Catholic Studies Commons^™

Human Reason Allows Faith, Justin Cerniello

Writing Across the Curriculum

The question of are faith and reason compatible has been argued over extensively. Those who claim that the two are not compatible are often hung up on the things that we cannot understand, causing them to think faith is irrational. They say that faith and reason can never be used together because one will always push away the other. In this paper, by analyzing Augustine’s Confessions , Dante’s Divine Comedy , and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles I will show that the exact opposite is actually the case. All three of these authors exemplify how it is nearly impossible to …

The Good Life, Molly Kelley

Writing Across the Curriculum

Throughout generations the world has constantly progressed through medicine and technology, which has led to our inevitable evolution. But, a part of society that has not changed is our main individual goals of reaching “the good life,” as shown as evidence in literature. Authors like Plato, Aristotle, and those of the Bible wrote about the importance of happiness, virtues, and education as they pertain to this journey to “the good life.” Many feel that what they state is still pertinent today.

The Moral High Road In The Undercity: An Examination Of Ethics In A Mumbai Slum, Mary L. Bauer

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

As of 2016, 1.6 billion people around the globe lacked proper shelter and of these, one billion lived in informal settlements, also called slums, according to data collected by the United Nations (UN-Habitat 2016). Investigative journalist Katherine Boo spent four years, between 2007 and 2011, interviewing and shadowing the residents of one such slum on the outskirts of Mumbai. Her goal was to draw attention to socio-economic inequality (Boo, 2014 pp. 247-248), but in the course of collecting data about the consequences of poverty and residents’ attempts to rise out of it, she also recorded information about their moral choices, …

Introduction To The Content And Context Of The Ratio Studiorum: Notes, Quotes And Commentaries On The Jesuit Educational Ideal, Karl M. Lorenz

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Explanatory Notes:

The topic I chose for my project was Jesuit Education in Colonial Brazil as outlined in the Ratio Studiorum of 1599. The Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis lesu {Method and System of the Studies of the Society of Jesus) defined the organization, operation and teaching methodology of Jesuit secondary and higher education institutions during the greater part of the colonial period, which extended from April 1500 when the first Portuguese explorers set foot on the Brazilian shore to July 1822 when Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. The Jesuitic Period encompassed the years between 1549 when the Brazilian …

St. Augustine’S Journey To Faith, Bridget Hughes

Writing Across the Curriculum

Augustine’s Confessions detail the Catholic philosopher’s reflection on his faith journey, a journey that would encompass much of his youth and early adulthood. Despite being raised by a devout mother, Augustine struggled to balance faith and purpose in his life. He practiced several different philosophies and religions throughout his life. Through his writings, Augustine elaborates on several of the Four Claims of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. His introspection on his own relationship with the divine relates to the first claim that states the Catholic belief in the relationship between mankind and a Triune God. In addition, his contemplations of life, …

Priest, Writer, Mentor, Misfit: Understanding Henri Nouwen, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

Two decades ago, on September 21, 1996, while on the way to St. Petersburg to shoot a documentary based on his acclaimed spiritual meditation, The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen—priest, writer, professor, and pastoral mentor—died of a heart attack in his homeland of the Netherlands. His friends and countless admirers were stunned. Prolific author of more than three dozen books, and a much-called-upon speaker and preacher, Nouwen was a large presence in Catholic circles and a growing influence in Protestant ones as well. His loss was felt not only in his immediate community but around the world.

The Sisters Next Door, Alyssa Paolillo

Writing Across the Curriculum

Watching YouTube videos about the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, makes me feel proud and happy that there are women willing to commit their life to God and taking care of others. The Sisters teach, nurse, pray and live in a community together.

Faith And Reason, Stefanie Guglielmo

Writing Across the Curriculum

The authors Augustine, Aquinas, and Dante represent the Catholic Intellectual Tradition claim that human reason and faith are compatible. Augustine struggled to find God because of his sinful behavior during his youth. On his journey to converting to Catholicism, Augustine reasons through his questions regarding God to find the truth. Aquinas writes about how humans do not have the capacity to ever reach the full knowledge of God. After Dante describes his journey through hell and purgatory, he finally reaches heaven and is incapable of describing God because it is beyond human comprehension. Augustine, Aquinas, and Dante each embody the …

Review Of "Between Apocalypse And Eschaton: History And Eternity In Henri De Lubac" By Joseph S. Flipper, Daniel A. Rober

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

The Jesuit Henri de Lubac is almost universally recognized as one of the preeminent twentieth-century theologians, influencing thinkers and ideas in diverse and sometimes opposed schools of thought. For both Catholic and ecumenical theology, his numerous contributions—in Patristic exegesis, the relationship between nature and grace, and ecclesiology—have rightly been hailed as transformative for academy and church alike. The same kind of recognition, however, has not typically been extended to his work on eschatology or politics, particularly in the English-speaking world. This is especially true insofar as de Lubac is frequently read as a Communio thinker whose opposition to political and …

The Trouble With The Death Penalty, Abigail Hood

Writing Across the Curriculum

For almost as long as the death penalty has been used, it has been a subject of debate.

The Marketing Of Sacrifice, Enda Mcgovern

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Slides from a presentation made by Enda McGovern from the Department of Marketing at Sacred Heart University to the University's Board of Trustees. He outlines plans for a class to marketing students whose core text will be Pope Francis' encyclical on June 18, 2015, which lays out and argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human-driven climate change.

The Abortion Debate In America, Trent Thompson

Writing Across the Curriculum

More than forty years after the landmark Roe V. Wade Supreme Court legislation, which deemed abortion a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution, the debate over abortion roars on.

Integrating The Catholic Intellectual Tradition Into College Courses: An Annotated Bibliography Of Resources For Faculty, Nancy S. Delvecchio

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

To assist faculty with integrating the Catholic Intellectual Tradition into their courses, this annotated bibliography of book chapters and scholarly articles provides practical ways to include the CIT in their courses. Only resources which are freely available on the web or are in standard university-held publications were included to ensure reader accessibility.

Three Popes: Lessons In Leadership, Valerie Christian

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

In Three Popes: Lessons in Leadership participants use selected leadership theories as a basis to comment on the leadership style and effectiveness of two former Bishops of Rome—John Paul II and Benedict XVI. The purpose is to hypothetically assist the incumbent pontiff, Francis, whose legacy—while looking promising—still is in its infancy. In the exercise, participants investigate the personal traits and life stories of three recent popes in an attempt to understand their professional style and effectiveness as leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. Using Pope Francis’ immediate predecessors as examples of good/bad leadership, teams recommend to Pope Francis ways to …

Shepherding Electric Sheep: A Roman Catholic Response To The Emerging Challenge Of Transhumanism, Joshua St.Onge

Master of Arts in Religious Studies (M.A.R.S. Theses)

Transhumanism is a philosophical, political, and social movement that asserts that human well-being will be dramatically improved through the radical integration of new technologies into the human body and/or through the replacement of the organic human body with a synthetic 'body.' Ray Kurzweil, a dynamic, articulate, and leading transhumanist, offers an anthropological understanding that represents the main strand of transhumanist though about the human person: humans are patterns of information that can adjust themselves, and overcoming limitations is the defining human characteristic. This anthropology is implicit in many aspects of Western civilization already: law, medicine, and the military are a …

Justice Without Solidarity? Collective Identity And The Fate Of The "Ethical" In Habermas' Recent Political Theory, Andrew J. Pierce

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

No abstract provided.

Leadership Development Of Faculty In Academia - The Impacts Of The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Michael S. Carriger

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

A fairly recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 12, 2013), by Barden and Curry asked the question, “Faculty members Can Lead, but Will They?” Barden and Curry suggest that, “every professor has the intellectual capacity to understand and embrace the elements of modem leadership necessary to guide institutions in today’s higher-education marketplace.” But... is there a dearth of leadership and leadership development opportunities among faculty in the academy? The current research used a survey approach to look at the landscape of leadership development in academia among Catholic, Lutheran, and Secular institutions. The general hypothesis was that Catholic …

Synod Revealed The Muscle, Muck And Mire Of A Living Church, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

When Pope Francis ushered in the Synod on the Family with his opening address he pointedly observed that he wanted the Synod Fathers to speak with candour, without fear and without self-censoring. The past two turbulent weeks of the Extraordinary Synod of Catholic Bishops in Rome is over. But the ripples will be with us for some time to come.

Brigid's Peace: An Examination Of The Influences Of The Catholic Intellectual Tradition On One Writer's Creative Work, Marie A. Hulme

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

The genesis of my novel, Brigid’s Peace, which I began in the spring of 2013 coinciding with my studies in the Presidential Seminar, was an interest in examining the need for luminosity, for transcendence, for beauty in the face of dark despair and evil. My work centers on the story of an Irish Catholic family living in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the time of sectarian conflict known as “the troubles,” but more specifically on the impact of events related to that time on one young woman, Brigid Donegan, an artist and one of seven sisters. Through a close, third person …

Infinite Horizon: The Prairie Spirituality Of Ronald Rolheiser, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

Ronald Rolheiser, president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio Texas (but a native of the Saskatchewan prairie), is one of the most popular Catholic spiritual writers and syndicated columnists at work today.

What some critics see as Rolheiser’s complacency, his supposedly uncritical embrace of modern secular society, is actually borne of his remarkable faith and confidence in God’s abiding presence and care. Like the philosopher Charles Taylor, a fellow Canadian and Catholic, Rolheiser is keenly aware that modern liberal values such as tolerance and benevolence, and especially respect for individual dignity and freedom, have deep Christian roots.

Why Won't The Pope Treat His Faithful Like Adults?, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

When Pope Francis summoned bishops from around the world to gather in Rome for a synod on the family this fall, and when he instructed his staff to prepare a questionnaire inviting serious input from the Roman Catholic world, bishops moved quickly to adjust the generic template to their local constituencies. Information was gathered, sifted and systematized in preparation for the gathering.

But there are signs that the papal nerve may be wavering a mite. Vatican authorities have actively discouraged, if not directly forbidden, the public release of the materials gathered.

Francis, The Incremental Pope, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

The biggest obstacle Pope Francis faces in his resolve to decentralize the church’s governance apparatus is the simple fact that his immediate two predecessors spent decades centralizing that very structure.

Paper Memory: A Sixteenth-Century Townsman Writes His World (Book Review), John B. Roney

History Faculty Publications

Book review by John B. Roney.

Lundin, Matthew. Paper Memory: A Sixteenth-Century Townsman Writes His World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Larger Than Legend: Saving Chesterton From The Chestertonians, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

The article discusses the life and works of theologian Gilbert Keith Chesterton and the author's appreciation about his contributions to the Catholic Church. The author mentions that Chesterton has been his inspiration and he has been organizing an academic conference on his life and thought. He also tackles Chesterton's characteristics, who he referred as critical thinker, and his stance as anti-Semitism.

Review Of: Thompson, J. Milburn, Introducing Catholic Social Thought, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This book enters a crowded field. There are many books on Catholic social thought (CST), as suggested by this book’s select bibliography of over 200 items. Most religious studies publishers—especially those of a Catholic orientation—have one or more books on the topic. There are roughly thirty to forty texts in print that a college professor would consider when teaching a course or a module on Catholic social thought. Nonetheless, J. Milburn Thompson’s Introducing Catholic Social Thought is a welcome addition to the field. Thompson has written a clear, informative, and fairly engaging book for college students and others wanting to …

Gilgamesh To Blade Runner: Teaching The Catholic Intellectual Tradition In Rscc104, Christopher J. Kelly

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Professor Kelly describes his teaching of the core curriculum course in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at Sacred Heart University. He states "that our careful reading of Genesis, Augustine, Blade Runner, Gilgamesh, etc. provides them [students] with certain tools with which they will be able to reflect upon their own “contexts.” This is exactly what I ask them to do for their capstone project in the course. It is an assignment many are loathe to do because I keep it fairly vague, which requires them to do some self-initiated thinking and work. The payoff, however, has enormous potential. If I …

Simplicity, Sustainability, And A Greening Of The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Cara E. Erdheim

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

This essay is in part academic and in part anecdotal, although, from my perspective, the two need not be mutually exclusive. A unique Service Learning experience last May has crystallized my personal reflections on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, as well as clarified my literary scholarship in the field of American environmental writing.

Framing Racism Post Vatican Ii: Critical Race Theory And The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Amanda Moras

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Over the past century, the Catholic Church as an institutional entity has had a complex, and often contentious, relationship to racial politics. Given its history in colonialism, role in domestic slavery and the widely publicized complicity during the Holocaust, racism is something that has deep seated roots within the Church hierarchy.

That said, over the past fifty years, the Catholic Church, both internationally and in the U.S., has begun to confront racism as a moral issue.

The Dilemma Between Ethics, Contemporary Political-Economy And Society's Common Good: Reengaging The Stewards Of The Common Good, Kwamie Dunbar

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

The paper focuses on the rising gap between ethics and modern day business practices and employs recent Catholic Social Teaching and moral anthropology in order to assess the types of (value) ascriptions that can (normativelv) best define business ethics in an era of positive economics, rising levels of individualism and a shrinking “common good."

Animal Cognition, The Importance Of Touch, And The Cit, Deirdre Yeater

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

A presentation of Professor Yeater's incorporation in her class PSCC103 of 5 in- class discussions comparing human and non-human species, particularly dolphins, with an emphasis on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and the importance of touch. PSCC-103, The Human Community: The Individual and Society, is a 3 credit course which engages students in a study of the relationship between psychology – the science of human behavior and mental processes, and the Catholic intellectual tradition – which is characterized by rigorous intellectual inquiry and an openness to scientific ideas. This course aims to help us understand ourselves as human persons, as well …