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LEO XIII and the MODERN QUEST for FRATERNITY Dissertation

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THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: LEO XIII AND THE MODERN QUEST FOR FRATERNITY Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Jason A. Heron UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, OH December, 2016 THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: LEO XIII AND THE MODERN QUEST FOR FRATERNITY Name: Heron, Jason Andrew APPROVED BY: ________________________________________ Kelly Johnson, Ph.D. Committee Chair ________________________________________ Jana M. Bennett, Ph.D. Faculty Reader ________________________________________ Michael Carter, Ph.D. Faculty Reader ________________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Faculty Reader ________________________________________ F. Russell Hittinger, Ph.D. Outside Faculty Reader ii ABSTRACT THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: LEO XIII AND THE MODERN QUEST FOR FRATERNITY Name: Heron, Jason Andrew University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Kelly Johnson This dissertation examines the social magisterium of Pope Leo XIII as it is developed in the aftermath of the French Revolution and during the nationalizing process of the liberal Italian state. The thesis of the dissertation is that Leo XIII provides Catholic social teaching with a proper vision of human relationship as a mode of analogical participation in the Lord’s goodness. In his own historical context, Leo’s analogical vision of social relations is developed in tension with the nation-state’s proposal of political citizenship as the social relation that relativizes every other relation – most especially one’s ecclesial relation. In our own context, Leo’s analogical vision of social relations stands in tension with the late-modern proposal of consumerism as the social reality that relativizes every other relation – including one’s matrimonial, familial, social, and ecclesial relations. iii In dedication to Hannah, Joan, Margot, Eloise, James, Thomas, Frances, and Lily iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a great deal to my teachers, especially Jana Bennett, Michael Carter, and William Portier. Professors Russell Hittinger, Thomas Kohler, and Matthew Levering deserve special mention for their commitment to my scholarly formation and their decisive influence on my research and my interpretive stance. Without their instruction, encouragement, and friendship, I would not have been able to complete this project. Four dear friends, Andrew Courter, Ty Monroe, Alan Mostrom, and Anthony Roselli, worked closely with me during the writing process, and I am forever in their debt. My scholarship more broadly has benefitted from conversations, arguments, questions, and friendship with Matthew Archer, John Badley, Andrew Beauchamp, Joshua Brown, Benjamin Heidgerken, Andrew Henrick, Colin McGuigan, Sarah Mostrom, Robert Parks, Mac Sandlin, Katherine Schmidt, Adam Sheridan, and Joshua Wopata. Chris Tangeman was instrumental in helping me with securing valuable research materials. My director, Kelly Johnson, deserves the highest praise for her divine patience with me in both the seminar setting and in the writing process. If I can grow up to be like Kelly, even other people will consider my life a success. My wife, mother-in-law, and children deserve special recognition. Each of you contributed directly to my ability to finish this project in a timely manner, without harming myself. My heart is full of you, and I dedicate this work to you. All glory and honor is due to the Most Holy Trinity. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................ v INTRODUCTION: POPE LEO XIII, MODERN CITIZENSHIP, AND ANALOGY .......................................... 1 PART I: CITIZENSHIPS ................................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 1.1 UNIVOCAL AND EQUIVOCAL COMMUNITATES: THEORIZING CITIZENSHIP AFTER 1789 ....................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 1.2: ESCHATOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIP: MAZZINI’S COMMUNITATES AND THE FAILURE OF ANALOGY .............................................. 75 CHAPTER 2 THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: CITIZENSHIP WITHIN LEO XIII’S SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY .......................... 101 PART II: INSTITUTIONS........................................................................................................... 137 CHAPTER 3 ECCLESIAL MUNERA AND THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: LEONINE ECCLESIOLOGY AND THE PROPER CARE OF HUMAN PERSONS ..................................................... 138 CHAPTER 4 THE ORIGINAL COMMUNITAS AND THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS: LEONINE MATRIMONIAL THEOLOGY AND LIBERAL PEDAGOGY .................................................................... 182 CHAPTER 5 THE ANALOGIA COMMUNITATIS, CATHOLIC THEOLOGY, AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY ................................. 229 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 268 vi INTRODUCTION: POPE LEO XIII, MODERN CITIZENSHIP, AND ANALOGY Not long ago I watched as two theologians tried to give a theological account of the beauty they observed in a viral internet video of a thousand Italian musicians playing a single song in unison. After quipping about contemporary anxieties surrounding the sight of large crowds of Italians doing things in unison, the theologians set to work to answer what they, as Catholics, would say to the musicians in response to both the beauty of their performance and the evident pleasure the musicians took in performing as one. Given that the group was not a religious one, the theologians shied away from identifying in the performance a species of Christian unity. But given that the theologians had grave concerns about modern individualism and consumerism, they also shied away from identifying in the performance nothing more than a group of isolated individuals who happened to be together in the same place at the same time. They were concerned that ultimately theology has nothing to say to the group of musicians aside from a caution about the simultaneous lure of fascism and individualism. We have here an enduring problem that occupies a great deal of attention within the tradition of Catholic social teaching. The problem can be stated theologically and historically as follows. From a theological perspective, given that the Christian doctrine of humanity’s creation in the imago Dei contributes to a vision of the unrepeatable, irreducible dignity of 1 each individual human person, and given that Christ has redeemed individual souls, not some abstract humanity, how do we affirm the value of social relations in a way that does not utterly subordinate them to the individuality of each person? From an historical perspective, given that the promotion of the dignity of the human person now takes place in a social, economic, and political context characterized by methodical individualism, how do we affirm the value of social relations in a way that does not reduce them to aggregations of individuals? In the anxiety of the theologians counseling against fascism and individualism alike, the problem is simply acknowledged. Catholic theology, knowing what it knows about the unity of the Church and the dignity of the human person, can offer sage advice to human animals. But fearing the charge of imperialism, the theologians avoided suggesting they knew anything about the animals’ supposedly “natural” desire to play music together. Fearing the charge of triumphalism, they similarly avoided suggesting that the unity the animals were enjoying is to be found in its purest historical form in the Catholic Church, and that there, it is foretaste of beatitude. And fearing the possibility of further underwriting the hypertrophied individualism of late modernity, the theologians were unwilling to chalk it all up to the preference of these few people who desired to unite, for only the length of a single rock song, to accomplish a common goal. After the conversation between the two theologians, I noticed th at neither of them had suggested that perhaps a perfectly theological and perfectly Catholic response would be to simply ask the musicians when it would be possible to play together again. This is a strange way to introduce the social magisterium of Pope Leo XIII (1810- 1903; reigned 1878-1903). Leo would have little to say about tightly coordinated musical performances available on the internet. But Leo has much to say on the underlying question 2 about the individual person’s transcendent dignity and that same individual person’s relations to others. Moreover, he would have much to say in terms that remain relevant to us. That is, Leo is not relevant to addressing the question about individual and relation because he has developed an abstract treatise on the one and the many; or because he has left to us a systematic articulation of the nature of the ecclesial mark of unity; or because he has extended the Thomistic teaching that the human animal is possessed of an inclination to life
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