Cushwa News Vol 31 No 2

AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES NEWSLETTER 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 Ave 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, C.S.C., 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 Iin 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 of Tolls on the Miami and Erie then professor of history in the Senior person arranging for the transfer of the Canal, and Inspector of Tobacco, 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, C.S.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, C.S.C., 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, C.S.C., 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 Cushwa Center Activities ............................................................................2-7 significant service to Notre Dame and to the American church.Although the trag- Announcements ......................................................................................10-11 ic fire of 1879 destroyed almost all of the Publications: Faith, Empowerment, and Latino Catholicism ....................12-22 10,000 volumes he had collected, Upcoming Events ........................................................................................22 Edwards was not discouraged. He began see Founding Archives, page 7 VOLUME 32 NUMBER 1SPRING 2005 CUSHWA CENTER ACTIVITIES emphasized Edwards’ integrity while Seminar in American 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 University, served as George Marsden world which would have otherwise commentators. seemed too inaccessible. The first major biography of Marsden noted that, in marked con- Jonathan Edwards to appear in over 50 honesty in 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 Outrageous 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 of Jonathan Edwards critiqued biography incorporates a vast array of Stein posed the following question: Is his confessional stance. James Turner Edwards’ writings, many of which the task of the 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 of Jonathan Edwards. The book the subject and the biographer? Christianity than the readers of Jonathan was a finalist for the National Book Rachel Wheeler explored that 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 the Bancroft Prize that several reviewers had claimed that safely in the past, whereas the subjects of in American History from Columbia Marsden’s theological sympathy with his the earlier books had bearing on current University, the Merle Curti Award subject had interfered with his ability to debates. from the Organization of American interpret Edwards’ 18th-century world. In response to a question about Historians, and the Grawemeyer Award Wheeler did not lend much credence where Edwards would stand in contem- in Religion from the Louisville Institute. to these critiques, pointing out that porary American politics, Marsden Stephen Stein complimented Marsden had effectively responded to pointed out the obvious difficulty of Marsden for his thoroughness in explor- them in his earlier book, The Outrageous determining how an 18th-century man ing every aspect of Edwards’ life.As a Idea of Christian 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 extensively with the spiritual Christian perspective is inherently no 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 attention to Edwards’ reaction approach. But while Wheeler agreed that some commonalities could be found to his wife’s raptures, showing how he ideological commitments may indeed between Edwards and many contempo- occasionally used them to his own produce fine history, she did suggest that rary evangelicals, particularly in their pastoral advantage.According to Stein, Marsden’s biases were particularly evi- understanding of the intimate connec- Marsden’s comprehensive treatment of dent 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 examining the concept of hysteria, and adopted what Wheeler called an excesses of the ongoing religious awak- by asking how Sarah’s childbearing “Edwards-inflected authorial voice,” ening among evangelicals, he would also affected her spirituality, Marsden engages which privileges Edwards’ own view insist that God was working through it. a range of issues that are relevant to the of events.The same tendency was also Noting the absence of any discus- study of women and religion. apparent in Marsden’s treatment of sion of infant damnation, Kathryn Long Stein noted Marsden’s intellectual the Stockbridge mission, in which he asked whether sympathy for his subject 2 led him to devote comparatively less Obligation, and Brown. In each work, space to topics which portrayed Cushwa Center Lecture Rodriguez juxtaposes his relationship Edwards in a less positive light. Marsden with his Spanish-speaking Mexican On Wednesday, September 22, Paul Elie acknowledged

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