Brother Joseph Keenan taught in La Salle University's Department of Religion from 1963-1971 and 1974-1999. Keenan is best known as the founder of the Japanese Tea Ceremony House on the La Salle University campus.

Keenan first became interested in the Japanese tea ceremony while attending a series of lectures and demonstrations at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After taking lessons in performing the tea ceremony, he drew connections between the tea ceremony ritual and the Eucharist of the Catholic mass. He writes that he was “taught as a Christian that every moment of the day could be a source of grace”; he saw parallels between this teaching and the way that the tea ceremony considers the importance of each movement.

In 1984, Bro. Keenan introduced The Far East Initiative at La Salle. This initiative proposed sponsoring a branch of the Urasenke tea ceremony school on campus, which is headquartered in Kyoto and originated in the 16th century. President Bro. Patrick Ellis and a group of faculty and administrative advisors gave initial approval the project. After the Grand Master of the Urasenke School in North America visited La Salle and gave his support for the project, official approval was announced by the administration in 1985.

A former tenant farmer’s house on the Belfield property was selected as the site of the tea house. It was renovated into a tea ceremony house by a master Japanese carpenter and was completed in 1987.

Brother Keenan used elements of the tea ceremony in his courses in the religion department at La Salle and also offered weekend and evening classes for members of the public. La Salle became one of the first colleges on the East Coast to offer such a program.

When Brother Keenan died in 1999, two teachers kept the tea house open with the help of students. In 2007, however, the university ended the tea program.