Jean Doutre

Biography

When I entered a monastery in 1966, my mentor insisted that I nourish my spiritual life with the Bible. I soon discovered that reading the Bible was not easy. I started to ask myself the question: how do I read a text, understand it and grasp its meaning? These questions have guided my intellectual quest all my life. This is why I chose semiotic analysis as a method for reading and analyzing a text. My experience of reading the Bible showed me that, at a certain point it is not only a text that I am reading; rather, through the text, Someone is talking to me and my reading nourishes this relationship. Furthermore, I soon learned that a relationship with God is based on a sound psychological balance. So I studied psychology to help others find a balance in their lives that can integrate a more personal and fruitful relationship with God. As a teacher, I want my students to learn how to read a text and how to develop a more discerning and critical approach to the meaning of that text. I teach the New Testament and my method of teaching is based on a common reading of a text and learning techniques of reading. As a prior of a Dominican Convent, I want to foster a peaceful environment where teachers can work intellectually and fully live their relationship with God in order to communicate the fruit of their own contemplation in their teaching and preaching. Thus a teacher not only communicates intellectual knowledge but his own love and appreciation for the authors and texts studies in class.

Research Interest

Bioethical issues in today’s world.