In the Lógos of Love: Promise and Predicament in Catholic Intellectual Life - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190280034 ISBN 13: 9780190280031

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

So much has changed about Catholic intellectual life in the half century since the end of the Second Vatican Council that it has become difficult to locate the core concepts that make up the tradition. In the Lógos of Love is a collection of essays that grew out of a 2013 conference on Catholic intellectual life co-sponsored by the University of Dayton and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. The essays, written by scholars of theology, history, law, and media studies of religion, trace the history of this intellectual tradition in order to craft new tools for understanding the present day and approaching the future.

Each essay explores both the promise of Catholic intellectual life and its various contemporary predicaments. How does a changed media landscape affect the way Catholicism is depicted, and the way its adherents understand and communicate among themselves? What resources can the tradition offer for reflection on new understandings of sexuality and gender? How can and should US Catholic intellectual life embrace and enhance-and introduce students to-the new ways in which Catholicism is becoming a more global tradition? What is the role of scholars in disciplines beyond theology? Of scholars who are not Catholic? Of scholars in universities not sponsored by Catholic religious orders or dioceses?

By providing context for and proposing responses to these questions, the scholars invite discussion and reflection from a wide range of readers who have one important thing in common-a stake in sustaining a vibrant, flourishing intellectual tradition.

About this title

About the Author

Fr. James L. Heft, SM (Marianist) is the Alton Brooks Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California. He is the author or editor of twelve books and over 170 scholarly articles, and currently serves as the president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC. His recent research has focused on the mission of Catholic education and inter-religious dialogue.

Una M. Cadegan is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Dayton. She is a cultural historian of US Catholicism, and the author of All Good Books Are Catholic Books: Print Culture, Censorship, and Modernity in Twentieth-Century America.

Review

"[T]he real value of this volume lies in the finely textured picture of contemporary Catholic intellectual life painted in different strokes by the various contributors. Each chapter presents highly relevant descriptions of present cultural realities and the efforts of Catholic scholars to avail themselves of the resources of CIT in diverse contexts...this text would make a welcome addition to the library of any Catholic university, center, or institute seeking resources for thoughtfully engaging the Catholic intellectual tradition."--American Catholic Studies

"These wide-ranging papers examine Catholic intellectual life fifty years after Vatican II. The 'predicament' is that Catholic intellectual and cultural achievements and resources are overshadowed by internal divisions, changing patterns of religious belief and practice, pressures on academic institutions, and a changing media culture. Contributors resist simplistic arguments about secularism and relativism and hold out the hope, the 'promise,' that renewed commitment to the 'Logos of Love,' truth and charity, will enable Catholic scholars and artists, now at the intellectual centers, to enrich the Church and the human family." --David O'Brien, Loyola Professor of Catholic Studies, Emeritus, College of the Holy Cross

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0190280034
• ISBN 13: 9780190280031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Heft SM Fr. James L., Cadegan Una M.