In this paper, the author focuses on one aspect of Catholic Intellectual Tradition, namely, how it manifests in practice. Focusing on five such practices--responsiveness to other traditions within Catholicism, recognition of wisdom and truth that may be found in other cultures, the search for understanding of relationships within reality,…

The humanities have long played a pivotal role in Catholic higher education but their prominence is under siege as part of a broader cultural skepticism about the value of the liberal arts. This article counteracts these trends by developing a theological defense of the humanities' pride of place in the Catholic university curriculum. Drawing on a…

How might Catholic colleges and universities draw from their unique missions to educate and act together in response to the pressing needs of the environment? Honoring the fifth anniversary of "Laudato si," this article argues that Pope Francis's notion of ecological conversion and his bold conviction that the "cry of the earth is…

Current research suggests that faculty development should address a cross-section of personal and professional needs of the faculty, as well as support the institution's mission. Using evidence to support faculty development can foster reflective practitioners and close the gap between teaching and research by creating "sustainable…

An examination of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) informs the substance and manner of educator preparation, grounding a College of Education in the mission of the University. A CIT-formed educator is capable of critically interacting with both harmonious and dissonant contemporary movements in K-12 education to produce judgments of…

In 2016, as the Catholic Church celebrates an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the Dominican friars celebrate their 800th Jubilee year. Recent meetings of the Biennial Colloquium of Dominican Colleges and Universities have discussed the virtue of mercy as it pertains to its educational mission. If the Dominican Movement can be characterized by the…

Throughout the twentieth century, Catholic higher education in the United States modelled its institutional structures and intellectual life on the best standards and practices of the secular academy. The question for Catholic higher education became: How can we remain distinctively Catholic while engaging in these projects? Yet the situation…

It can be difficult to define Catholic university identity in universal terms--or to compare one Catholic institution to another--because Catholic colleges and universities in the United States are diverse in terms of size, location, and mission. This article proposes a rough classification system for Catholic universities that takes into account…

Over the past four decades, the United States has witnessed the rise of an economy of growing inequality and exploitation, and this economic transformation has entangled Catholic institutions of higher education in what Pope Francis has called "an economy of exclusion and inequality." In recent years, some institutions have taken steps…

Catholic universities in the United States have developed complexity reflective of the larger development of modern universities and "multiversities." This complexity, together with the decline in the numbers of sponsoring religious orders and diocesan priests, presents new challenges for the sustaining of a theologically rooted,…

All Catholic colleges and universities share in the Catholic Church's rich history of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). This article explores two key research questions that focus on that grounding in today's world: First, how strongly is CST woven into the institutional fabric of those institutions; second, is that done implicitly or explicitly? We…

For many American Catholic universities, mission and identity are shaped by the charism and charismatic traditions of the founding religious congregations. But the use of this language raises several questions in the face of changing dynamics in higher education, the church, and society. Is the language of Lasallian, Vincentian, Dominican, or…

The mission statement of a college or university is often considered to be an important part of the institutional identity. However, little research has explored the relationship between students and the institutional mission in the classroom itself. I explored the effects of (1) a statement in the syllabus about how the instructor perceives that…

Faced with economic and demographic challenges, Catholic colleges and universities use endowment and licensing revenues to supplement tuition income in order to serve their missions of educating students of all socio-economic classes to promote the common good through their professional careers and service to the community. Licensees sometimes…

The 1960s saw rapid decentralization of authority in Catholic higher education as virtually all U.S. universities legally separated from the Church. This has raised questions about how to facilitate long-term cooperation between Catholic universities and the Church that no longer formally owns them. Around the same time, world governments were…