The Catholic University As Promise and Project

by Buckley, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780878407101
• ISBN10: 0878407103
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Georgetown Univ Pr

Summary

The remarkable development of the Catholic university in the United States has raised issues about its continued identity, its promise, and its academic constituents. Michael J. Buckley, S.J., explores these questions, especially as they have been experienced in Jesuit history and contemporary commitments.The fundamental proposition that grounds the Catholic university, Buckley argues, is that the academic and the religious are intrinsically related. Academic inquiry encourages a process of questioning that leads naturally to issues of ultimate significance, while the experience of faith is towards the understanding of itself and of its relationship to every other dimension of human life. This mutual involvement requires a union between faith and culture that defines the purposes of Catholic higher education. In their earliest and normative documents, Jesuit universities have been encouraged to achieve this integration through the central role given to theology.Buckley explores two commitments that implicate contemporary Catholic universities in controversy: an insistence upon open, free discussion and academic pluralism -- to the objections of some in the Church; and an education in the promotion of justice -- to the objections of some in the academy.Finally, to strengthen philosophical and theological studies, Buckley suggests both a "philosophical grammar" that would discover and study the assumptions and methods involved in the various forms of disciplined human inquiry and a set of "theological arts" founded upon the more general liberal arts.Entering into the contemporary discussion about the Catholic university, this book offers inspiring and thought-provoking ideasfor those engaged in Catholic higher education.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xxiii
PART ONE Crisis, Choice, and the Catholic University	1	(52)
The Catholic University and the Promise Inherent in its Identity	3	(23)
The Question and Its Urgency	3	(8)
Extrinsicism	11	(4)
The Integrity of the Academic and the Religious	15	(2)
Christ as Paradigm	17	(3)
The Catholic University and its Definition	20	(2)
Ex corde Ecclesiae	22	(4)
The Church and its Responsibility to Foster Knowledge	26	(14)
To Specify the Question	27	(4)
Thesis 1	31	(5)
Thesis 2	36	(3)
Conclusion	39	(1)
A Conversation with a Friend	40	(13)
Professor David O'Brien	40	(4)
Response	44	(9)
PART TWO ``The Universities of the Society''	53	(50)
Ignatius' Understanding of the Jesuit University	55	(19)
The Fusion of Horizons	55	(2)
Universities and the More Universal Good	57	(6)
The ``Universities of the Society''	63	(7)
The Constitutions as Resources and Challenge	70	(4)
Humanism and Jesuit Theology	74	(29)
Introduction	74	(1)
Three Aspects of the Problem	75	(6)
The Human Defined by the Divine	81	(3)
The Human United with God: Instrumental Causality	84	(5)
Renaissance Transformations in Humanistic Education	89	(5)
Humanism and Theology: The University of the Society	94	(4)
Theology and the Influence of Humanism	98	(3)
In Summary	101	(2)
PART THREE Contemporary Signs of Contradiction	103	(46)
The Search for a New Humanism: The University and the Concern for Justice	105	(24)
The Issue	105	(6)
The Humanistic Education	111	(5)
Deficiencies in the Contemporary Settlement	116	(2)
Reformulation of Liberal Arts and Humanities	118	(3)
Academic Strategies	121	(8)
The Catholic University as Pluralistic Forum	129	(20)
The Issue and Its Situation	129	(5)
Internal Contradiction	134	(2)
Discussion	136	(3)
Order	139	(2)
The Identity of the Catholic University	141	(3)
An Objection and Conclusion	144	(5)
PART FOUR Towards the Love of Wisdom	149	(34)
Philosophic Grammar and the Other Disciplines	151	(21)
The Problem	151	(2)
Three Additional Dimensions of the Problem	153	(3)
Patterns in American Education	156	(5)
Introduction through Disclosure	161	(11)
Wisdom, Religion, and the Liberal Arts: Towards the Construction of Theology	172	(11)
Theology as Architectonic	174	(4)
The Liberal Arts in Theology	178	(3)
The Religious Question	181	(2)
Notes	183	(32)
Index	215