The Soul of the University I

The Core Curriculum and the Nature of a University
Francesca Aran Murphy, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, writes in the June, First Things,"A curriculum, especially its core courses required of all students, is an educational institution’s constitution." 

I would go farther.  A university's core curriculum (AKA, general education requirements) defines the university. Thus a battle over its core curriculum is a battle for the University's soul!

A Christian liberal arts university's core curriculum has two important and interrelated implications, one intellectual and one economic.

Intellectual
A core curriculum evidences what the university believes it is.  A grab bag of vague choices bespeaks of a university that does not know who it is.  It reflects the politics of the moment when it was constructed rather than the idea of the university, to borrow John Henry Newman's phrase. A well constructed core curriculum constitutes an integral understanding of what that particular university is.  It is evidence of a self confident self awareness.


Economic
A university that has no clear understanding of what it is and what it is for will fail in the marketplace for students and donors.  In an increasingly competitive market, there is little reason to pay substantial sums for a pig in the poke.  If a university's core curriculum is a Chinese menu of cookie cutter courses that are indistinguishable from its competitors, families would be very rational to send their students to get those same courses at a community college and the university will see its margins fall into the red.  Ultimately it will fail.

Stay Tuned 
Professor Murphy's article is well worth a thoughtful and prayerful reading even if you are at a Christian liberal arts university that is not Roman Catholic. She asks some troubling questions which must not be shirked. Look to this space for more comments on her insightful piece.

The Lutherans Know It Is Our Religious Freedom at Stake!

I watched and heard Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison's testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday morning at our First Things together.  

 

Wow!

Dr. Harrison is the President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  He testified on Thursday, Feb. 16., to discuss the recent U. S. Health and Human Services ruling mandating that all organizations no matter what their moral beliefs must provide an insurance mechanism that funds, without deductibles, abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. On behalf of the LCMS, Harrison spoke to the issue and how it violates our freedoms of religion and conscience. 

The Synod President also issued a statement on February 3rd, 2012 about religious freedom in response to U.S. Department's of Health and Human Services requiring religious employers to cover contraceptives, even those that can kill unborn children.

Nor are these solid Lutherans sucked in by the President's supposed "compromise:" Dr. Harrison said his  church remains ‘deeply concerned’ about health plan mandate despite the White House statement.

It is difficult to know how to react to the "compromise."  Is the White House completely ignorant of economics or is it just blatantly cynical?  The compromise allows organizations and companies(?) who morally object to exclude the mandated coverage from their plan, but then must direct their employees to riders which the insurer must provide free of charge.  The first law of economics is TANSTAAFL: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."  As Robert Heinlein portrayed so well in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, somebody pays.  The insurance company, forbidden to charge directly for sterilization, abortion inducing drugs, and contraception, will smear the costs into its rates.   





 

The Centrality of Faith to our Founding and Our Human Rights

Much commentary is being written about the last debate of the Florida Republican primary.

Rick Santorum was asked last night what role faith would play in his decisions as president.  Commentary's Peter Wehner is right when he calls former senator Santorum's reply,"[t]he best answer of the night in terms of political philosophy":


"Faith is a very, very important part of my life, but it’s a very, very important part of this country. The foundational documents of our country — everybody talks about the Constitution, very, very important. But the Constitution is the “how” of America. It’s the operator’s manual. The “why” of America, who we are as a people, is in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” The Constitution is there to do one thing: protect God-given rights. That’s what makes America different than every other country in the world. No other country in the world has its rights — rights based in God-given rights, not government-given rights. And so when you say, well, faith has nothing to do with it, faith has everything to do with it. If rights come… (applause) if our president believes that rights come to us from the state, everything government gives you, it can take away. The role of the government is to protect rights that cannot be taken away. And so the answer to that question is, I believe in faith and reason and approaching the problems of this country but understand where those rights come from, who we are as Americans and the foundational principles by which we have changed the world."

 The father of our constitution, James Madison, advised that the only real guarantee of our liberty is that there is a Higher Authority than the state.

Bottum On First Things

Put on your earphones and listen to what First Things is about. More fundamentally, what Joseph Bottum is going to do with it now that Fr. John Neuhaus is holing court in a more luminous place:

Interview with Joseph Bottum from Joe Carter on Vimeo.

Carnage and Culture provides a set of Obituaries and Tributes to Fr. Neuhaus

Carnage and Culture provides a set of Obituaries and Tributes to Fr. Neuhaus:

DAVID BROOKS

1) David Brooks;
2) The New York Times;
3) Joseph Bottum;
4) Joseph Bottum in the The Weekly Standard;

And then There are First Things.

Some of us all but "lust" after the arrival of First Things. There are more than one of us:

Father Newhaus: "The God Solution:" His Columbia Homilies

Andrew Flynn reports in the Columbia Blue and White, "When it comes to religion in the public sphere, Columbia's Father knows best."

He writes, "Richard John Neuhaus is Columbia's intellectual superstar you've never heard of. You've never written a paper for him, you've never checked his CULPA reviews [student ratings?], and you've certainly never shown up late to one of his classes. This is because Neuhaus's lectures are delivered not from a Hamilton Hall lectern, but from the pulpit in St. Paul's Chapel. Every Sunday for the past four spring semesters, Father Neuhaus has made his way uptown from his parish on 14^th Street to say the 5 PM Mass at Columbia. "

As a special bonus you can hear Fr. Neuhaus' Spring Semester homilies from the last three springs at Columbia online.

I got the link from Andrew Flynn's article in the Blue and White.