Jesuit Schools and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Talking Back • Student Essays • Reviews FALL 2009 NUMBER 36
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ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION Fall 2009 • Number 36 Jesuit Schools and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Talking Back • Student Essays • Reviews FALL 2009 NUMBER 36 Members of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION Gregory I. Carlson, S.J. Creighton University Harry R. Dammer Jesuit Schools and the Catholic Scranton University Margaret Haigler Davis Spring Hill College Intellectual Tradition Jennifer G. Haworth Loyola University Chicago Leslie L. Liedel Forum Wheeling Jesuit University 2 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Richard M. Liddy, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Paul V, Murphy John Carroll University Eduardo C. Fernández, S.J., Paul Lakeland, John O’Keefe John J. O’Callaghan, S.J. Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University Chicago Features Mary K. Proksch Regis University 13 Will the Jesuit Tradition of Intellectual Life Survive? John A. Coleman, S.J. Mark P. Scalese, S.J. 20 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Social Justice, and the University, Fairfield University David Hollenbach, S.J. Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Saint Peter’s College 35 The Most Exciting Time To Be A Catholic Art Critic, Dan Vaillancourt 38 The Status of Catholic Studies, Thomas Landy Charles T. Phipps, S.J. Santa Clara University 23 WILLIAM F. LYNCH, S.J., Catholic Intellectual Pioneer, John F. Kane Conversations is published by the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher 28 The “Model Syllabi” for Teaching the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Education, which is jointly spon- Paul V. Murphy, David Sauer, Josephine Dunn, Susan A. Ross sored by the Jesuit Conference Board and the Board of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The opinions stated herein are those of the authors Reflections and not necessarily those of the 42 Ignatius’ Screwtape Letter: Advice from the Sixteenth JC or the AJCU. to the Twenty-First Century, J. Patrick Hornbeck II 45 The Trouble with “Outcomes Assessment,” Michael Collender Comments and inquiries may be addressed to the editor of Conversations Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Saint Peter’s College Talking Back 2641 Kennedy Boulevard 49 Shaping the Life of the Mind for Practice, Jersey City, New Jersey 07306 Phone: 201-432-8083 Gail Jensen, Amy Haddad, Mary Ann Danielson Fax: 201-432-7497 35 50 Forming a Life of the Mind for Practice: Teaching Practical Reasoning, e-mail: [email protected] William M. Sullivan For information about subscriptions to Conversations: Charles T. Phipps, S.J. Secretary to the National Seminar Student Pieces on Jesuit Higher Education Santa Clara University 19 Intellectual Life at Georgetown, Traviss Cassidy 500 El Camino Real 27 A Conversation with Professor Janz, Ramon Antonio Vargas Santa Clara, CA 95053-1600 Phone: 408-554-4124 48 Faith and Religion are Choices, Jennifer Sikora Fax: 408-554-4795 55 Punching in on the Educational Clock, Daniel Corrigan e-mail: [email protected] Conversations back issues are available online at www.ajcunet.edu Photo Collage Design and layout by 18 University of San Francisco • 47 Fordham University Pauline Heaney. Printed by Peacock Communications, Maplewood, N.J. 54 Book Reviews: William P. George, O.P., William Neenan, S.J., Edward Kinerk, S.J. From the Editor Jesuit Schools and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition n many ways, the inspiration for this Conversations way. We concluded with no list, but nevertheless with a has been stewing for 55 years. ....... ............. collection of writers for this issue who in many ways It began with the collective realization in represent the church at its best. IAmerican Catholic circles that we had failed to pass We have tried to balance big-picture pieces with on- along the treasure — the Church’s history, arts, and the-ground experiences — including astute student humanities — that had been the bedrock of its intellec- observations on the arts and academic attitudes, an tual life. Historian John Tracy Ellis, Catholic University of objection to outcomes assessment, and a warning America, spelled our the church’s failure to keep up in against academic pride. his wake-up-call article, “American Catholics and the But, like Thought in 1955, this Conversations in 2009 Intellectual Life,” in Fordham’s journal, Thought in 1955. will matter insofar as it prompts today’s faculty to both The Thought editor was William F. Lynch, S.J., him- revisit Msgr. Ellis’s article and ask to what degree its old self a leading intellectual, who as a young scholastic in criticisms still hold true. Does it concern us that, depend- 1941 had brought together composer Virgil Thompson ing on the standards of the school, some faculty never and ballet star Erick Hawkins to produce at Fordham a publish books or articles, and a student can drift through musical and dance drama of Oedipus Rex, starring Jesuit College X and never encounter a religious intellec- Fordham students, in the original Greek. tual challenge or will go to Mass only to witness a Ellis argued that the church’s intellectual depth was friend’s wedding? shallow for several reasons: the anti-Catholicism of the We welcome letters and longer “Talking Back” original English settlers; the ignorance of the 19th centu- essays that confront these issues. ry Catholic immigrants; the educational weakness of the families who did not read to their children; the narrow vvv training of bishops who learned canon law but not the humanities; the anti-intellectualism in the America char- Alan Wolfe, director of the Center for Religion and acter which favored pragmatism over learning; the Public Life at Boston College, and Mark Massa, S.J., Catholic universities who poured resources into profes- Gasson Professor, helped formulate the list and suggest sional programs and neglected research and scholarship. themes for this issue. The cover photo by BC photogra- At the same time, some Jesuit universities, like pher Gary Gilbert shows the office of Fr. Donald Monan, Fordham and others, had been sending young Jesuits to S.J., BC chancellor and former president, in the Bapst the best secular and foreign universities. The base was Library. The office’s unique attraction is the stained glass beginning to confront its problems. The process found windows depicting the great American intellectuals of the bold expression in the meeting of university presidents at past — including the usual Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Notre Dame’s villa, Land O’Lakes, in 1967, where they Twain, and Bancroft, but also Catholics Orestes Brownson, proclaimed, among other points, that Catholic universities, Joyce Kilmer, Bishops John England and Martin J. Spalding, while maintaining their Catholic identity, must meet the and William O’Brien Pardow, S.J., about whom — till I same scholarly standards of their secular competitors. googled him and learned that a thousand women wept at The central question in the articles we have assem- his 1909 funeral at St. Ignatius Church in New York — I am bled is: What have we done to pass along the intellectu- ashamed to say I knew nothing. al tradition which defines us as Catholic institutions? The back cover, by Santa Clara photographer Charles The seminar’s internal process in formulating our Barry, depicts the statue of Saint Clare and its sculptor, sec- own answer had its ups and downs. One proposal was ond year theologian Trung H. Pham, described in Dan to gather a list of prominent intellectuals at Jesuit — and Vaillancourt’s article on Catholic art. n some other — universities and call attention to their work. This foundered in disagreement on who should RASsj be on the list and on whether a list was a good idea any- Conversations 1 FORUM The Catholic Inte tual Tradition Where is it today? By Richard M. Liddy hen I was a young student in the 1950s In recent years there has again been much talk about I came across a book entitled The “the Catholic intellectual tradition” — often in relation to Wisdom of Catholicism. I liked it very Catholic Studies programs — and I ask myself what dif- much and bought a copy as a present ference there is between “the wisdom of Catholicism” as for my parents. It was edited by Anton I conceived of it in the 1950s and as I look on it today. Pegis of the Medieval Institute in In this article I would like to: 1) focus on the problem of Toronto and contained selections from an inadequate, often classicist, conception of the Catholic W“the Catholic classics:” from Augustine’s Confessions and the intellectual tradition and contrast it with a more dynam- City of God as well as from Thomas Aquinas’ Summae, ic, historically conscious, understanding; 2) link the Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Imitation of Christ, Theresa of Catholic intellectual tradition to the person of Christ, the Avila’s Interior Castle, John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount incarnate carrier of meaning; 3) trace the trajectory of the Carmel, Blaise Pascal’s Pensées and John Henry Newman’s carriers of the meaning of Christ from symbols — such Apologia pro vita sua. There were also more recent selec- as the bread and wine of the Eucharist — to the doc- tions: papal encyclicals on Christian philosophy and on the trines taught in the councils of the Church and the the- reconstruction of the social order as well as literary pieces, ologies that help us understand God’s Word; and 4) high- such as Charles Péguy’s Vision of Prayer, Paul Claudel’s The light the present orientation of the Catholic intellectual Satin Slipper, and selections from Hilaire Belloc, G.K. tradition to be communicated to all peoples and all areas Chesterton, Christopher Dawson, Sigrid Undset, Etienne of culture. Gilson, and Jacques Maritain. At the time it provided evi- dence for me of the superior wisdom of Catholicism. It was a wisdom achieved in the past and ours was basically the Msgr.