THE AMERICAN COVENANT, CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATING FOR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ETHOS OR FOUR MEN IN A BATEAU A dissertation submitted to the Kent State University College of Education, Health, and Human Services in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Ruth Joy August 2018 A dissertation written by Ruth Joy B.S., Kent State University, 1969 M.S., Kent State University, 2001 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by _________________________, Director, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Natasha Levinson _________________________, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Averil McClelland _________________________, Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Catherine E. Hackney Accepted by _________________________, Director, School of Foundations, Leadership and Kimberly S. Schimmel Administration ........................ _________________________, Dean, College of Education, Health and Human Services James C. Hannon ii JOY, RUTH, Ph.D., August 2018 Cultural Foundations ........................ of Education THE AMERICAN COVENANT, CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATING FOR AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL ETHOS. OR, FOUR MEN IN A BATEAU (213 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Natasha Levinson, Ph. D. Dozens of academic studies over the course of the past four or five decades have shown empirically that Catholic schools, according to a wide array of standards and measures, are the best schools at producing good American citizens. This dissertation proposes that this is so is partly because the schools are infused with the Catholic ethos (also called the Catholic Imagination or the Analogical Imagination) and its approach to the world in general. A large part of this ethos is based upon Catholic Anthropology, the Church’s teaching about the nature of the human person and his or her relationship to other people, to Society, to the State, and to God. The ideas that make up Catholic Anthropology are also deeply foundational to the set of ideas known collectively as Western Civilization and, through them, to the ideas that together I call the American Covenant. This study takes a foundational approach. While the empirical studies have measured the effects of Catholic schools in making good American citizens, I explore the reasons for this outcome. In doing so, I draw from many disciplines to examine the historical events, significant persons, and philosophical and theological arguments that together have created the American Catholic school. I conclude that if present trends in Catholic schooling continue, there is potentially a great loss to both American Catholicism and to the American republic. ........................ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I have told anyone who will listen, I have been very fortunate in my dissertation committee. They have been supportive, encouraging, enthusiastic, and patient. And each one of them has a sense of humor. I am grateful for all of that and for their advice. Two members influenced me even before this dissertation began to percolate in my head. Averil McClelland introduced me to the concept of habitus or ethos and often started class with a good story. Natasha Levinson’s classes got me thinking about the ways we educate kids for citizenship. The individual investigations that she supervised gave me a chance to do research in topics that eventually turned up here. I am grateful, too, for her acting as sounding board as this project evolved over time. Catherine Hackney has been a blessing as well. I often wonder if her unfailing optimism has anything to do with her background in Catholic education. Without their knowing it, two other faculty members also helped to get me to this point. As I was wrapping up my master’s degree in Educational Administration, Joanne Vacca encouraged me to pursue a doctorate. I applied for and was accepted into what was at the time called Curriculum and Instruction. James Henderson was my first professor and it seemed to me that his approach to education was foundational. He did not switch to Cultural Foundations, but I did. I gladly acknowledge the professional and student staff at the KSU library, where, I understand, there is a shelf with my name on it in the will-call section, somewhere behind the circulation desk. Sadly, with this dissertation complete, some students are in danger of losing their jobs due to lack of available work. iii My family and friends have supported and encouraged me in large and small ways too numerous to mention here. My daughter and son-in-law (Caoilte and Jake) have been understanding about missed get-togethers and abbreviated visits, especially upon their return from years overseas military postings. We will make up for that now. Lastly, I owe more than I can say to my husband, Ted Joy, without whose encouragement I would not have pursued a doctorate. A great deal of this dissertation was worked out in conversations with him on long and short road trips. Now that it is finished, it’s not clear what we will talk about in the car. He cheered me on and shared the ups and downs of the process. He also reminded me that just because I had spent a lot of time researching a topic, that did not necessarily mean it belonged in this dissertation. I only cried a little. During this undertaking, he also assumed a lot of the cooking chores, convinced, I guess, that we could not sustain ourselves indefinitely on pizza, potato chips, and Oreos. (Though now we’ll never know.) iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………………………iii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………. .1 CHAPTER 1: OF CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLGY AND MAN.……….……………………… 11 CHAPTER 2: OF CATHOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE RUINS OF REASON…….....28 CHAPTER 3: OF BIAS, BURNINGS AND BISHOPS………………………………...............57 CHAPTER 4: OF CREEDS AND PARADOXES…………………………………………...….86 CHAPTER 5: OF STUDIES, SCHOOLS, BLACK BOXES AND CITIZENS …...……….…117 CHAPTER 6: OF ETHOS AND THE UBIQUITOUS BOTH/AND………………………….142 CONCLUSION: OF COMMUNITY AND ETHOS AND DOUBLE DOSES………………..167 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………174 v INTRODUCTION A METAPHOR EXPLAINED Decades of studies have found that Catholic schools are more successful than any other kind of school in turning out good American citizens. Researchers are less sure about the reason that this is so. In this dissertation I propose that the reason for this is the ethos that pervades the Catholic school which, in turn, is based on Catholic anthropology—that is, the Church’s understanding of the nature of the human person, his or her relationship to others in society, and his or her relationship to the state.1 But this is not enough. While an ethos based on Catholic anthropology might explain why the schools turn out good citizens in general—the Church, after all, is a universal church—I am interested in why they turn out good American citizens. And the reason, I propose, is that the ideas of Catholic anthropology are compatible with—and, indeed underlie—the ideas of the American founding.2 In short, Catholic schools provide their students with two complimentary and overlapping sets of ideas. I do not propose to show how Catholic schools create good American citizens but, instead, to show why they do.3 1 A note seems in order at the outset of this project about the use of the word Man. Much of what is written today eschews the word man for what is seen as the more-inclusive person, a word that I myself use in many places in this study. In other places, though, man is a better fit. Thus, I will use man when quoting directly or in some instances of historical and traditional theological or philosophical discourse, and the word person when speaking in the present tense. 2 A definition of Catholic anthropology seems in order here. As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains, “Christian anthropology is the branch of theological study that investigates the origin, nature, and destiny of humans and of the universe in which they live. Reflection upon human origins and destiny yields the doctrines of creation and eschatology… Christian anthropology offers perspectives on the constitutive elements and experiences of human personhood—bodiliness and spirit, freedom and limitation, solitude and companionship, work and play, suffering and death, and, in specifically theological terms, sin and grace.” Thus, “Christian anthropology is distinct from the secular disciplines of anthropology, such as cultural anthropology, in that it moves beyond the descriptive and empirical toward the prescriptive and the normative. In other words, Christian thought does not simply consider how people actually live, but also makes claims about how people could and ought to live.” M.W. Pelzel, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., vol. 3, s.v. “Christian Anthropology,” 531. 3 In the words of the inestimable Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by the good Dr. John Watson, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” There are, of course, those who insist that these words were made up out of whole cloth by Watson’s well-known literary agent, the Jesuit-educated, fallen-away Catholic Arthur Conan Doyle. In any event, they are recorded in Chapter 6 of The Sign of Four. It must 1 2 I do not necessarily mean a one-to-one correspondence of ideas. Part of the reason why I will not attempt such an exercise was explained by Thomas Jefferson, late in his life, telling where he had gotten the ideas he used in drafting the Declaration of Independence: This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.