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Displaying: 1-20 of 44 documents


1. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Msgr. Robert J. Batule From the Editor
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part i. symposium: religious freedom and the future of the catholic church in the american public order
2. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Kenneth L. Grasso Introduction
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3. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Gary D. Glenn The Downside of Constitutional "Protection" for Religious Liberty (or, How can Constitutional Protection for Religious Liberty Actually Undermine It?)
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This essay explores the forgotten First Congress debate about Madison’s proposed religion amendments. While anti-Federalists had demanded amendments to protect religion and religious liberty, they “feared” that the language proposed by Madison might instead be used “by the people in power . . . to abolish religion altogether”; or at least to be “extremely hurtful to the cause of religion.” There was particular concern about what meaning federal courts might “construe into” this language, particularly the language against “establishment” of religion. The debate aimed at minimizing this problem while still permitting the federal government to assist and promote religion in certain ways (e.g., by exempting those “religiously scrupulous of bearing arms” from having to do so). This “construe into” problem became important in our constitutional law after 1947. Its existence in the first Congress debate suggests this modern development may not be simply a product of progressive jurisprudence.
4. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Robert P. Hunt Liberal Individualist Monism and the Future of Religious Freedom
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The liberal individualist tradition proclaims itself to be committed to the protection of individual rights under a regime of neutral laws and limited constitutional government. However, the model of man and society upon which it often depends for sustenance is neither neutral nor anti-statist. Rather, its alternative orthodoxy would effect a comprehensive reordering of what John Courtney Murray called “the natural forms of social life.” The recent trajectory of church-state relations in the United States, and of federal and state efforts to effect comprehensive changes in our health care system(s), testify to the dangerous consequences both for religious freedom in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The Catholic Church must continue to advance its personalist understanding of constitutional democracy as the better foundation for limited, constitutional government and religious freedom.
5. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Kenneth L. Grasso Whose Religious Liberty? Which Intellectual Horizon?
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In the face of the new and radically different type of public order that seems to be emerging on the contemporary scene, Catholics (and social conservatives, more generally) have sought to secure the legal and social space necessary for themselves and their institutions to live in accordance with their beliefs (and to profess those beliefs publicly) by appealing to America’s historic commitment to religious freedom. The difficulty we confront is that the vision of man and society animating this order, a vision that emerges from Enlightenment Liberalism issues in an impoverished understanding of religious freedom that fails to secure this legal and social space.
6. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Steven J. Brust Religious Freedom and Catholicism in the American Political Order: In Defense of Truth
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part ii. articles
7. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Richard Upsher Smith, Jr. Jacques Maritain’s “Integral Education”: Its Context, Content, and Feasibility Today, Part II
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What follows is the second part of an article which first appeared in the pages of this journal last year. Both installments concern Jacques Maritain’s notion of integral education and its applicability to the educational scene today.
8. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
David Lutz Integrating the Liberal and Practical Arts
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Catholic colleges and universities should integrate liberal and practical education. John Henry Newman and Josef Pieper attempt, unsuccessfully, to distinguish the liberal and practical arts in terms of being ends in themselves versus having ends beyond themselves. Jacques Maritain, instead, advocates making all education liberal. The purpose of liberal education is to enable students to understand reality, so they can pursue happiness correctly. The purpose of practical education is to teach students how to earn a living virtuously. These purposes should not be separated. Students need courses that integrate a liberal arts discipline and a practical arts discipline within a single course.
9. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
David Tamisiea In the World, Not of the World, but Still for the World: The Christian Lay Faithful’s Secular Character
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The Second Vatican Council teaches in Lumen Gentium that the defining feature of the Christian lay vocation is its secular character. The Christian lay faithful are called to seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and ordering them according to God’s will, and by infusing the world with a Christian spirit. In Christifideles Laici, St. John Paul II offers a deeper theological foundation for the laity’s secular character based upon Creation and Redemption. The Christian layperson participates in God’s creative work by his involvement in the world’s affairs, but draws upon grace and instruction in the redemptive order so that these activities can be done in an upright manner. An early Christian witness to the laity’s secular character is the Letter to Diognetus. As the Letter makes clear, the Christian living in the world is fully involved in human society by divine vocation, and yet is called to oppose and rectify its sinful aspects. Vatican II, John Paul II, and the Letter to Diognetus all show that the Christian lay faithful are called to be “in the world, not of the world, but still for the world.”
10. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Rev. Joseph Scolaro After Ethics: Bringing Transcendence to Alasdair MacIntyre’s Concept of Tradition
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In the past half-century, Alasdair MacIntyre has introduced a groundbreaking new perspective in the field of virtue ethics with his philosophical history and emphasis on tradition. Many believe, however, that his arguments fail to provide a foundation for the coherent ethical theory he seeks to build. One possible reason for this failure is that as much as he looks to Aristotle for a figure who was able to engage in fruitful ethical debate, he does not account for the profound changes which have occurred since his time, above all in the modern presumption that the human mind can transcend the boundaries of the universe and grasp the truth of reality. This paper will therefore argue that by integrating a sense of the transcendent with MacIntyre’s philosophical project, particularly with his theory of tradition, one can find a more successful path to meaningful ethical enquiry.
11. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Matthew Rose “Truth Exists. The Incarnation Happened”: Warren H. Carroll’s Catholic Historiography
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Warren H. Carroll was a fundamental figure of the late-twentieth century Catholic cultural revival. His historical works present the Church’s Christocentric view of history while utilizing the scholarly tools of a modern historian. Yet few historians, even Catholic historians working within the Catholic historiographic milieu, are familiar with the historical thought of Carroll, and even fewer have engaged his thought in their scholarship. This article seeks to rectify that deficiency by presenting Carroll’s twin historical principles, “Truth exists” and “The Incarnation happened,” as a model for Catholic historical studies.
12. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
David A. Gilbert Finding Faith in the Nineteenth Century: Fanny Calderón De La Barca’s Journey to the Catholic Church (via Mexico)
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Frances Calderón de la Barca (1804-1882) was born in Scotland but lived most of her adult life in the United States (Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.), Mexico, and Spain. Her most famous books describe the life and cultures of nineteenth-century Mexico and Spain based on her experiences there. But she was also part of the Anglo-American world and she inherited the typical Protestant prejudices of her day. Her conversion to the Catholic Church in mid-life highlights the factors that finally overcame such seemingly insurmountable cultural barriers. This article uses her books and letters to trace this important writer’s unexpected journey of faith.
13. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Rev. Brandon P. O'Brien We Are Not to Despair: W. H. Auden and the Search for Hope in Modern Society
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A result of the violence and destruction of the First and Second World Wars was an abandonment of hope in the twentieth century. This abandonment of hope had caused an overwhelming despair which infiltrated all levels of modern society. The juxtaposition of the lives and writings of two twentieth-century writers, Stefan Zweig and W.H. Auden, helps us to understand what is at stake in the ongoing tension between hope and despair. While Zweig saw no future for modern society and eventually committed suicide, Auden, who abandoned his Christian faith in his youth, returned to it after witnessing the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. I will attempt to show that the path followed by Auden is the path of Christian hope, and that path can still be followed by modern pilgrims who struggle to gain the upper hand over despair.
14. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Andrew Essig Power Reconsidered: A Moral Realist Perspective
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The foundation of a Catholic international relations theory, known as Moral Realism, is that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and thus possess an inherent dignity. In conjunction with St. Thomas Aquinas’ conclusion that man is a political animal, hierarchies are established within societies and political power is exercised under the condition that a person’s dignity will not be violated. Extrapolating this to the next level, how do societies use their power in relation to one another in the absence of governing institutions? This essay will examine the concept of “power” from a Moral Realist perspective, utilizing a level of analysis approach in order to fill in a critical void in the current international relations theory.
15. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Steven J. Brust A Catholic and Constitutional Assessment of the Executive Power after the Obama Administration
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During his his eight-year tenure in the White House, President Barack Obama raised serious concerns by expanding presidential power with his use of actions that altered federal regulations in various policy areas, ignored or circumvented the law, and/or enacted policies that violate fundamental human rights, notably religious freedom. In the first few months of his presidency, President Trump also has used executive orders to alter existing legislation and policy. In light of these circumstances, it is important to ask: How should a Catholic (and any citizen for that matter) assess this use of the executive power? And, perhaps more importantly, in what ways should executive power be exercised? I will attempt to answer these questions from a broad perspective based on the general understanding of executive power as written in the U.S. Constitution, as well as the historical development of this power. I will also provide, based on principles of Catholic social teaching, a general assessment of the current status of executive power and some recommendations for how it should be exercised.
16. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Rev. Robert Weaver Predicting Evangelistic Behavior During the New Evangelization: A Parish-Based Analysis
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The purpose of this study was to develop a further understanding of what factors influence the evangelistic behavior of Catholic parishioners. A parish survey designed to generate quantitative data was administered to 444 parishioners attending a Catholic Church located in central Canada. Evangelistic behavior was measured by asking participants how often during the six months preceding their participation in the study did they invite a non-Catholic or an inactive Catholic to church. The study’s eight independent variables pertained to specific participant attitudes, beliefs and practices which relate to the Catholic Faith. Results indicate that agreement with Church teaching in the areas of abortion and sexual morality increased the likelihood of engaging in evangelistic behavior. Also, practices positively associated with evangelistic behavior were regular Mass attendance and regularly engaging in liturgical and/or devotional prayer. The findings suggest that Church leaders can implement various initiatives at the parish level that will increase the evangelistic behaviors of parishioners. More research is necessary to infer causal relationships between the study’s independent and dependent variables, as well as to ascertain the means by which personal evangelism results in church growth.
17. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Fr. Ross Chamberland, O.F.M., Guillermo Montes Canonized Leadership: A Contemporary Leadership Study of Saint John Fisher, Scholar, Bishop, and Martyr
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The leadership of St. John Fisher is examined using a modern five-practice leadership model. By systematically examining original texts as well as influential scholarship on the saint, we find that St. John Fisher exemplifies all five of the practices to varying degrees. Importantly, although St. John is famous for challenging worldly authority, he was an extraordinary exemplar of “Modeling the Way” and “Inspiring a Shared Vision.” In addition, we find evidence of leadership practices in Saint John Fisher that are not part of Kouzes and Posner’s five-practice model. In particular, St. John Fisher’s personal humility, ongoing repentance, active presence, and heroic courage were four notable leadership practices absent from most modern models.
18. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Joseph A. Varacalli Teaching an Introduction to Sociology Course in a Secular College: Systematic Reflections from an Orthodox Catholic Worldview
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This essay addresses some of the central issues, prospects, and problems that a serious Catholic scholar can be expected to deal with in teaching an Introduction to Sociology course in a secular college. The paper assumes the basic validity and utility of the secular discipline of sociology while noting certain dysfunctional empirical tendencies that are not intrinsic to this intellectual enterprise. Rather, these dysfunctional tendencies reflect the secular and progressive individual worldviews and biases of the majority of scholars who teach, write, and practice the discipline at this present moment in time and space. Examples of how the individual secular and progressive biases impact on the discipline can be found in numerous ways. Among others, they can be found in 1) the construction of concepts and definitions and in the choice of theoretical frameworks, all bringing with them distinctive, albeit usually implicit, philosophical assumptions; 2) the denial of any metaphysical dimension; 3) the degree and amount of hyper-specialization found in research; and 4) the utopian and ideological aspects part and parcel of the analysis in question. The line of analysis pursued here generally follows an earlier effort of mine dealing with similar issues, i.e., “Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments - An Exploratory Critique From a Catholic Sociological Sensibility ” (2011).
19. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Mercedes Arzú Wilson Natural, Scientific, and Highly Effective Treatment for Infertility
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A study was conducted in Guatemala to help low income married couples who were financially unable to obtain highly sophisticated medical services. The couples enrolled in our study received instruction on basic health, nutrition, and supplementary vitamins. They were instructed to recognize the signs of fertility and the unique properties of the secretion that signal fertility which are essential for nourishment, survival, and protection of sperm, which are necessary for conception. Our study resulted in an 81.4 percent success rate among fifty-four couples with fertility problems. The average age of the fifty-four women in the study was 28.3 years old. The mean duration of couples attempting to conceive was 2.8 years. Fifty-two percent of these couples had a prior pregnancy; some, though, later had miscarriages. None of the couples had attempted treatment with assisted reproductive technology (ART).
20. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 23
Randall Woodard Grace Transforming Marriage and Family Life
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For those paying any attention, it is evident that a crisis has been looming in respect to marriage and family life in our culture. The breakdown of marriage and family life has had a profound spiritual, economic, emotional, and social impact and it does not seem to be subsiding. This article posits grace as the means to address this breakdown, looking at the biblical scholarship on Saint Paul’s notion of grace and reflecting upon its contemporary application to marriage and family life.