Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

You probably have noticed that posting has been more sparse than usual over the last week or so.  The tempo has picked up considerably at the Institute of Catholic Thought here in Champaign, but that has not been a good thing.  I was informed at the beginning of last week that due to the economic slowdown our funding stream could no longer support our school of theology so we will be closing it down at the end of the semester and I will get to experience solidarity with those human persons who make up the current 8.1% unemployed.

The task load has increased considerably in trying to place students, in finding a job, in continuing to teach classes, and in handling the unhappy tasks associated with shutting down a school.  This apostolate was growing with the intention of creating a compelling new venue for bringing the Catholic intellectual tradition into the public university environment.  This is an important enterprise which ought to be pursued at universities everywhere.

The thinking, or perhaps a not so close facsimile thereof, that goes on in a public university makes it very much a challenge to introduce Catholic thought.  However, that is in fact the reason for the need.  The challenges are manifold.

The first challenge is simply the name “Catholic.” The myth of a conflict between religion and science, fostered by John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White in the late 19^th century, still has plenty of traction among academics today.  While this reveals a tremendous ignorance of history, we still must contend with the perception that Catholic thought offers only obfuscation.

Many others believe there to be a more comprehensive contradiction between faith and authentic knowledge.  Many contemporary academics simply assume that anytime faith is asserted, reason necessarily has been excluded.  In fact, I have been told directly by one such academic that a person of faith (read Christian) teaching on his own faith tradition has no place in a “secular” university classroom.

Another challenge is what John Cardinal Henry Newman, in his The Idea of a University, referred to as an educational philosophy of utility. That is, little value is awarded to knowledge that does not appear, at least indirectly, to possess economic or technological utility. Given widespread biases against religion and modern philosophy’s supposed discrediting of speculative thought, contemporary academia presumes Catholic thought offers nothing of value. As a consequence wisdom has been traded for knowledge and today’s university concerns itself with only the latter.

Further difficulties arise from the manner in which the specialization has led to a fragmentation of knowledge and its evil twin, what I refer to as an “ontologizing of the method.”  The problem with this fragmentation of knowledge is that there is no longer recognition that all knowledge interrelates and so there is little appreciation for what Catholic thought might contribute to the way one thinks about his discipline.  What I mean by “ontologizing the method” is nothing more than the metaphysical and epistemological reductionism that arises when the scientific method becomes an idol.  Metaphysical reductionism results in materialism and for epistemology it is “scientism.”  Materialism, of course, further prejudices against any claims coming from one perceived as motivated by his religion.  Scientism is essentially positivism which cleaves knowledge into science and opinion; the latter is given little value.  Other challenges presenting include the assumption that education must be values neutral, a distorted view of academic freedom, and a revisionist understanding of the separation of church and state.  All of these hurdles must be taken into consideration if one is to develop an effective strategy for engaging contemporary academia.

These were hurdles that we were embarking upon clearing but the apostolate has now experienced a set back, possibly a lethal one.  Restoring the capacity to think to academics is critical because of the affect that they have on the students and so on the rest of society.  The US university has been a significant contributor to the secularization and the attending fall from virtue that we have seen in the US over the last 50 years or so. This in turn has been a large contributing factor to our nation’s current ills.

With all of the darkness coming out of anti-life federal legislation and policies, state attacks upon the Church, economic woes uncovering the vermin that have always lurked under the rocks, etc this is the worst time to be shuttering such a school.  This darkness points to a very serious spiritual crises that we have finally arrived at.  Such an enterprise as we are now shutting down is needed more than ever today.  The Institute itself will continue to exist but it will be a one man apostolate teaching two undergrad classes a semester.  Better than nothing but not what it was intended to be and certainly not what is needed.

I would very much appreciate prayers first for the students who are directly affected, for other students who will not now learn how to think clearly and be able to defend themselves against the secularizing horde which is academia, and for those of us who have been given the further challenge of finding work in these hard economic times.  Well, I suppose it is back to the unhappy chore of putting an end to a promising apostolate.