The Church and Catholic Higher Education

Horizons ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
The University ◽  
Public Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

AbstractRecurrent debates about the church and higher education in the United States involve differing understandings of the nature and purpose of the church as well as differing understandings of the university. Catholic colleges and universities remain important but underutilized resources for the American church as it pursues its mission. Institutional, communitarian and servant models of the church must be examined more rigorously before they are used to prescribe changes in higher education. None is without problems. In a pluralistic and free society, a public church,” self-consciously mediating the tensions between Christian integrity, Catholic unity, and civic responsibility, provides an altogether appropriate stance for Catholic colleges and universities as well. It points not to a neat resolution of outstanding difficulties but to ongoing dialogue among the publics to which both church and higher education must address themselves.

Gender and LGBTQ Equality in the University

2021 ◽  
pp. 207-248
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Social Tradition ◽  
The University

This chapter advances the argument that the Catholic social tradition, which includes the work of feminist theologians and ethicists, can point toward greater equity for women in the academy. This chapter also discusses the continuing need to create more inclusive campus communities for LGBTQ persons. The author contends that the issues that women face because of their gender and the LGBTQ community's ongoing struggle for equality are not the same and warrant more extensive treatment than can be offered in this book. However, the chapter aims to offer some insights about how CST can promote the dignity, equality, and full participation of women and LGBTQ persons in Catholic higher education. Ways in which Catholic colleges and universities have promoted equity and full participation of women and LGBTQ persons on their campuses are considered. The concluding section confronts the problem of sexual violence in campus, which the author contends is a severe affront to a person’s autonomy and right to fully participate in a community.

The Mission of Catholic Higher Education in the Age of the Corporatized University

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-46
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Business World ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Social Tradition ◽  
The University ◽  
Contemporary Context

This chapter problematizes the contemporary context in which Catholic colleges and universities operate in the United States, namely, that of corporatized higher education. It describes the corporatization of the modern University and its negative consequences, locating this phenomenon within the ascendancy of neoliberalism. The author argues that the corporatization of the university has infected higher education with hyperindividualistic practices and models imported from the business world, essentially creating a clash of values with the Catholic social tradition. This phenomenon hinders the ability of Catholic institutions to fulfil their mission, which includes creating an environment imbued with values and principles of CST such as respect for human rights, solidarity, and justice. This final section of this chapter introduces the reader to the values and principles of CST, which should inform the policies and practices of Catholic institutions and counteract the values of corporatized education.

scholarly journals Defining Catholic Higher Education in Positive Terms

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Identity ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic History

Debates about Catholic higher education in the United States sometimes focus too much on what Catholic colleges and universities should not do, rather than what they should do. This article attempts to reframe those debates away from the negative expressions of Catholic identity (i.e., denying guests a right to speak on campus based on their stance on abortion) and toward more positive expressions, like promoting scholarship on Catholic history, culture, and theology. It reviews some key academic literature that approaches Catholic identity from this positive, proactive perspective, and attempts to categorize that literature into common, identifiable themes.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Beyer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
The University

The introduction describes the author’s purpose, aims, and methodology of the book and why it should matter to all who care about Catholic higher education. The author discusses his own indebtedness to Catholic higher education and acknowledges that Catholic colleges and universities in the United States serve students and society in laudable ways. However, the introduction presents the thesis of the book: many Catholic institutions of higher education have failed to embody the values of the Gospel and the principles of Catholic social teaching (CST) in some important institutional policies and practices. Just Universities argues that the corporatization of the university undermines the fidelity of Catholic higher education to its mission by hindering efforts to promote worker justice on campus, equitable admissions, financial aid, and retention policies, just diversity and inclusion policies, and socially responsible investment and stewardship of resources. The author acknowledges the argument of the book represents one perspective and is intended to generate more sustained conversation about ways that Catholic social teaching should shape the life of Catholic institutions of higher learning.

Seed That Falls on Fertile Ground (Matthew 13:1–9): Catholic Higher Education and the Renewal of Agrarianism

Horizons ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-69
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Groppe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
The United States ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Agricultural Knowledge ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Catholic Culture ◽  
Whole Person

Agriculture in the United States today faces myriad challenges, including soil erosion, biodiversity loss, climate change, water shortages, dependence on harmful chemicals, and a breach in the intergenerational transmission of agricultural knowledge. The scope and scale of the agricultural problems facing our nation today are an indication that we need a new culture of theager(“field” in Latin)—a fundamentally new way of understanding and enacting our relationship to the land and the production of food. Catholic colleges and universities can make a vital contribution to this renewal through new agrarian curricular and research programs grounded in Catholicism's sacramental epistemology, analogical metaphysics, interdisciplinary search for wisdom, and respect for the spiritual significance of agricultural and manual labor. In turn, the incorporation of agrarian practice, education, and research within Catholic institutions of higher education can contribute to the education of the whole person that is fundamental to Catholic pedagogy, the cultivation of the virtue of humility, and the enrichment of Catholic liturgical practice and Catholic culture.

The Early Years of the Jewish Presence at the University of Illinois

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-245
Author(s):  
Winton U. Solberg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Characteristic Form ◽  
University Of Illinois ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Jewish Students ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

For over two centuries, the College was the characteristic form of higher education in the United States, and the College was closely allied to the church in a predominantly Protestant land. The university became the characteristic form of American higher education starting in the late nineteenth Century, and universities long continued to reflect the nation's Protestant culture. By about 1900, however, Catholics and Jews began to enter universities in increasing numbers. What was the experience of Jewish students in these institutions, and how did authorities respond to their appearance? These questions will be addressed in this article by focusing on the Jewish presence at the University of Illinois in the early twentieth Century. Religion, like a red thread, is interwoven throughout the entire fabric of this story.

Theology in the Catholic University

2021 ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
James L. Heft
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Ex Corde Ecclesiae ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities

Major secular universities do not teach theology; they teach religious studies, if they teach anything about religion at all. It is impossible to imagine a Catholic university without theology. Four characteristics of Catholic theology show the unique contribution the discipline makes to Catholic higher education. False dichotomies are identified: critical or catechetical and faith or reason. This chapter describes the dramatic changes over the past sixty years in who teaches theology and what is taught to lay students at Catholic universities. Theologians need to address effectively the problem of widespread religious illiteracy among most college students. The Vatican document on Catholic higher education, Ex corde ecclesiae, offers a broad and demanding vision of the type of theological and moral education necessary for Catholic colleges and universities. The expectations of Catholic theologians in the academy and beyond it are daunting.

Introduction: Catholic Higher Education in 1900

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gleason
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Women's Colleges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
Age Range

A great many Catholic colleges existed in the United States at the opening of the twentieth century. Exactly how many it is impossible to say with certainty because any answer presupposes agreement on the answer to a prior question: “What should be counted as a college?” The Catholic Directory for 1900 listed 10 universities, 178 “colleges for boys,” 109 seminaries, and 662 “academies for girls.” According to this count, there were no Catholic women’s colleges at that time, although the College of Notre Dame of Maryland graduated its first baccalaureate class in 1899 and is included among the 128 colleges for women listed in U.S. Commissioner of Education’s Report for 1899-1900. The same Report, however, listed only 62 Catholic institutions among the 480 included under the heading: “Universities and colleges for men and for both sexes.” No doubt some Catholic colleges simply failed to provide the information necessary to appear in the Commissioner’s Report. But their failure to do so is in itself significant; and even assuming that is what happened, it still leaves an enormous gap between the Commissioner’s figures and the 188 colleges and universities reported in the Catholic Directory. Moreover, many of the “colleges for boys” could, with equal justice, have been called academies, since elementary- and secondary-level students made up the majority of their student bodies. As the case of Notre Dame of Maryland indicates, Catholic “academies for girls” were beginning to upgrade themselves to collegiate status. Had the word college been more freely applied to non-Catholic institutions for women at an earlier date, a good many of these academies would probably have called themselves colleges long before, for they did not differ all that much from the “colleges for boys” in terms of curricular offerings and age-range of students. While the situation of Catholic institutions was particularly murky, the question “What makes a college a college?” engaged the attention of practically everyone involved in secondary and collegiate education at the turn of the century.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-238
Author(s):  
James L. Heft
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
John Henry Newman ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Catholic Higher Education ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Faculty Recruitment ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
Circle Model

This chapter rehearses the arguments of the book, reaffirms the importance of the open circle model, and sees gains for Catholic higher education through academic freedom (as explained in chapter 8), engaging religious pluralism while teaching and researching Catholicism as an intellectual tradition. The chapter explains why the phrase “Catholic intellectual tradition” is used. It returns to the critical importance of the three north stars: Jesus (existential component of love and justice), Mary his mother (education, formation, and wisdom), and John Henry Newman (the continuing relevance of his Idea of a Catholic University). For Catholic colleges and universities to avoid going secular, as have most of the major mainline Protestant universities in the United States, the chapter underscores the critical importance of leadership, faculty recruitment and formation, and the Catholic intellectual tradition.

World War II and Institutional Shifts

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gleason
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
World War ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Catholic Colleges And Universities ◽  
The Korean War

World War II set the stage for an era of tremendous growth in American higher education, growth in which the Catholic sector shared fully. Between 1940 and 1960 the number of Catholic colleges and universities increased by one-fifth (from 193 to 231), faculties grew by about 85 percent (from 13,142 to 24,255), and enrollments almost doubled that percentage, zooming from just under 162,000 to just over 426,000, an increase of 164 percent. Sheer growth was thus the most basic of the institutional developments that took place in this era, but it presented itself more as a series of crises than as a process of continuous accretion. The first crisis, brought on by the wartime draft and the attraction of highpaying jobs in defense industries, imperiled the very existence of the colleges by depleting their pool of potential students. Then came the overwhelming surge of postwar veterans that almost swamped the system. And just as educators were regaining their balance from that onslaught, the outbreak of the Korean War threatened to start the cycle all over again. Korea proved to be a mere dimple compared with World War II, but steady growth did not really begin until 1953.

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