[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-430535-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-430535-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","the-catholic-intellectual-tradition","The Catholic Intellectual Tradition","","Transcribed address by Margaret O’Brien Steinfels at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota) on August 3, 1995, later reprinted in Catholic higher education venues. The talk revisits a 1988 discussion of how the Catholic intellectual community should understand and sustain Catholic identity within colleges and universities, examining pressures from academic disciplines, accreditation, religious diversity, and changing demographics. It argues that, despite uncertainties, the identity question is now treated seriously, and it frames Catholic institutional futures in relation to broader American intellectual life and secularization.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/","Religion & 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the Catholic identity of Catholic colleges and universities should be taken seriously, and what shapes that identity in practice.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why did the first controversy draw attention away from other issues?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Concern about academic freedom and defensiveness around Catholic identity led many to focus on episcopal control, theological narrowness, and related anxieties.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the speaker relate Catholic institutions to broader American trends?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The talk compares potential paths toward secularization or sectarianism by drawing parallels with the development of Protestant universities and the changing American intellectual 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Web site as of June 22,2012,11:20am  \nWeb address:http:liwww.imu.edu/resources/provostsearchOLD/overview/catholio.him  \n# The Catholic Intellectual Tradition\n\nTranscnpt of address by Margaret OBrien SteinfelsUniversity of St.Thomas (St.Paul,Minnesota)August 3,1995  \nReprinted from Association of Catholic Collegesand Universities,Occasional Papers on CatholicHigher Education 1.1(November 1995)Also in Origins25.I(August 24,1995):171-74.  \nIn 1988,I gave a talk in this very city to this very organization,or at least a subgroup,the presidents of Catholic colleges and universitles,not on this very topic but closelyrelatea:\"The Church and American cuture:The chalenge to the Catholi Intelectual community\"Seven years have pased.Most of you are too young t have been in fheaudlence,and most of you don't look like presidentsae”yet.The temptatlon to repeat myself has been strong.  \nIdug ouf hat seven-year-old tak.tlooked to be ne of my very first ncountars wih a computer.From my eros Iinferthat Larousse instead of the American HertageDictionary was on my spell-check.My talk was very long,as only computer-generated talks get to be,which probably explains why I have been given a strict time Imlt thisevenlng.(Margaret O'Brien Stainfels is editor of Commonweal)  \nI went over the usual suspects:John Tracy Elis and Thomas ODea and a few unusual ones,Richard Hofstader and the Vatican.That talk had the usual rmetoricalstrategies:a golden age of Catholic education (including a glowing account of my aduation at Loyola universty and aleaden age duled by the difculios faca in 1988.n concluding l offered the usual solutlons and some unusual adviice:Catholic colleges and universities should take Commonweal as a model of critlcal engagement withCatholic intellectual life,and for only $39 a year.  \nAs I reread that talk1sald:This is good!Then came a voice from heaven:But is it true?  \nMy analysis in 1988 rested on two controversies whose trajectories were then unclear.SInce then,each has taken a decisive direction.  \nThe frst controversy.Vas the Catholic ienity of Catholic colges and universties a quesfin that would be or could be taken seriousy?Many people wanted to adressthe isstue,but concem for academic freedom along with a certain defensivaness led them to suppose that an effort to study Catholle ldentity would be defined primarily byepiscopal control,theological narrowness,and moral overreaching.The Curran case was still being adjudicated in 1988,and the Catholic University was a living example ofthe tensons and dlemmas.t is not surprising fsome peopl fel fhat adresing the Catholic identity o thelr nsturion would be like embracing a porcupine or maybe askunk.  \nThis anxity distracted ttention from other pressing isues:The eroslon of Cathlc ldentlybecause academic dicipines and acrediting agencies were shaping facultyand currlculum;because faculty and students were becoming more religiously and diverse;because of the decline in the number of religious and priests who expressedthat identity;and because there was competition for students.(In defining its market niche,a Catholic school did not usually emphasize its Cathollcity,but rather advertiseda tradition of service and learning in the spirit of Its founding rellglous communlty.Thus we have schools in the Jesuit,Benedictine,Mercy,Ursuline,Vincentian,Dominican,Holy Cross traditions,all managing to sound both more benign and more universal than the Catholic tradition.  \nSeven years and many discusslons later,it has become clear that,despite those anxieties,the Catholic identity question is being taken serlously.Whatever uncertaintylingers around Ex Corde Ecclesiae and its ordinances,groups and individuals have pressed ahead to look at how colleges and universities see themselves as Catholic.Inevitably some flnd that they are Catholic in name only,while others are striving to sust","cbCaifFd92VdbgDT","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifFd92VdbgDT","pdf",214434,"English","# The Catholic Intellectual Tradition\n## Revisiting a 1988 talk and its questions\n## Controversy 1: Catholic identity and governance\n## Controversy 2: Catholic identity within American intellectual life\n## Secularization and alternative paths","[{\"question\":\"What central question does the address revisit from 1988?\",\"answer\":\"How the Catholic identity of Catholic colleges and universities should be taken seriously, and what shapes that identity in practice.\"},{\"question\":\"Why did the first controversy draw attention away from other issues?\",\"answer\":\"Concern about academic freedom and defensiveness around Catholic identity led many to focus on episcopal control, theological narrowness, and related anxieties.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the speaker relate Catholic institutions to broader American trends?\",\"answer\":\"The talk compares potential paths toward secularization or sectarianism by drawing parallels with the development of Protestant universities and the changing American intellectual environment.\"}]","The Catholic Intellectual Tradition | PDF",1790653093]