The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university

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Main Author: Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU)
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The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
author_facet Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU)
author_sort Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU)
title The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
title_short The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
title_full The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
title_fullStr The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
title_full_unstemmed The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
title_sort catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university
description 13 pages.
publisher Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU)
publishDate 2017
url http://cdm17321.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/books/id/6682
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spelling sluoai_books-6682 The Catholic intellectual tradition : core principles for the college or university Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) Catholics -- Intellectual life; Catholic learning and scholarship; Catholic universities and colleges -- Philosophy; 13 pages. 2017 2021-03-16 PDF CIT-CorePrinciples Virtual Core Bookshelf BX961.I5 2017 © 2017, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. Reproduced here with permission. Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) text eng Who am I? Why am I here? What really matters? What does the world need? How ought we to live? Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities THE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION: FOR THE COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY COVER PHOTOS: (Top) Corbis Images (Center) Immaculata University (Bottom) St. Catherine University © 2017, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. All rights reserved. Neither this book nor any portion thereof may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (ACCU) One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 650 Washington, DC 20036 www.accunet.org The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University The Catholic Intellectual Tradition is… Optimistic and joyous about what it means to be human. Transcendent and challenging about how we understand ourselves as spiritual beings. Sacramental and celebratory in its affirmation of our dignity. Integrative and Inclusive in its desire to spread the Good News. Creative and Multi-cultural in its vision of how God is present to human experience.1 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) is a way to answer the significant questions of life using wisdom accumulated over the ages. It is a habit of engaging the world in the pursuit and sharing of knowledge. It aspires to a deep understanding that leads to shared wisdom relevant to all humanity. This accumulating and ever-growing tradition of knowledge continually evolves to engage current developments in thought and relevant discoveries in science, art, language, and culture in the effort to link them to eternal truths. The CIT embraces the fullest thinking the world has to offer, providing the opportunity for Catholic colleges and universities to participate in and contribute to scholarship and to society. While integral in undergraduate core curricula, the CIT also has important implications for professional studies in areas such as business, education, medicine, engineering, and law: It offers a holistic, historical, and ethical perspective to the professions, applicable across disciplines. The CIT is a centuries-long way of thinking by Catholics and many others that helps consider universal truths about beauty, the created world, and human purpose in light of revelation. It includes scientific discovery, philosophical reasoning, and insights from many cultures and a variety of ways of knowing. It considers not only what is taught, but how it is taught through self-reflection and incorporating meaning-filled questions across the disciplines, such as “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “Who is God?” and “What does the world need?”2 The propositions on which the CIT are based can be understood and appreciated by Catholics as well as those of other or no faith tradition. The CIT articulates the view of humanity and an understanding of God’s creation, linking knowledge to the divine. The remarkable nature of human reason is one touchpoint for CIT and includes the ability to understand by way of science or philosophical disputation, and also by an aesthetic sense and religious insight. d The CIT offers a holistic, historical, and ethical perspective to the professions, applicable across disciplines. 2 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES The Catholic teaching tradition is rooted in the Hebrew Scripture and continued by the model of Jesus Christ himself as he taught during his ministry on earth. The CIT follows the example and begins from the experience of the early Christian communities, in their engagement with Jewish and Hellenic philosophy. It was transmitted through the monastic tradition of the Middle Ages, most especially in the development of the university itself. The CIT aspires to the integration of knowledge into a larger, deeper understanding that informs the university, serves as a source of wisdom, and indeed, offers hope and inspiration; it helps individuals and societies find meaning in the world when much knowledge today is fragmented and irreconcilably contested. In this way, Catholic higher education shares a common intellectual epistemology that is applied differently across institutions, as each college or university embodies the various charisms of their founders and their specific educational missions. In curriculum and institutional priorities, Catholic colleges and universities with sponsoring religious congregations may emphasize certain themes within the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. For instance, Benedictines often focus on Catholic thought about work, stewardship, and hospitality; the Franciscan tradition has long considered the natural world and social sciences; and, in the Ignatian tradition, Jesuit schools underscore the development of the intellect as well as an internal approach to spiritual formation. By understanding the distinct founding charism, when present, faculty can more deeply build upon the intellectual life of their institution. The purpose of integrating the CIT at Catholic colleges and universities is to offer students and faculty alike a holistic lens through which to view the world and all scholarship. The intended hope of such integration is that graduates will leave with an understanding of the richness of the CIT and the value of such a robust understanding of the world, across all aspects of life and scholarship. Overall then, the CIT is a living tradition, arising in human rationality. It seeks unity in knowing and in the pursuit of wisdom. In so doing, the CIT encourages healthy societies and the flourishing of individual humans. The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) invites faculty to become even more familiar with the historical and contemporary role of the CIT and ways in which today’s Catholic universities can apply the CIT in modern academia. It is important to note that many faculty and staff are already actively and successfully integrating the CIT across their individual disciplines. 3 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG This document offers one formulation of the CIT, with nine principles that may help faculty reflect on their scholarship in light of the CIT, in order to ultimately enrich, develop, and carry on their work as scholars and practitioners in their own disciplines. (Other resources are available on the association’s website at www.accunet. org/About-Catholic-Higher-Ed-Catholic-Intellectual- Tradition/.) Core Principles of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition The following nine principles were developed through collaboration and consultation with a range of faculty from diverse disciplines across Catholic higher education.3 The richness and diversity of Catholic colleges and universities personify and celebrate these nine core principles that bring to life the Catholic Intellectual Tradition: I. Commitment to Universal Truth II. Faith and Reason III. Integral Relationship to the Catholic Church IV. Hospitality and Tradition V. Sacramental Vision VI. Power of Beauty VII. Appreciation of Creation VIII. Dignity of the Human Person IX. Innovation for the Common Good The following sections provide descriptions of these principles, applicable across disciplines. This is a developing document and ACCU encourages personal reflection and discussion to further refine these nine principles. I. COMMITMENT TO UNIVERSAL TRUTH The Catholic tradition is born out of the search for encompassing truths that create a unity that comprehends everything knowable by human reason. Drawing on our theological and philosophical underpinnings, the Catholic Intellectual Tradition identifies the ultimate Truth with the cause of all creation, which is God. Catholicism esteems the pursuit of knowledge, embracing the reality that there are truths across all disciplines that stand the test of time. The Catholic Intellectual Tradition holds that the processes of intellectual inquiry aspire to grasp glimpses of truth in the pursuit of integrated understanding. Knowledge has intrinsic and essential value that aims to advance human understanding through an integrated approach to the world. As rational beings, humans have the ability to question, to understand, and to d The ultimate end of intellectual activity in the Catholic tradition goes beyond the mere grasping of individual facts, to find deeper principles and meanings. 4 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES choose — abilities that make knowing possible and necessary. So too does human rationality have limits and faults; research and reasoning can be underdeveloped or flawed. Yet an optimist knows that humans are capable of ascertaining truths and integrating insights with those of others in the pursuit of wisdom. The ultimate end of intellectual activity in the Catholic tradition goes beyond the mere grasping of individual facts, to find deeper principles and meanings, including truths about the nature and purpose of human life. This effort to reach the ultimate is a core aspect of Catholicism. Thus, the Catholic college or university holds an honored place as one of the best instruments by which the Church engages in the rigorous intellectual work and the pursuit of Truth for itself and for all humanity.4 Catholic practice aspires for all disciplines to subsist as part of a greater, more comprehensive truth. From the perspective of the CIT, disciplinary teachers and researchers are invited to seek an integrated and holistic perspective that can lead to greater wisdom, the highest good, and universal understanding, visible and invisible. Thus, within the university, the CIT encourages broad understanding, intellectual clarity, and attentiveness to the transcendent as one seeks to know the world. The CIT embraces this reality in both teaching and research in Catholic higher education. On Catholic campuses, faculty and students are called to engage in philosophical, historical, scientific, social, and linguistic study, as well as the study of the professions, to enlarge understanding, enrich their own lives, and serve humanity. II. FAITH AND REASON The CIT presupposes that what is knowable by human reason and by God’s revelation are not only compatible, but also mutually informing. Therefore, the Catholic tradition contemplates and seeks to understand these truths through a mutually illuminating dialogue of faith and reason. In the Catholic Christian tradition, faith and reason illuminate each other equally. God is the source and the goal of both the truths of faith and the truths of reason. Because of their unity of origin and final end, reason and faith are not in contradiction. Rather, any apparent contradictions are an invitation to pursue fuller understanding. This highlights the need for openness and persistence in the patient quest for knowledge.5 In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “[T]he world of reason and the world of faith — the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief — need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.”6 Skeptics sometimes argue that faith cannot be a reliable source of knowledge, for it is inherently personal and subjective. This assertion misunderstands the Catholic understanding of faith. Faith is itself a form of knowledge. d The CIT encourages broad understanding, intellectual clarity, and attentiveness to the transcendent as one seeks to know the world. 5 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG It is not subjective opinion or belief, but objectively depends on divine revelation and invites human understanding, especially through those who have been given the gift of faith.7 Although the scientific method and tightly reasoned philosophical argument are both powerful tools to extend the human mind, CIT recognizes the limits of rational inquiry and its potential for error. The Catholic tradition derives from God’s revelation, first to Israel and then decisively in Christ and through his continual presence in the Church and through her presence in the world. It is a living tradition that is not static, but grows through sustained contemplation and action, as well as the interplay of faith and reason. The strength of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition is that it can develop from many sources and integrate every human truth in relation to what has been divinely revealed. The promise of the unity of faith and reason creates an opportunity for Catholics to meet rational objection on reason’s own terms. The Catholic tradition values the truth and beauty of the liberal arts, but also their usefulness for understanding Scripture and the religious experience. This interplay of faith and reason in the Catholic college and university assists the Church’s efforts to understand and act upon the fullness of truth. The CIT thus not only serves to strengthen human understanding, but also stands as an integral part of the Church’s witness to the world. As Pope Benedict XVI remarked in Caritas in Veritate, “Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith [and...] religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face.”8 For these reasons, theology and aspects of philosophy are privileged within the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Many faculty across Catholic higher education are actively finding methodologies to integrate and connect faith and reason in their various disciplines. For instance, faculty are engaging literature as a way to understand the greatest of human aspirations while also enriching individual lives. Faculty in the sciences do so by pursuing discoveries to improve the quality of life by advancing health and the prevention of disease while also recognizing the importance of mind, body, and spiritual health. As of this writing, ACCU is developing a resource that will offer explanations of how faculty may integrate faith and reason into their scholarship and teaching. More than simple lesson plan examples, the resource will explicitly aid faculty in accessing the Catholic Intellectual Tradition when designing their own discipline-specific lessons and teaching methodologies. III. INTEGRAL RELATIONSHIP TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH Born from the heart of the Church, the Catholic college or university advances a common love of knowledge and wisdom in its research, teaching, and service. Participating in the wisdom of the past and casting a discerning gaze on the knowledge of every age, the Church and academy are united in the endeavor of advancing the common good of humanity. d By its nature, Catholicism honors the intellect and appreciates the importance of knowledge in all areas. 6 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES By its nature, Catholicism honors the intellect and appreciates the importance of knowledge in all areas. The CIT grows out of this appreciation of knowledge — not just as it relates to theological understanding, but also for the larger purpose of helping the Church minister well to the world. The Church has an ancient tradition of reflecting on how inquiry is ordered. St. Augustine recognized that training in the liberal arts is essential for coming to understand the Holy Scriptures. He explained that this understanding should be ordered in such a way as to help people live according to principles that lead to happiness and human flourishing — the source and end of which is God.9 Catholic colleges and universities are still concerned with how people order knowledge in relation to religious understanding. Since the very desire to know the nature of things finds its source in God, it follows that knowledge of all creation should be ordered to love for the author of creation. In this way, knowledge can and should be used to serve humanity in the pursuit of happiness for the common good, and it is ordered to the love and praise of the Supreme Good. In this way, Catholic colleges and universities maintain an integral relationship to the Catholic Church that orders herself most fully to the praise of the God revealed in Jesus Christ. As John Henry Cardinal Newman emphasized, the university is the ideal location where an intellectual culture of inquiry is to be fostered, encouraging dialogue and the pursuit of knowledge and truth wherever they are to be found. Because of its integral relationship to the Church, Catholic higher education plays an important role in helping the Church grow in knowledge by contributing to the ongoing growth of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. And so, the Catholic tradition of higher education offers an invitation to students, scholars, and staff to think seriously about religious and spiritual matters in their own lives, in that of the campus community, and across humanity. This invitation encourages deeper spiritual awareness, an understanding of religious tradition, and a more profound sense of conscience to guide one’s personal life and one’s work as a scholar. IV. HOSPITALITY AND TRADITION The Catholic college and university engages all cultures, ideas, and people in a spirit of respectful dialogue in the pursuit of deeper understanding. Recognizing our foundation in the love of God and neighbor, the Catholic Intellectual Tradition calls us to openness and warmth in scholarship, service, and all academic pursuits. Hospitality is at the heart of Catholicism. Lessons of hospitality are found in Scripture in terms of how the guest should be welcomed. For instance, the stories of Abraham illustrate how he warmly greeted strangers when they approached his tent, only later learning that the strangers were God’s messengers. In monastic communities, the d The Catholic tradition of higher education offers an invitation to students, scholars, and staff to think seriously about religious and spiritual matters. 7 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG guest was and is always treated as if he or she were the presence of Jesus Christ himself. These examples powerfully communicate the importance of being rooted in a tradition, and having the stability of identity and practice that is capable of welcoming the stranger as one who bears God’s image. Similarly, on Catholic campuses, hospitality is evident in terms of intellectual openness as well as a welcoming attitude and action toward all, including those with whom we may disagree. The ability to welcome questions and dialogue comes from understanding that one’s identity is solid and one’s practices are stable, leaving the capacity to openly entertain and fully explore other ideas. However, hospitality does not assume the superiority of the most strongly asserted positions. It does imply a true commitment to academic freedom, including a fair chance to be heard and an opportunity for dialogue. The hospitality of the teacher follows the model of Jesus in offering insights for the development of the individual and the enrichment of the community. The call to hospitality requires that people model civility in conversations, commitments, and priorities. V. SACRAMENTAL VISION The Incarnation of Christ and his continuing presence in the Eucharist changes the way that Catholics view the world. Catholicism recognizes the world itself as a sacred sign of an invisible reality. Therefore, the Catholic college or university attends to all aspects of creation. The material world encountered through the senses opens the way to truths about creation that transcend a person’s faculties. Such a sacramental vision sees the whole universe as the good gift of God and stirs one to know and understand the gift of this world. The CIT holds that people encounter invisible truths through visible objects and that we can rise to eternal things only through the ordinary things that have been made.10 This is most fully revealed to us in Christ’s Incarnation. God takes on human flesh in order to raise us up to become partakers of God, through the things that are made. This is the mysterious truth of the sacraments, which raise us to communion with God through ordinary created items: water, wine, bread, and oil. The CIT provides us with a habit of mind, a Catholic imagination, to see all that exists as an opportunity for wonder, delight, fascination, insight, and an invitation to know something we cannot see. Beholding and sharing the splendor of God’s work is integral to Catholic education at all levels and across all disciplines. Scholarly encounters invite spiritual, as well as intellectual growth with signs of God’s presence in one’s work. A sacramental vision affirms the real or potential goodness of all that is around. Catholicism invites people to discover everyday opportunities for grace and wonder. Catholic colleges and universities offer tangible ways — through scholarship, advising, service, community life, and worship — to experience the love of God through life and learning. They offer a location to foster a “contemplative disposition” throughout scholarship and study.11 In the same way, a sacramental vision can enrich one’s personal life well beyond the academy. VI. POWER OF BEAUTY The awareness of beauty is one of the most profound qualities of a Catholic humanism. The CIT is an artistic tradition; the Church’s sacramental vision of God and the cosmos aims to foster artistic creation and appreciation. Therefore, the university is charged with the promotion and analysis of the arts and sciences as manifestations of beauty. 8 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES Although the Catholic Intellectual Tradition is often associated with philosophical and theological inquiry, in fact, the Catholic approach to knowing and understanding encompasses all creation that provides deeper insight into the human experience and glimpses of the divine. That is, Catholicism aspires to foster and encourage the imagination and to inspire creativity. One needs only to recall that over the centuries, the Church has uplifted many of the greatest artists the world has ever seen. The Catholic tradition encourages an appreciation of the beautiful out of the Church’s sense that the Creator God is visible by way of inspired works of humanity. It is noteworthy that humans are instinctively drawn to the beauty found in nature, in the visual and literary arts, in architecture, and in music. We seem called to make what is beautiful and to seek both social and personal transformation through beholding beauty. Alone among creatures, the human person is capable of creating and seeing beauty that touches the human soul and elevates the imagination, even unto God, who is Beauty Itself. Encountering the beautiful helps one see reality in a fresh way and it is another way the CIT seeks to see God in all things. Beauty can transform us to attend to the good and the true. Therefore, the Catholic college or university is charged with the promotion and analysis of the arts and sciences as means to beauty. Likewise, Catholic higher education seeks to foster the vocation of the artist and encouragement of art that reaches for the highest purposes of the spirit. VII. APPRECIATION OF CREATION Study of the physical world — from the cosmos to the molecular level — is a means to grow closer to God through understanding the universe he created. Humanity has been entrusted as caretakers of creation, and scientific knowledge provides the understanding necessary to support responsible stewardship. Like all scientists, scholars at Catholic institutions use the scientific method to understand the mysteries of the natural world in all its beauty and complexity. The Catholic tradition also calls upon scholars to engage in studies ethically and to provide insights to care for the world in which humanity lives. Scientific discovery and inquiry uniquely contribute to the world’s well-being and combine fruitfully with CIT, which considers a range of questions, from contextual to theoretical. The methodological pursuit of truth through scientific study leads to deeper understanding of God’s creation. Truths revealed and scientifically tested in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, for instance, lend further insight to contemporary issues as well as questions of the ages. For example, such scholarship supports medical advances that benefit the common good and the possibility for a “covenant between humanity and the environment.”12 As with any other human way of knowing, the scientific method, while powerful, does not by itself answer d Encountering the beautiful helps one see reality in a fresh way and it is another way the CIT seeks to see God in all things. 9 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG special ethical concerns or provide guidelines on how to holistically integrate scientific knowledge. “It cannot be maintained that empirical science provides a complete explanation of life, the interplay of all creatures and the whole of reality.”13 And so, science faculty members and researchers in Catholic institutions pursue their work following the scientific method, while engaging the Catholic tradition to connect their findings to broader experiences of the universe. The pursuit of the sciences within Catholic higher education offers unique access to truth in all its forms. Such an approach opens the possibility to a wider understanding of the ethical implications of scholarship as well as the need to care for the human person and creation. Catholic colleges and universities should seek to embody such a holistic epistemology in teaching, research, and applied scholarship. In all endeavors, the CIT calls for a visible respect for creation by way of a campus life that takes seriously a duty to use scientific knowledge wisely and with an openness to the wonder of creation. VIII. DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON The CIT exemplifies an ethical tradition that affirms the intrinsic value of each human being as created in the image of God. The person’s sacred worth obligates us to promote conditions consistent with human dignity and reject those conditions that threaten intrinsic human value. At the heart of this principle is the recognition that every human being has intrinsic value and worth regardless of their stage of life, location in society, or physical or mental ability. The ethical focus of the CIT extends this principle to recognize that each person’s dignity is based on his or her creation in the image and likeness of God. From the moment of conception, throughout life, and even in death, every human being is seen as a gift from God and as a bearer of divine dignity. Our recognition of the rights and responsibilities owed to persons flow from this fundamental conviction that the human person, above all other creatures, bears a likeness to God, inscribing on the human heart a law “which not even iniquity itself can destroy.” 14 The Catholic tradition of inquiry seeks to understand the signs of our own times, to encourage human flourishing and happiness, and to critique those inquiry methods that may discourage such flourishing by excluding any person from the common table of humanity. Humans live and grow in a web of social, economic, and political relationships, and so understanding social structures and their consequences is an important consideration for the CIT. The importance of just social and political institutions can be seen in papal encyclicals and other Church statements on a wide range of topics from war and peace, to economic development, labor relations, and d Catholic colleges and universities should seek to embody such a holistic epistemology in teaching, research, and applied scholarship. 10 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES environmentalism, to name a few. Thus, the dignity of persons is the foundation for social analysis and for efforts to create more just human institutions that truly serve the good of every human. For instance, across Catholic higher education, social scientists contribute to this goal through their interactions with various cultures and individuals in the field of sociology. We see how faculty strive to uplift the human spirit and respect the dignity of the human person in the field of communications. In education and pedagogy, we see how scholarship looks to represent the intrinsic value of all persons, regardless of status, stage, or location in life. In large and small ways, the commitment and dedication of faculty to bring forth the dignity of the human person in the Catholic academy is a valuable contribution to higher education, as well as the Church and society. IX. INNOVATION FOR THE COMMON GOOD The pursuit of the common good and the improvement of the conditions of life arise from the dignity of the person. Scholars at Catholic colleges and universities are invited to find and understand new ways to meet human needs and solve the problems of society. This search fosters understanding and innovation that promotes human flourishing in community. “Human beings only truly flourish in the context of a community.”15 That is, individuals can only reach their full potential if they work with and for one another to promote and protect the good of society. As noted in Ex corde Ecclesiae, the primary way that the university serves humanity is when knowledge serves the human person.16 And so, developing ways to care for others and for creation through technology, innovative educational or management practices, improved methods of health care, or better social forms is a central aim of Catholic colleges and universities. Through its scholars and teachers, Catholic higher education asks its participants to go beyond simple criticism or the replication of past practices to use our intellectual capacities to analyze, evaluate, and create new knowledge and technologies that will advance the common good. While Catholic higher education remains a charitable endeavor of the Catholic Church, it differs from the work of organizations such as Catholic Relief Services or Catholic Charities, which offer direct material support for human needs. Rather, Catholic higher education provides “charity in truth” which, through teaching and learning, creates persons attuned to human suffering and able to contribute to the flourishing of families, parishes, towns, cities, associations, companies, markets, nations, and international bodies, political and otherwise. Whether innovation takes place in the arts or in the realm of the social or natural sciences, in law or in literature, in business, music or medicine, the Catholic Intellectual Tradition ensures that such innovation is directed to the good of the human person and toward the just society. Learning in the Catholic tradition — pure or applied — invites “innovation” to promote the conditions necessary for a richer human experience and the flourishing of all in community. 11 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG How This Project Unfolded The creation of this document began with a diverse and experienced group of faculty members from 10 Catholic colleges and universities and two ACCU senior staff members,17 who gathered for a weekend near Baltimore in July 2014. During two days of discussion and synthesis, this group, knowledgeable in the application of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, began the process of outlining the core qualities of the tradition for faculty. In addition to the 10 core faculty members, ACCU assembled a group of blind peer reviewers with extensive understanding of the CIT and its role in Catholic higher education. These reviewers examined the content of this document, providing guidance, clarification, or additional conceptual direction as needed. Finally, a focus group of faculty from diverse disciplines was solicited to review thoroughly and comment on the draft document. We appreciate the feedback received throughout this process and we have made a good faith effort to incorporate as many of the suggestions as possible into the final document. 12 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Core Principles for the College or University ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES Notes: 1Mary Beth Ingham, “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition.” Loyola Marymount University. http://myweb.lmu.edu/tshanahan/The%20Catholic%20 Intellectual%20Tradition.pdf (accessed August 3, 2017). 2 Kelly Younger, “Not What, But How,” Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education (2010): 30. ³ See page 11 for full details on how the nine principles were created. ⁴ St. John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae: On Catholic Universities (Vatican City: 1990), ¶ 10. ⁵ Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and the Reid Group, “Faith and Reason,” Strengthening Catholic Identity series brochure. See www.accunet.org/Mission-Identity-Strengthening-Catholic-Identity. 6 Pope Benedict XVI, September 17, 2010, meeting with the representatives of British society, including the diplomatic corps, politicians, academics and business leaders, United Kingdom. 7 St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, Second and Revised Edition (New York: Benziger Bros., 1947), I, 1. 8 Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate: In Charity and Truth (Vatican City: 2009), ¶ 56. 9 St. Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Teaching, trans. R.P.H. Green (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). 10 Romans 1.20. 11 Rik Van Nieuwenhove, “Contemplation, Attention, and the Distinctive Nature of Catholic Education,” Journal of Catholic Higher Education 35 (2016): 203. 12 Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Vatican City: 2015), II. 13 Pope Francis, Laudato Si, ¶ 199. 13 WWW.ACCUNET.ORG 14 St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), II, 9. 15 Kenneth R. Himes, OFM, Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2001), 36. 16 St. John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae, ¶ 18. 17 The 10 faculty members, along with their disciplinary areas of expertise, were: Sean Bradley, Mathematics, Clarke University; Bill Cahoy, Theology, Saint John’s University (MN); Rev. John Conley, Philosophy, Loyola University Maryland; Dan Conway, Business, Loras College; Michelle Loris, English and Psychology, Sacred Heart University; Chad Pecknold, Theology, The Catholic University of America; John Pinheiro, History, Aquinas College (MI); Jennifer Rust, English, Saint Louis University; Helen Turner, Biology, Chaminade University; and Darlene Weaver, Theology, Duquesne University. Chad Pecknold also led the group as chairperson. The ACCU staff members were President Michael Galligan-Stierle and Vice President Tom Mans, assisted by ACCU consultant Lorraine Sloma-Williams. ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 650 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 457-0650 • accu@accunet.org Follow us: @CatholicHighrEd http://cdm17321.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/books/id/6682

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