Tony Alonso

Dr. Antonio (Tony) Alonso is currently Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he also serves as the inaugural Director of Catholic Studies. Dr. Alonso works at the intersection of theology and culture, with a particular focus on worship and ritual practices. In 2019, he was awarded the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for new scholars for the best academic essay in the field of theology within the Roman Catholic tradition from the Catholic Theological Society of America for his essay "Listening for the Cry: Certeau Beyond Strategies and Tactics" (Modern Theology, 2017). Dr. Alonso's first book, Commodified Communion: Eucharist, Consumer Culture, and the Practice of Everyday Life (Fordham University Press, 2021), offers a theological account of contemporary consumerism and its relationship to the Eucharist. It was awarded the 2021 Hispanic Theological Initiative Book Prize, an award that recognizes the best book written by a junior Latinx scholar on theology or religion each year. His current research, funded by a Teacher-Scholar Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute for Worship, focuses on the theological significance of the transformation of Catholic material culture in the wake of the Second Vatican Council's liturgical reforms. In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Alonso is a Latin Grammy-nominated composer of sacred music. The author of over 200 published compositions and arrangements, he was commissioned to compose the responsorial psalm for the first Mass Pope Francis celebrated in the United States in 2015.