepping back and really listening, hearing voices from the margins, and bringing those voices at the edges to the center,” he says.
Unexpected Perspectives
Pope Francis surprised the world with his commitment to global topics such as climate change, and when Gustafson was catching up with associate professor of biology, Theresa Dabruzzi, Ph.D., over coffee, it dawned on her that this would be a wonderful addition to the book, and that Dabruzzi should be the one to write it.
“It just occurred to me when we were talking how great would it be to have a climate scientist contribute to a chapter on Pope Francis’ environmental policy,” says Gustafson. “Theresa had never had the opportunity to think about that before, and she really stepped outside of her comfort zone, and boy, did she do a lot of great work.”
For Dabruzzi, a marine biologist who studies adaptations to the environment and animals that live in extreme habitats, it was a quick “yes,” followed by extensive research. “Everyone has a different research process, but for me, to start something new, I must do a lot of reconnaissance and really get into the topic and see what’s out there and what others have said about it: What is their objectivity? What is the actual hard, uninterpreted information?” she says.
Through her research, her chapter began to take shape. “Pope Francis’ consistent and persistent activism of the environment is where I ended up taking my chapter,” she says. “He’s not the only pope to address environmental affairs, but he’s done it more strongly than any other pope.”
In her chapter, Dabruzzi also wanted to highlight Pope Francis’ call to take care of our common home. “I read and listened to everything Pope Francis had written or said realizing that, although phrased differently throughout his communications, Francis encouraged us to create a ‘culture of care’ and continually stated that we all have a shared responsibility to our common home,” she says. “He has stated in no uncertain terms that we are in the middle of a climate crisis—and to me, this was the story.”
The story, or rather chapter, for Br. Thomas Lacourse, O.S.B. ’15, assistant director for academic support and a trustee of the college, turned out to be the travel of Pope Francis. The pope’s commitment to travel, and the type of travel, was in a sense groundbreaking, by who he was visiting and where.
Francis, in many ways, incarnates this humility, a self-emptying of himself of the power and privileges in order to join in and to bring a richer unity in the church’s diversity.
Like Gustafson’s other Saint Anselm contributors, Br. Thomas’ involvement with the book came about naturally. Finding himself at the same conference as Gustafson and her co-author Alynna Lyon, Br. Thomas heard their panel discussion on Pope Francis and was intrigued. “Pope Francis had just gone to Mongolia, which was kind of unusual as there’s about 1,500 Catholics in the country which is much less than the number of people who typically attend an audience with the pope,” he says. “And I told Christine and Alynna, you know, I have some thoughts on this.”
These thoughts soon turned into his chapter on the pope’s travel during his papacy. “I was so curious why this older man, who was 86 or 87 by this time, was flying across the world, which is not easy even for people in their prime, to see not that many people,” he says. “And that’s when this chapter grew into something much larger, in that this wasn’t an unusual trip for him, he’d been travelling to unusual places for his entire pontificate—this is a pope, approaching travel in a completely different way than we’ve seen his predecessors approach it.”
This approach to travel was very much in step with his entire papacy, according to Br. Thomas. “Pope Francis stays remarkably true and consistent to his word. The papacy had always been this grand thing, you know, this type of monarchy, of someone separated from their flock.” But as Br. Thomas shares in his chapter, this was not the case for Pope Francis. “Francis really says ‘no’ to this notion, I’m not going to be separated from my flock, I’m going to travel to the farthest reaches of the world, to the places where Catholics can’t easily come see me at the Vatican, and where popes have not been before, like East Timor, and underline that this institution that I lead is truly what it says it is: a universal church.”
Br. Thomas’ contribution was a full-circle moment for Gustafson. A former politics student of hers was now becoming a scholar in his own right. “He’s my student,” she says. “He really developed this topic, and has made a wonderful contribution.”
The Liberal Arts Approach
While the opportunity to explore the extraordinary papacy of Pope Francis may have been the primary focus for these contributors, the ability to come together, and collaborate through an interdisciplinary approach, was a highlight. “One of the things I really appreciated about this project, and this opportunity, was how collaborative and interdisciplinary it was,” says Br. Thomas. “Christine is a great champion of the liberal arts, and this is one of the college’s strengths, and I hope that’s something our students take forward—it’s okay to be interested in politics and theology and biology.”
Rugani agrees. “Being able to gather with the authors and, really, to give a good critical insight and help us reformulate or reframe or refine our thoughts was such a real gift,” he says.
This collaboration, combined with the ability to look at Pope Francis from all angles, was truly the secret ingredient in the book, according to Gustafson. “I think the real strength of this book is that it is interdisciplinary. When you have conversations with theologians, political scientists, and biologists outside of their disciplines, it really does highlight things in a different light, in a true liberal arts fashion.”
And for this, Gustafson credits Saint Anselm College. “I never would have branched out into thinking about religion and politics if I hadn’t worked here. Coming to Saint Anselm and learning about the mission here, and being invited into interdisciplinary projects has been one of the joys of working here,” she says.
Pope Francis Reconsidered: The Politics and Theology of a 21st-Century Global Leader (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) will be released this spring. For more information, visit www.palgrave.com/gp.