"Theology in a catholic university: Newman's significance for today", John R. Connolly
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"The article presents an analysis of Newman's understanding of theology and its role in the Catholic University of Ireland. In explaining Newman's understanding of university theology, the article focuses on two elements of Newman's thought. The first is Newman's understanding of theology as a form of liberal knowledge. An application of the elements of liberal knowledge to theology reveals the main characteristics of Newman's understanding of university theology. The second is Newman's understanding of the relationship between the church and the university. Newman distinguishes between the mission of the Catholic Church and the mission of the Catholic university. The distinct mission of the university indicates that the objective of university theology is different from the teaching mission of the magisterium. In the final section, the article examines the significance of Newman's ideas for Catholic universities in the United States today." - Author's Abstract
Connolly, John R. "Theology in a Catholic University: Newman's Significance for Today." in Horizons 29.2 (2002) Read the Article: UofT Library WorldCat |
Saving Wisdom: Theology in the Christian University, Brian W. Hughes
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"Is theology possible within a Christian university? Beneath the emphasis of contextual, philosophical, and ecclesial pluralism, what is its academic nature? Further, who can participate in it? Recent debates and discussions by theologians that touch upon these questions seem to run in circles: theology is an academic specialty enjoying academic freedom; theology must bolster ecclesial identity, become more catechetical, and serve the church; theology must contribute to and shape public policy. Though such positions recur, they overlook latent but interrelated characteristics embedded within the nature and place of theology within the Christian university that affect them all. Ê Upon analysis of four major theologians, Friedrich Schleiermacher, John Henry Newman, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., and Edward Farley, I argue that there are two major patterns at work. First, theology is more a sapientia or wisdom than a traditional academic discipline. Second, all descriptions of theology in the university possess an inclusive or exclusive soteriological character. These patterns pervade diverse topics: the relationship of theology to the church authority, a theologian's ecclesial and academic commitments, the preconditions of faith for theological understanding, participation in a religious symbol system, theology as wisdom, and the difference between religion and theology. How one implicitly defines Christian salvation regarding the place of theology in the Christian university opens or closes the practice of theology to those who teach and learn it." - Author's Abstract
Hughes, Brian W. Saving Wisdom: Theology in the Christian University. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011. Read the Book: UofT Library WorldCat Read review here: Reviews in Religion and Theology, Gavin D'Costa |
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"The contemplative function of theology within liberal education: re-reading Newman's Idea of a University", Brian W. Hughes
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"This essay partly responds to John Connolly's recent article on the significance of Newman's view of theology for the contemporary Catholic university. I agree with Connolly's argument but believe it does not do justice to the rich theological and philosophical implications of Newman's thought on this topic. Theology in the university serves a vital role in the philosophical formation of the intellect because it aids the intellect's trajectory toward a kind of transcendence. This specific transcendence is connected to the dynamics of reasoning operative within the philosophical habit of mind. The transcendence that Newman holds as constitutive of and ordered by university teaching concerns viewing theology as liberal knowledge and as a type of contemplation. As a subject matter, theology assists in the mind's enlargement by helping to bring out the metaphysical and aesthetic dimensions in knowing." - Author's Abstract
Hughes, Brian W. "The Contemplative Function of Theology Within Liberal Education: Re-Reading Newman's Idea of a University." In Horizons 32.1 (2005). Read the Article: UofT Library WorldCat |
"Catholicism 101: Challenges to a theological education: Six Perspectives," Avery Cardinal Dulles, Et al.
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This principle article by Cardinal Dulles deals with the challenges of theological higher education and includes replies from six contemporaries on the issue. "Education in the Catholic faith takes place on three levels— primary evangelization, catechesis, and theology. Presupposing that the student has become a believer through evangelization and has learned the principal teachings of the Church through catechesis, theology engages in a systematic search for deeper understanding. Theology has traditionally had a home in Catholic universities, though today some deny that theology belongs in the university at all on the grounds that it is dogmatic and uncritical. The discussion represented by these papers leaves me quite hopeful. A growing number of Catholic colleges, it appears, recognize the challenges to which I called attention. Many of our younger theologians are well armed against relativism and eager to recover the best and most enduring insights of the Catholic tradition in philosophy as well as theology. The desirability of rigorous academic study within the commitment of faith is increasingly acknowledged. And there is general agreement that more evangelization, catechesis, and philosophy are necessary for a serious study of theology. If these requirements cannot be presupposed, they must be incorporated, to the extent possible, in the teaching of theology itself." - Author's Conclusion/Summary
Dulles, Cardinal Avery et. al. "Catholicism 101: Challenges to a Theological Education: Six Perspectives." Horizons 33.2 (2006). Read the Book: UofT Library WorldCat |
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"Teaching Students as Shapers of the Traditions that Shape Them," Shane kilpatrick
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"An undergraduate liberal arts education can help students be not simply shaped by tradition but also shapers of tradition. Specifically, undergraduate theological education, aimed at ministry preparation in a liberal arts setting, can seek to graduate students who are responsible shapers of the traditions that shape them, that is, who are tradents. The work of a tradent involves active engagement that requires skills and capacities well beyond simply passing on the past formulations of a tradition. The pedagogical question, then, is how to engage in undergraduate theological education if this image of the tradent is what we have in mind for our students. Three aspects of this image can serve as pervasive or recurrent themes across the structure of a major or program. One aspect is the interpretive nature of the tradent's work, a second is facility with traditions, and a third is the creative, constructive work of thinking theologically. Whatever particular traditions characterize a department's context, the image of students as tradents can help focus pedagogical reflection on the department's work: teaching students as shapers of the traditions that shape them." - Author's Abstract
Kilpatrick, Shane. "Teaching Students as Shapers of the Traditions the Shape Them." in Teaching Theology and Religion 19.2 (2016) Read the Article: UofT Library WorldCat |
"THEOLOGICAL ROUNDTABLE: Teaching Catholic Theology in the Coming Decade," J Matthew Ashley
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"From May 31 to June 2, 2009, thirty-seven theologians gathered to discuss the state of teaching Catholic theology in the United States with a view to thinking about challenges and opportunities in the coming decade. 1 Anne Clifford, long-time professor of theology at Duquesne University, recent president of the College Theology Society, and currently the Supple Chair of Catholic Studies at Iowa State University, along with Brian Robinette, associate professor of theology at St. Louis University, ably set the stage for the participants’ refl ections with the addresses that are reproduced in the accompanying pieces. My purpose in this introduction is to describe the process, some of its outcomes, and the questions it poses us for the future." Author's Abstract
Ashely, J Matthew, Anne M. Clifford and Brian D. Robinette "Theological Roundtable: Teaching Catholic Theology int he Coming Decade." in Horizons 37.2 (2010) Read the Article: UofT Library WorldCat |
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