Category: Humanities & the University

There is some remarkable Catholic institution-building going on around the world.

In the States I see Thomas International with its McInerny Center for Thomistic Studies. I see the University of St Thomas Center for Catholic Studies, the Catholic University of America (where more effort rightly goes into theology than into the faculty website), and the ever-burgeoning institutes for Ethics and Culture, Liturgy, Christian Life and theology at Notre Dame. I see the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family at Gaming in Austria. This blog has links to all of these.

In Australia I see The John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family in Melbourne with Tracey Rowland, whose Culture and the Thomist Tradition after Vatican II is the best discussion of the challenge that contemporary Catholic theology is taking on. The John Paul II Institute is headed worldwide by Cardinal Camillo Ruini and Livio Melina, both worth googling.

I have linked to other Catholic theological institutions in the ‘theology and the university’ category of this blog and there is a longer list under the catholic and academic tags at douglashknight at deli.cio.us

Now you UK Catholics, tell me this:

When is this new Catholic theological institution going to appear in London?

I see Heythrop College with its Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public life. I see Second Spring (Oxford) and the Society of St Catholic of Siena (UK-wide) – not, I hope, attempting any simple u-turn to tridentine liturgies.

I see the new ecclesiological institutes at Liverpool and the Durham (neither very near London). Much has been promised. I hope that these will not be so in hock to sociology of religion that they cannot offer the church the theological leadership it needs. I hope they simply relay to Catholics and Catholic theology in the UK the real theological leadership the Church is receiving from Pope Benedict.

I am looking for any theological institution in the UK examining constructively the remarkable theological teaching that has been coming from Rome for the last twenty-five years, and which has very noticeably increased the last two years. Time for you Catholics to hold yours heads up, I would say, and stop aping us Protestants. Can’t you see the trouble we have got ourselves into? Don’t look at us. We are looking to you.

The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture is not a theology department, but it is a goldmine. Here is their mission statement:

The work of the Center is rooted in two basic principles. First, we believe that systematic and rational discussion of ethical problems must be grounded in traditions of thought and practice. Our work is inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition and moral vision embodied in the Augustinian/Thomistic tradition, which itself has been forged through dialogue between the developing Christian community and other moral and political traditions. This dialogue has always been guided by a commitment to rational discourse seeking truth.

Second, we believe that this moral vision requires that we address particular ethical problems in the broader culture. New technologies and new forms of social organization in late modernity have increased the possibilities for human development, but have also created new threats to human dignity and human life. Pope John Paul II has suggested that the totality of these threats constitutes “a culture of death.” The Catholic moral vision has ample resources for responding to these threats-especially in its commitments to the dignity and worth of each person, the absolute character of basic human rights, and the fundamental importance of love and concern for others in need.

These considerations put the Catholic moral vision increasingly at odds with what have become dominant trends in secular culture. It is unsurprising that many of those who are responsive to the Catholic moral vision, particularly young people, also find it difficult to resist the pressures of secularization as these are transmitted in and through contemporary institutions, including the university. Academic centers for ethical inquiry are among the institutions frequently inhospitable to this moral vision, despite their claims of tolerance and neutrality.

Our Vision

And see their magnificent Who inspires us

Bookmark them and return for a leisurely late-night browse

I am wondering about theological education in London, and in particular wondering about this term ‘Christian university’. So I am off around the internet to find examples of thriving theological faculties in the hope that they will provide some inspiration. First stop:

Duke Divinity School

The Doctor of Theology program provides students with academically rigorous training, comparable to the demands of the Ph.D., focused on the ministries and practices of Christian communities. The program centers upon areas of study such as worship, preaching, evangelism, and the arts. At the same time, as an integral component of its mission, the Th.D. program seeks to reconfigure the way in which such practices are brought into creative interdisciplinary conversation with the established academic discourses of biblical studies, historical studies, and theology and ethics. Moreover, the interdisciplinary scope of the program extends to other areas of the university and addresses fresh areas of research such as the intersection of Divinity and Health Care, or Peacemaking and Reconciliation.

How about Duke’s

Center for Theological Writing ?

Writing forms a constituent practice of the ministry, as integral as prayer and preaching, rather than a tool employed toward other ends. And like prayer and preaching, writing requires a lifetime’s commitment to growth and refinement. For the ministry, even more than other professions, words constitute the very terms of our existence; they are the medium in which we exercise both our beliefs and our fears, our power and our contrition. We sustain and transmit our Christian identity through the written word. The use of language in the Church itself can be rather uninspiring, whether because we appeal to the tired jargon of popular culture or artlessly repeat our own cliches. The danger is not only that the Church’s voice be drowned out by others less profound; it is that our understanding of and relationship to God are cheapened. Bad theological writing is an act of bad faith.

* * *

Duke has Stanley Hauerwas, Amy Laura Hall, Reinhard Hütter, Geoffrey Wainnwright, Ellen Davis, Richard Hays, Douglas Campbell and David Steinmetz. If I was able to kidnap and bring to London just one of these it would be Reinhard Hütter. Click on his ‘links’. Of course Geoffrey Wainwright is ours anyway, as are Sam Wells and Jo Bailey Wells.

Conversation keeps turning to theology in London. Sometimes the mood is despondent, sometimes constructive and ambitious. How to begin? Now I appreciate this won’t interest the majority of you who are outside the UK. But it does seem as though the Brits have to talk to each other through the Americans – we are noticeably nicer to each other in the States for the AAR-SBL for instance.

Lesslie Newbigin said he read the US religious press because he believed that whatever started there would come here. But it also works the other way around, so I agree with George Weigel, that the US should watch out for this European secularism.

A couple of weeks ago I heard the term ‘Christian University’ used for the first time in the British context. There are such things in the States of course, and even more there are Catholic universities and colleges, but see Alasdair MacIntyre on The End of Education.

What should be the distinctive calling of the American Catholic university or college here and now? It should be to challenge its secular counterparts by recovering both for them and for itself a less fragmented conception of what an education beyond high school should be, by identifying what has gone badly wrong with even the best of secular universities. From a Catholic point of view the contemporary secular university is not at fault because it is not Catholic. It is at fault insofar as it is not a university….

To help me think about what a university is, and what a Catholic or Christian university is, I am going to post the conferences and the homepages of the theology faculties that look most promising, and occasionally post from the mountain of papal material on the subject (Fides et Ratio and Ex Corde Ecclesia).

From the UK I am most impressed Gavin D’Costa Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation (see below). From London I have also found Jeff Astley, Andrew Walker et al The Idea of a Christian University: Essays on Theology and Higher Education. I think we have most to learn from Messrs Williams and O’Donovan.

The University of St Thomas Center for Catholic Studies is dedicated to the integration of faith and reason in every facet of life. Our programs and services create an environment where students, alumni and others can engage their faith within contemporary culture and grow both intellectually and spiritually.

The Center for Catholic Studies is an academic community within the University of St Thomas dedicated to the ongoing renewal of Catholic higher education. Shaped by the Catholic principles of the unity of knowledge and the complementarity of faith and reason, the Center pursues its mission through interdisciplinary teaching and research, service to the community, and cultivation of spiritual life.

Their Program in Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue promises a Comprehensive Ecumenical Vision

The Program is committed to the pursuit of Christian unity across the following seven dimensions of dialogue:

1. Theological: clarification of doctrinal agreement and disagreement.
Formal and informal discussions among scholars and church leaders in the context of international and national consultations leading to the promulgation and publication of joint statements.
Program’s contribution: Public Lectures; Conferences; Official Documents

2. Historical: “Healing of Memory” project.
Study of our shared past in order to understand the causes of divisions and to work towards reconciliation, among other things, through comparative investigation of representative figures (theologians, saints, martyrs, mystics), periods, issues, and practices.
Program’s contribution: Publications

3. Practical: faith-sharing among Catholics and Orthodox in everyday life.
Reflections on the ways in which social context shapes Catholic and Orthodox identity of individuals and communities across the globe (e.g., Orthodox-Catholic intermarriages in the US, Orthodox and Catholic minorities in the Middle East).
Program’s contribution: Twin Cities Initiatives

4. Liturgical: participation in joint prayer services.
Scholarly investigation of conditions for reestablishing communio in sacris; Orthodox studies of western worship; Catholic studies of eastern worship.

5. Social: common response to the modern world.
Articulating a common moral vision in light of the major social, economic, and political challenges of the day (globalization, war and peace, science and technology, poverty, and so on). Projects in Ukraine

6. Global: nurturing an ecumenical spirit around the world.
Fostering awareness of the need for Church unity in Orthodox and Catholic institutions in North America and Eastern Europe

7. Aesthetic: contemplating the beauty of the divine together.
The study of western influences upon eastern Christian art, music, and architecture, and vice versa. Creation of new Christian art and music bearing testimony to Orthodox-Catholic unity.

Seven is a beautiful number of course.

What should be the distinctive calling of the American Catholic university or college here and now? It should be to challenge its secular counterparts by recovering both for them and for itself a less fragmented conception of what an education beyond high school should be, by identifying what has gone badly wrong with even the best of secular universities. From a Catholic point of view the contemporary secular university is not at fault because it is not Catholic. It is at fault insofar as it is not a university….

The question of how these bits and pieces might be related to one another, of whether they are or are not parts that contribute to some whole, of what, if anything, it all adds up to, not merely commonly goes unanswered, it almost always goes unasked. And how indeed could it be otherwise when every course, even when introductory, is a course in a specialized discipline taught by a teacher who may be vastly ignorant of everything outside her or his own discipline? Each part of the curriculum is someone’s responsibility, but no one has a responsibility for making the connections between the parts. To whom should this matter?

It should matter to anyone who thinks it important what conception of human nature and the human condition students have arrived at by the time they enter the adult workplace – and therefore to any Catholic. For each of the academic disciplines teaches us something significant about some aspect of human nature and the human condition. Physics tells us which particles and forces compose the body as a material object, while chemistry and biochemistry examine it as the site of various exchanges and reactions. What the functioning structures of complex living organisms, such as ourselves, are and how they have evolved we learn from biology, while sociology, anthropology, economics, and history make human beings intelligible in and through their changing cultural and social relationships. Philosophy – together with the history of inquiry – shows us how and why we are able to move toward a more and more adequate understanding of ourselves and our environments, from time to time transcending the limitations of previous modes of understanding. That human beings are also in key part what they imagine themselves to be, and how, without works of imagination, human life is diminished, we can only learn from literary and other aesthetic studies. Yet, when we have learned what all these different types of discipline have to teach – and the catalogue is far from complete – we confront questions that have so far gone unasked, just because they are not questions answerable from within any one discipline.

Alasdair MacIntyre The End of Education The Fragmentation of the American University

Between Evangelicals and Catholics there have been long-standing differences on the capacities of human reason. To put it too briefly, Evangelicals (and the Protestant traditions more generally) have accented that human reason has been deeply corrupted by sin. Catholics, on the other hand, while recognizing that human reason has been severely wounded by sin and is in need of healing, have held a higher estimate of reasonâ??s capacity to discern truth, including moral truth. We, as Evangelicals and Catholics together, affirm that the knowledge of God necessary for eternal salvation cannot be attained by human reason alone apart from Divine revelation and the Holy Spiritâ??s gift of faithâ??s response to Jesus Christ the only Saviorâ?¦.

We also affirm together that human reason, despite the consequences of sin, has the capacity for discerning, deliberating, and deciding the questions pertinent to the civil order. Some Evangelicals attribute this capacity of reason to â??common grace,â?? as distinct from â??saving grace.â?? Catholics typically speak of the â??natural law,â?? meaning moral law that is knowable in principle by all human beings, even if it is denied by many (Romans 1 and 2). Thus do we, as Evangelicals and Catholics together, firmly reject the claim that disagreements over the culture of life represent a conflict between faith and reason. Both faith and reason are the gift of the one God. Since all truth has its source in Him, all truth is ultimately one, although our human perception of the fullness of truth is partial and inadequate (1 Corinthians 13:12). Thus do we invite those who disagree, including those who do not share the gift of faith in Christ, to join with us in attempting to move beyond â??culture warsâ?? to a reasonable deliberation of the right ordering of our life together.

That They May Have Life A statement of Evangelicals and Catholics Together