Father Evan Koop is a literary prize and research award recipient for his doctoral dissertation on Mary’s cooperation in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Father Koop — a formator and assistant professor of dogmatic theology with The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul — received the Henri de Lubac award for his dissertation titled “Per Gemitum Columbae — The Virgin Mary’s ‘Bridal Cooperation’ in the Redemptive Sacrifice of the Cross, in the Mariology of Matthias Joseph Scheeben and His Patristic Sources.”
In his dissertation, Father Koop considers Mary’s specific role and her cooperation in Jesus’ redemptive suffering, exploring also how early Church sources influenced Scheeben, a theologian, to reflect on the significance of Mary in salvation history.
“(A)s I immersed myself in the deep waters of Scheeben’s highly original Mariological speculations and nearly impenetrable prose, I became fascinated with the way in which his depiction of Mary’s cooperation in the work of redemption at the cross was shot through with a profound nuptial mysticism,” Father Koop said, in part, in his doctoral defense remarks.
“I concluded that, while Scheeben’s theology of Mary’s ‘bridal cooperation’ in redemption at the Cross is fundamentally original to him, it can be seen as a consistent development of what was implicit in the Church Fathers, especially in seminal patristic ideas of Mary as the new Eve and the type of the Church,” Father Koop said about his dissertation, in part, during remarks he offered when he received the award at a ceremony in November.
Named after the French Jesuit priest and influential Catholic theologian, the Henri de Lubac award seeks “to promote the academic excellence of university dissertations that stand out for their originality and their contribution to theological, juridical and philosophical reflection,” a news release about the award stated.
Father Koop said he learned he had been named a recipient of the award in March.
“After I had defended my dissertation in March of 2023, my dissertation director (Father Joseph Carola, SJ) encouraged me to submit it for consideration for the De Lubac Prize, which I did in July of 2023. So, it was a bit of (a) wait to hear back from the prize committee, and I had honestly completely put it out of my mind,” Father Koop said via email.
The panel that considered Father Koop’s dissertation for the award acknowledged “the precision and breadth of this work, which takes the discussion back to patristic sources and offers a fascinating historical study of the Mariological debates of the 19th century, the implications of which seem inevitable at this time of reflection on the Virgin Mary as the model of the Church as the bride of Christ,” the news release stated.
“I was obviously quite surprised, but also very humbled and grateful,” Father Koop said of receiving the award. “Most of all, I took it as a kind of validation of the amount of time and effort this project required of me. As anyone who has pursued doctoral studies will know, the research and writing of a dissertation involves years of hard, often tedious work that is inevitably quite solitary and hidden. So, I was grateful to God for this little sign of his blessing upon my work.”
Father Koop traveled to Rome for the award ceremony, which took place Nov. 22 at the Villa Bonaparte, the seat of the French Embassy to the Holy See. Father Koop said Cardinal Paul Poupard, a founder of the Henri de Lubac award, presided over the ceremony and offered remarks. Madame Florence Mangin, ambassador of France to the Holy See, presented Father Koop and another winner in the French language category with their awards.
“Most of the speeches were in French, so I didn’t understand a whole lot! But it was a very nice evening,” Father Koop said in an email.
In receiving this award, Father Koop thanked those who supported him and his work.
“I would just like to offer my sincere gratitude to all those who supported me throughout my years of study in Rome — especially Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who first sent me to Rome in 2016, and also The Saint Paul Seminary, first under the leadership of Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, and then under the present Rector, Father Joseph Taphorn,” he said in an email. “Most of all, I would like to thank all those who prayed and sacrificed so much to grant me the blessed opportunity to spend so much time contemplating the mystery of Mary at the Cross.”
