AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES EWSLETTE CUSHWA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM The Founding of the Notre Dame Archives f it is true that every success­ Senior Departments (grade school, high across the country wrote with requests ful institution is simply the school, and early college), interrupted his for blessed rosaries, Lourdes water, papal shadow of a great man or education briefly to try the religious life, blessings, and even with complaints woman, then the Notre Dame returned to his studies, and was invited when their copies of Aile Maria Magazine Archives are surely the shad­ to join the Notre Dame faculty in 1872. did not arrive. Young Father Matthew ow of Professor James Edwards remained at Notre Dame Walsh, CSe., future Notre Dame presi­ Farnham ("Jimmie") Edwards. for the rest of his life, dying there in dent, wrote from Washington for advice Edwards was born in Toledo, Ohio, 1911 and being laid to rest in the Holy about selecting a thesis topic. Hearing in 1850, of parents who had emigrated Cross Community Cemetery along the that the drinking water at Notre Dame from Ireland only two years before. His road to Saint Mary's. He began by teach­ had medicinal qualities, one person father was successively co-owner of ing Latin and rhetoric in the Junior wrote to ask if the water was from a Edwards and Steelman Billiard rooms, (high school) Department, received a mineral spring or if the iron was put into proprietor of the Adelphi Theater, bachelor of laws degree in 1875, and was it by the sisters. Edwards was the contact Collector ofTolls on the Miami and Erie then professor of history in the Senior person arranging for the transfer of the Canal, and Inspector ofTobacco, Snuff, (college) Department. Over the course body of Orestes Brownson to Notre and Cigars for the Tenth Collection of his years at Notre Dame, Edwards Dame for reburial in the Sacred Heart District of the State of Ohio. Father became a campus institution, and his Crypt, and he was a sufficiently close Peter Cooney, CS C,, of Notre Dame correspondence reveals that he was friend and confidant of Father Edward (and later Civil War chaplain) had been a called on for a variety of services. Parents Sorin, CSe., Notre Dame's founder, neighbor in Toledo and, in 1859, appar­ asked him to speak with their sons when that he was selected to travel to ently suggested sending the nine-year­ they broke university rules, spent too Montreal and inform the aging founder old Jimmie to Notre Dame since there much money, or suffered a toothache. in 1879 of the disastrous fire which had were no Catholic schools in Toledo at Other institutions wrote to ask his just destroyed his college building. the time. At Notre Dame, Edwards pro­ advice on proper theatrical plays to per­ Edwards was also a close associate of gressed through the Minim, Junior, and form on Catholic campuses. Catholics Father August Lemonnier, CSe., Notre Dame's fourth president and Father Sorin's nephew, and it was Lemonnier in 1872 who asked Edwards to begin col­ I N s I D E lecting volumes for a college circulating library, the beginning of Edwards' most Cushura Center Activities 2-7 significant service to Notre Dame and to the American church. Although the trag­ Announcements 1 0-11 ic fire of 1879 destroyed almost all of the Publications: Faith, Empowerment, and Latino Catholicism 12-22 10,000 volumes he had collected, Edwards was not He Upcoming Events 22 discouraged. began see Founding Archives, page 7 CUSHWA CENTER ACTIVITIES Seminar in American emphasized Edwards' integrity while implicitly criticizing his opponents. Religion These observations led Wheeler to echo Stein's question: How should historians The fall Seminar in American Religion and biographers navigate their dual obli­ met on Saturday, October 30, to discuss gations to their subjects and to their own George Marsden's jonathan Edwards: commitments? A Life (Yale University Press, 2003). In his response, Marsden suggested Marsden is a professor of history at that a fundamental stance of sympathy the University of Notre Dame. Rachel between biography and subjects can help Wheeler, assistant professor of religious authors explain and appreciate a person studies at Indiana University-Purdue whose life and world differed so radically University Indianapolis, and Stephen from their own. In his case, being from a Stein, Chancellor's Professor in the conservative Reformed background Department of Religious Studies at helped make sense of an 18th-century Indiana served as world which would have otherwise University, Ceolge Marsden commentators. seemed too inaccessible. The first nUJor biography of Marsden noted that, in marked con­ in Jonathan Edwards to appear in over 50 honesty admitting his own admiration trast to the outcry generated by two of years, Marsden's book offers an impres­ and sympathy for Edward's theological his previous works, The Outrageolls Idea of sive synthesis of the vast body of scholar­ outlook. Suggesting that Marsden's con­ Christian Scholarship and The Soul of the ship on this towering figure in American fessional stance opened the door for a American University, relatively few religious and intellectual history. The discussion about the art of biography, reviewers ofjonathan Edwards critiqued Stein the biography incorporates a vast array of posed following question: Is his confessional stance. James Turner the task of the Edwards' writings, many of which biographer aided, hin­ attributed the disparity to the fact that became available only recently through dered, or compromised when there is a readers of the earlier books would be Yale University's decades-long project, fundamental religious symmetry between generally much less familiar with The Works ofjonathan Edwards. The book the subject and the biographer? Christianity than the readers ofjonathan was a finalist for the Rachel Wheeler that National Book explored very Edwards. Marsden also noted that, as an Critics Circle Award in biography, and question in her comments. She noted 18th-century figure, Edwards belonged has also been awarded that several reviewers had claimed that the Bancroft Prize safely in the past, whereas the subjects of in American from Columbia Marsden's with his History theological sympathy the earlier books had bearing on current University, the Merle Curti Award subject had interfered with his ability to debates. from the of American Edwards' world. Organization interpret 18th-century In response to a question about Wheeler did not lend much Historians, and the Grawemeyer Award credence where Edwards would stand in contem­ in from the Louisville Institute. to these out that Religion critiques, pointing porary American politics, Marsden Marsden had Stephen Stein complimented effectively responded to pointed out the obvious difficulty of Marsden for his in them in his earlier book, TIte thoroughness explor­ O�ltrageous determining how an 18th-century man of Edwards' life. As a Idea Christian ing every aspect of Scholarship (Oxford, would react to 21st-century events. case in point, he described the chapter 1997), in which he argued that a Edwards would have understood the that dealt with the Christian is no extensively spiritual perspective inherently relationship between church and state ecstasy experienced by Sarah Edwards more or less "outrageous" than a femi­ quite differently than modern Americans (jonathan's wife) in 1742. Marsden pays nist, Marxist, or post-structuralist would. Yet Marsden acknowledged that careful to reaction But while attention Edwards' approach. Wheeler agreed that some commonalities could be found to his wife's how he commitments indeed raptures, showing ideological may between Edwards and many contempo­ used them to his own fine she did that occasionally produce history, suggest rary evangelicals, particularly in their to Marsden's biases were evi­ pastoral advantage. According Stein, particularly understanding of the intimate connec­ dent Marsden's comprehensive treatment of in his descriptions of Edwards' foes. tion between religion and politics. this episode underscores the broader sig­ Writing about Edwards' departure from Marsden also speculated that while nificance of Edwards' scholarship. By Northampton, for example, Marsden Edwards might be disturbed by the the what Wheeler called an examining concept of hysteria, and adopted excesses of the ongoing religious awak­ how Sarah's "Edwards-inflected authorial by asking childbearing voice," ening among evangelicals, he would also affected her Marsden which Edwards' own view spirituality, engages privileges insist that God was working through it. a of issues that are relevant to the of events. The same was also range tendency Noting the absence of any discus­ women in treatment of study of and religion. apparent Marsden's sion of infant damnation, Kathryn Long Stein noted Marsden's intellectual the Stockbridge mission, in which he asked whether sympathy for his subject led him to devote comparatively less Cushwa Center Lecture Obligation, and Brown. In each work, space to topics which portrayed Rodriguez juxtaposes his relationship Edwards in a less positive light. Marsden with his Spanish-speaking Mexican On Wednesday, September 22, Paul Elie that he did not make and his life as a self-conscious acknowledged delivered the fall 2004 Cushwa Center family much of an effort to explore either English-speaking intellectual. In Hunger Lecture, "Tales from the Crypt: The infant damnation or the pleasures that oj Memory, his coming-of-age tale, Secret Life ofAmerican Catholic . the elect would take in seeing the Rodriguez explores how 1115 affection Writing." Elie is best known for his damned undergo torment. These deci­ for and his roots in Catholicism pushed recent award-winning book, The Life You sions were made both in the interest of him away from the Church, defined Save May Be Your Oum: An American holdinz the reader's attention and with and him from his non­ b him, separated Pilgrimage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the intent of a more rounded relizious cohorts.