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Joseph Roccasalvo

Joseph F. Roccasalvo (born December 9, 1940) is an American author, academic, and former Jesuit priest. He is best known for his contributions to theology, spirituality, and literature, having written numerous books and articles on these subjects. He is an award-winning fiction writer, having won the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) Top Fiction Writer of the Year in 2020. Roccasalvo is also an accomplished educator, having taught at institutions such as Manhattanville College, Fordham University, Loyola University Chicago, Franklin University Switzerland, and has mentored students in their spiritual and academic pursuits.

Early life and education

Roccasalvo was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Italian-American family and resided in the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay. His father, Michael Roccasalvo, was a medical masseur and physiotherapist while his mother, Lucia Anita Roccasalvo (née Martella), was a linguist, poet, and short story writer with a degree from New York University. Roccasalvo attended the Jesuit Brooklyn Preparatory School on a scholarship and was taught by Jesuits the likes of John M. Culkin and Daniel Berrigan.

After his secondary education, Roccasalvo joined the Society of Jesus, completing his novitiate years at Bellarmine College (now Clinton Community College) in 1962. In 1960, during his juniorite years, he enrolled in Fordham University and finished degrees in Classics and English Literature in 1964, along with a graduate degree in English literature in 1965. That same year, he finished a Licentiate in Philosophy from the Loyola Seminary in Westchester County. From 1965 to 1968, he taught French and theology at Brooklyn Preparatory School during his regency years, followed by three years of theology studies to obtain his MDiv in Theology at Woodstock College. In 1975, he was ordained a Jesuit priest.

Academic Career

Roccasalvo was heavily influenced toward the study of comparative religion by Thomas Berry. He applied to and gained admission to Harvard Divinity School in 1972 where he resided at the Center of the Study of World Religions, and became the first resident to be allowed to keep a cat. There, under the advisement of Masatoshi Nagatomi, he completed his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion in 1978 with a specialty in Buddhism. For part of his program, he lived in Thailand to learn Pali and taught at Mahidol University.

He served as a priest at Loyola University Chicago where he was also an adjunct professor of comparative religion for the summer session at the Institute of Pastoral Studies from 1979 through 1999. He was an Assistant Professor of History of Religions and Buddhist Studies at Manhattanville College from 1979 to 1985, while also holding adjunct positions at Columbia University and Queens College. In 1982, he left the Jesuit order but returned to a Jesuit community when he joined the faculty at Fordham in the Global Studies program in 1989; he taught there until 1999. In 2008, he was a Visiting Professor at the Franklin University Switzerland.

Literary Works and Mentoring

According to his memoir, Roccasalvo's interest in writing poetry and fiction began at an early age. Combined with his education and interests, Roccasalvo has professional working proficiency in English, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Pali, all of which he uses to influence his writing. He has been writing under the creative license of the JR Brand since 1985, and since 2010 has been a Graduate Student Mentor.

As an accomplished writer, he has published five novels including Fire in a Windless Place, Chartreuse, Portrait of a Woman, The Odor of Sanctity and The Devil’s Interval. Two novellas, The Powers That Be and Beyond the Pale were printed as Double Entendre. There followed three books of short stories: Outward Signs, The Mansions of Limbo, and Triple Sec. Two solo performances, Waging Waugh and Gospel Limericks, appeared as Two for One and were followed by two memoirs, As It Were and The Province of Memory. Two further novellas have been published: Island of the Assassin and Alina in Ecstasy; likewise, his collected poetry in Poems For Two Violins and It Comes in Tides. His collected short stories are entitled, Twists of Faith.

Bibliography

• Roccasalvo, Joseph F. (1980). Greek and Buddhist Wisdom: An Encounter between East and West. International Philosophical Quarterly 20(1):73-85.
• Roccasalvo, Joseph F. (1980). The debate at bsam yas: A study in religious contrast and correspondence. Philosophy East and West 30(4):505-520.
• Roccasalvo, J. F. (1980-1981). The Thai practice of psychiatry and the doctrine of anattā. . Review of Existential Psychology & Psychiatry, 17(2-3), 153–168.
• Roccasalvo, J.F. (1982). The terminology of the soul (attā): A psychiatric recasting. Journal of Religion and Health 21, 206–218.
• Roccasalvo, J. F. (2000). Islam In America. Religious Education, 95(3), 354.