God-studies/Theology has great potential to influence both profound and common thinking about who and what we human beings are in light of belief in God, the Creator of all things. The hallmark of God's creation is diversity -from inanimate to living beings- with the inherent task among us, the imago Dei especially, to discern how to relate to one another and to the world. As scholars in Religion and Disability argue, in light of creation's diversity, persons with disability in the human community are no less nor more deserving of relationship: all embody equal worth and personhood.
About Mary Jo:
Mary Jo Iozzio, PhD, earned her doctorate in Systematic Theology with a focus on Moral Theology from Fordham University (1994); and, in an earlier program of graduate studies at Fordham, she earned the MA in the History of Religions (1984). In between these studies she earned an MA in Biblical Studies from Providence College (1987). Before coming to the STM, she was Professor of Moral Theology at Barry University, Miami Shores, FL (1993-2013), and adjunct instructor at Fordham University, Providence College, and the University of Rhode Island. She has been formed by both religious and secular education systems: the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, NY, who ran St. Mary School, and John F. Kennedy P.H.S. in Paterson, NJ, and the Pennsylvania State University (BA Ancient History, 1977). Her personal and professional life have been marked —happily she adds—by the Jesuits, Dominicans, and Benedictines (whose monks welcomed her into their daily life at the Abbaye du Mont Cesar/Abdij Keizersberg, Leuven, Belgium).
