Philosophy in Catholic Higher Education
by Theodore Vitali, C.P.
SCRANTON GRADUATION - The curriculum in Catholic universities and colleges
continues to require for its integrity a coherent system of courses
that reflects the Catholic intellectual tradition."
(Passionist Press Photo)
Catholic education in America has had and continues to have a threefold mission: to transmit the Catholic intellectual heritage; to protect the faith in the face of an often hostile culture through a scholarly and critical transmission of the faith; and to prepare Catholics for full participation and leadership in American political and economic life. The most important role played by Philosophy in Catholic education has been to be the principal transmitter of the Catholic (hence Western) intellectual and cultural heritage.
Philosophy, unlike many other disciplines in the humanities and sciences, draws upon the past in such a way as to bring the past to bear on the present in virtually all philosophical discourse. Philosophy does not look at the past as mere history, important as this is in itself. Rather it regards the past as the source and context of its current reflections and concerns, and as a means for deeper elucidation in the effort to resolve current and perennial philosophical problems. Philosophy departments in Catholic universities have done this in America for the past century or more.
The 1960s change
But, in the 1960s, the cultural and intellectual climate changed in a way that significantly impacted the shape and content of philosophical education within the Catholic college and university.
The Second Vatican Council had the singularly greatest impact on Catholic education. John XXIII saw the world in jeopardy of self-destruction and envisioned the Church as the Good Samaritan coming to the world to save the world from its self-inflicted moral and spiritual wounds. In so doing, the pope challenged the Church to commit herself to saving the world from within the core culture of the world itself. Catholic institutions, therefore, would have to perform their roles from within the mainstream of the culture, not from without. They would have to be the locus in which the academy and the Church would meet and think and discourse. In other words, the Catholic university would have to be part of the larger, mainstream academy, and the academy would have to be present and welcomed within the Catholic university.
In response to the Council’s challenge, Catholic colleges and universities opened themselves up to a broader intellectual culture. In time, certainly by the mid to late 70s, this led to much more pluralism and diversity both in the philosophical curriculum and faculty in Catholic colleges and universities. In the light of these changes, certain problems appeared within the Catholic educational system, especially in terms of philosophical education.
Three problems
The first problem was the failure of textbook Thomism to sustain itself as a credible philosophy in the face of the new Catholic academy’s role in mainstream society. This led in time to the need to recover a more authentic Thomistic synthesis in the service of the larger community, a philosophical synthesis that was credible not only to Catholics but to the larger philosophical community in which it was engaged.
Furthermore, the need arose to develop an integrated curriculum that both retained the wealth of the past and, at the same time, fostered the best philosophy available given the diverse and pluralistic character of Philosophy departments. Finally, the need to integrate this diverse faculty into a cohesive and cooperative community in service of the ultimate aims of the Catholic universities and colleges became imperative. Above, right: St Thomas Aquinas, detail of painting by Benozzo Gozzoli, late 15th Century.
On the whole, Catholic schools responded well to these challenges. They upgraded their standards in virtually every area of academic life: scholarly expectations were raised to the level comparable to the best institutions in the country, faculty were hired from these same first tier institutions, and the curriculum was liberalized to meet both Catholic ideals and the ideals of the larger academic community. As a result, Catholic schools began to become competitive with the best of their secular counterparts. But, along with this thrust into the mainstream, there also came significant dangers.
The most significant danger for Catholic institutions was the loss of identity and mission. Catholic schools now drew their faculty from the best schools in the world, not necessarily from Catholic schools. As a result, faculty (even faculty who are practicing Catholics) who came from secular institutions may not have had, let alone understood or appreciated, the Catholic heritage. The pluralization of the departments, therefore, especially in the humanities, led to the potential loss of institutional identity and mission, and thus the potential for the incipient secularization of Catholic institutions, not in principle, but in practice.
The second danger flowed from the first: the loss of fundamental integrity in the curriculum. The Catholic curriculum in higher education has traditionally placed central importance on the teaching of Philosophy and Theology because of the intimate relationship between faith and reason in the Catholic tradition. The curriculum in Catholic universities and colleges continues to require for its integrity a coherent system of courses that reflects the Catholic intellectual tradition. But, as more and more faculty unfamiliar with the Catholic tradition and its value were hired, the danger of losing the integrity required for sustaining the Catholic mission increased exponentially. An integrated core was often weakened or even sacrificed for the sake of a buffet-styled core, a mere collection of courses rather than a coherent system meant to educate students in the wisdom of the past while preparing them for vigorous participation in the contemporary world.
The worst danger
Finally, the loss of a critical mass of faculty who were committed to the mission of the department, college and university led to the potential loss of the sense of the university’s mission to serve the Church in the post-modern world. This was and remains the worst of all possible dangers because should this occur, Catholic universities and colleges would then forfeit their role in the Church, and the Church would lose one of its most vital resources.
Nonetheless, while these dangers are real, they can be met by doing the following things. In recruiting new faculty, departments must be careful to recruit and select faculty with special concern for their ability and willingness to understand and commit themselves to the overall goals of the department and its mission to the university, the Church and society. This does not entail that a new faculty member must be a Catholic or even a Christian. He or she need not even be a theist, though this is highly desirable.
There must also be a rigorous and critical development of a curriculum that both preserves and hands on the wealth of tradition, and at the same time fosters cutting edge research and teaching at all levels and in all areas. The university must foster the teaching of the core courses that define the mission of the institution by providing overall guidance and vision, and by the allocation of resources to support the departments centrally committed to the core, principally the Humanities and most especially, Philosophy and Theology.
The essential need
Thus, there needs to be strong leadership at the highest level of the university/college to guide the overall development of both faculty and curriculum. It is essential, therefore, that the president, provost and deans understand and support the university’s mission in service of the Church and the relation of various elements of the university to that mission.
Finally, there must be a deep commitment to foster the religious dimensions of the university without prejudice to the non-Catholics there. The university must foster its Catholicity while at the same time embracing its diverse faculty, a faculty composed of believers and non-believers. The Catholicity of the university must thus be catholic in the richest sense of the word.
If Catholic institutions embrace this or a similar model, they will, in my view, share in the leadership of the emergent global community. For the brightest Catholics to enroll in Catholic schools, those schools must be the very best as measured by the academic world itself and also (perhaps especially) by the excellence and depth of their transmission of the Catholic tradition. By their excellence alone, Catholic schools will command the respect of their secular counterparts and, ultimately, of their own Catholic members. 
Fr. Theodore Vitali, C.P. completed his Ph.D. from St. Louis University in 1976 where he has served as Chair of the Philosophy Department since 1989.
