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C21 Resources SP 2007 C21 Resources A SERVICE OF BOSTON COLLEGE spring 2007 A “catholic” Intellectual Tradition timothy p. muldoon to the disciples: “go, therefore, and and Stephen A. Pope focus more ing today in the areas of human make disciples of all nations” (Matthew specifically on the college and uni- rights, the origins of the universe, he desire which motivated 28:18). The Catholic Church seeks to versity context which nurtures this and democratic political life. Inter- medieval religious communi- be a catholic community—that is, a tradition. Finally, the essays by Mary spersed throughout these essays are T ties to found the first universi- community spread throughout the Ann Glendon, George Coyne, and shorter reflections from a number of ties was rooted in a basic confidence world, sharing what Jesus taught for Greg Kalscheur offer specific exam- thinkers, including faculty members about the knowableness of reality, a the welfare of all people. ples of how the Catholic intellectual at Boston College. trust that all things to be known found tradition has informed our understand- ––– a unifying principle in the belief that Today it is common to use the term t r e b God created them. Some—Thomas “Catholic” in the former, specific sense, l i G Aquinas most notably—carried this as a reference to a particular commu- e n y confidence enough to engage even nity and its history. To be sure, in a a W y r the intellectual work of Jewish and world in which only one of every six a G Muslim thinkers. people is Catholic, and in which an- y b o t other one of every six is a member of o h P - It is this sense of confidence about a Christian community which is not in y r a reality that has animated Catholic communion with the Catholic Church, r b i L intellectual life at its best. Today, it seems presumptuous to suggest that t s p a however, some question the possi- the hallmark of the Catholic Church B n i bility and relevance of an intellec- is universality. Yet the peculiarly theo- e b i r c tual tradition that calls itself Catholic. logical import of catholicity is that it s h s i It was during the modern period suggests a kind of reaching for univer- r I n a that the Middle Ages were called sality. Using the image of yeast, Walter f o s “Dark,” precisely because moderns Ong suggests in his essay (beginning s a l g judged religious belief to be unsci- on p. 10) that the Church is “a lim- d e n i entific and therefore inconsistent itless, growing reality, destined ulti- a t with the methods of rational inquiry. mately to be present everywhere and S If one cannot prove God or any of to affect everything, though by no the doctrines about God, how could means to convert everything into a Catholic intellectual tradition be itself.” The catholicity of the think- anything more than a myopic pre- ing Church is not to be found in an modern world view? attempt to colonize human reason, but rather in a desire to know what There is an inherent paradox in the is true. It was this desire which ani- term “Catholic” when used to describe mated the original university com- an intellectual tradition. On the one munities, and it is this desire which hand, it is a specific term used to make can re-animate intellectual life today. reference to a specific community of people. Ignatius of Antioch was the In this issue of C21 Resources, we first to use the term around 110, to have brought together essays which describe the nascent Christian com- explore dimensions of the Catholic munity: “Wheresoever the bishop intellectual tradition as a resource for shall appear, there let the people be, both the Church and the world. There even as where Jesus may be, there is are four essays (by Margaret Steinfels, the universal [katholike] Church.” On Sidney Callahan, Robert Imbelli, and the other hand, Ignatius sought, as do Walter Ong) that address the tradition Catholics today, to describe the Church as a whole. Further, the essays by John in a way that reflects the universal the- Haughey, Alan Wolfe, Michael Himes, ological import of Jesus’ commission Alasdair McIntyre, J. Michael Miller, BOSTON COLLEGE | C 21 RESOURCES | SPRING 2007 1 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition C21 Resources by margaret steinfels manifestations may be, it is essential ness and dogmatism. Well, I say go to the Church, to its mission in the read a history book! Some of you may atholic intellectual life is cen- world, to the lives of ordinary people, be skeptical that the adjective Catholic editor tral to Catholic identity. It is that there be a vigorous and Catholic adds anything to an institution or dis- Timothy P. Muldoon C fundamental to the life of the intellectual life. And Commonweal cipline except the judicial authority of Director, The Church in the church, big C and little c, cathedral can’t do everything! ecclesiastical officials. I disagree. For and congregation—to its continued 2,000 years, Christians have struggled 21st Century Center vitality and to the Church’s missions Of course, the Catholic identity of in multifarious ways with everything in this culture. This is not a narrow Catholic colleges and universities can from body and soul to kingship and advisory board ecclesiastical tradition, but a broad have many expressions: honoring the regicide, from usury to voluntary pov- J.A. Appleyard and infinitely useful one. Commonweal founding mothers and fathers; worship erty, and today still struggle with every- has fostered and questioned that tradi- and prayer; service projects; works of thing from medical decision making Jonas Barciauskas tion. Our writers and readers reflect social justice like basketball and foot- to political theory, from child care to Ben Birnbaum that affection and that criticism. They ball; campus ministry; statues, medal- spiritual counsel, from race to gender. are university people and journalists, lions, and endowed lectureships; the It is this tradition that pressed through Robert Imbelli book editors, lawyers, physicians, work of notable alum and prestigious the centuries—and reminds us in the Gregory A. Kalscheur scientists, politicians; they are bish- faculty. But all of this would be a thin Gulf War, in Bosnia—the idea of civil- ops, clergy, and ordinary Catholics, ian immunity. The distinction between Nancy Pineda-Madrid who in their daily lives practice and ordinary and extraordinary care of the Barbara Radtke depend upon the kind of thinking, sick and the dying remains a viable one reasoning, reflection that make up the Tradition is the record because this tradition teaches it. Catholic intellectual tradition. Further- designer more, this tradition is also explored of a community’s It is a deep and rich tradition; it is a Progressive Print Solutions and appreciated by writers and read- tradition worthy of our attention and ers who are Methodists, Episcopalians, conversation over study. If this tradition does not have a Orthodox as well as Catholics, and not place in Catholic colleges and universi- C21 Resources is published by the only Christians—Jews, secular human- time about its meaning ties, what is that you are doing? What Church in the 21st Century Center ists, those lapsed from every religion tradition has a better claim? at Boston College, in partnership with known to humankind. and direction. A living All thinkers and thinking are based the publications from which these This tradition is carried on, pur- tradition is a tradition in some tradition. A tradition is not a articles have been selected. C21 Re- sued, criticized, developed, wrestled browned and dried-up certificate of sources is a compilation of the best with by example from many different that can raise questions deposit in the bank of knowledge, but analyses and essays on key challenges backgrounds. The way they think and a locus for questioning, a framework write, read, and reflect very frequently about itself. for ordering inquiry, a standard for pre- facing the Church today. They are rests on their education in American ferring some sets of ideas over others; published with the intent of stimulating Catholic colleges and universities. So tradition is the record of a community’s discussion and thought among bishops, along with the preservation of knowl- facade if it did not include at its core a conversation over time about its mean- priests, deacons, religious, and lay edge, the scholarly work of retrieval, living experience among students and ing and direction. A living tradition is the building up of bodies of knowledge, faculty of Catholic intellectual life. a tradition that can raise questions members of the Catholic community. and the education of the young, your about itself. schools are central to the practice of Yes, carrying on this tradition is the Catholic intellectual life. Colleges an enormous challenge. You have to What am I talking about? Let me at and universities cannot claim to be overcome bigotry and bias, including least sketch what I think the Catholic Catholic if this tradition is not part of especially the prejudices Catholics intellectual tradition looks like. its core understanding; this tradition themselves have against their own tra- cannot survive if Catholic colleges and dition. A Catholic intellectual is not “The joy and hope, the grief and universities do not renew it, maintain an oxymoron. You do not have to be anguish of the women and men of our it, nourish it, support it, and pass it on. a Jesuit to be a Catholic intellectual. time, especially those who are poor or Yes, Catholicism and Catholic ideas afflicted in any way, are the joy and In the last several decades, Catholi- have a checkered history.
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