Selected Qualitative FeedbackREL 32200: Catholic Identity in the Modern World (Lindenwood University)
What is Catholic identity? What is the modern world? These two questions will guide this course, which falls roughly into three phases. The first phase takes up the question of “Catholic identity” as such. The second shifts to consider “modern culture.” The third pivots to reflect on the relationship between the two.
We begin by considering the version of Catholic identity promoted by one of the architects of the Second Vatican Council in Henri de Lubac’s Catholicism. De Lubac’s text will be placed into conversation with the current version of the Catholic Church’s Catechism, and we will consider some of the major theological “markers” of Catholic identity: the doctrine of the Pope’s authority as a universal pastor, the nature of the sacraments according to Catholic teaching, and notions related to Catholic spiritual formation, including devotion to Mary and the Saints. With these ideas in place, we will then embark on a quest both to understand what modern culture is, and the extent to which the Catholic tradition is commensurable with modern culture. This question hangs on the development of the Enlightenment, leading us to two major books, one by Jonathan Israel (A Revolution of the Mind), and the other by Ulrich Lehner (The Catholic Enlightenment). Here, primary texts from Kant, Hume, Locke, Spinoza, and others, will inform our discussion of two radically different interpretations of the commensurability of Catholic identity with “modern culture.” Finally, we will consider two narrative responses to questions about Catholic identity in the modern world in Shusaku Endo’s Silence and Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins. Silence deals primarily with questions of pain, suffering, and martyrdom: how far must one go to maintain Catholic identity? Is there a limit to a Catholic’s witness beyond which he or she is not commanded to go, or does Catholic identity require self-sacrifice without qualification? On the other hand, Percy challenges us to rethink Catholicism’s relationship to modernity, and to consider the impermanence of all social arrangements. Catholic identity cannot be reduced to any particular temporal expression and arises from human beings’ ongoing transformation into Christ through the sacraments.
Selected Qualitative Feedback
This was a great class!
Good course overall.
[Dr. Plaxco is] an amazing professor!
I would take this class again to learn even more. It was all positive and interesting. Thank you Dr.Plaxco! You taught me so much!
I really enjoyed this class and would take it again.
This was probably my favorite class this semester. It would be good to have more classes on Catholicism, especially available to people taking the Catholic Studies minor (Catholic history, theology, etc. instead of just general Christianity history).
Good course. Would prefer if it was not a hybrid [part-online], but I understand why those arrangements were made. Dr. Plaxco did a great job working with what he had.