Teaching the Tradition Catholic Themes in Academic Disciplines

The Catholic intellectual tradition is broad, and covers a wide array of academic disciplines. From the origin of universities and through their first six hundred years of existence, philosophy and theology were the central disciplines. However, with the establishment of chairs in mathematics and others in chemistry at German universities in the nineteenth century, new academic disciplines started to be acknowledged and, in the following two hundred years, the modern array of academic departments gradually emerged. Many of the topics covered in these emerging disciplines, however, had earlier been addressed in theology or philosophy, and it is from here that the Catholic intellectual tradition made important contributions and distinctions in many of the most popular undergraduate academic departments. Structured around two lead essays on Catholic anthropology and Catholic theology, this volume focuses on important religious themes and how they appear in various academic disciplines. John Piderit, Melanie Morey, and their contributors take a disciplinary approach to the Catholic intellectual tradition. Each chapter focuses on one academic discipline or major that is taught at the undergraduate level in most colleges or universities; the book is primarily intended for Catholic institutions who teach undergraduates and have an interest in showing students how various topics in their disciplines are related to Christian belief and the Catholic tradition in particular.

Rev. John J. Piderit, S.J., taught economics at Fordham University and served as president of Loyola University Chicago from 1993 to 2001. He is now the president of the Catholic Education Institute, a group which seeks new ways to educate Catholics, both at the secondary and the tertiary level. Dr. Melanie M. Morey has worked in the field of education and administration for the past thirty-five years. In the past ten years, Dr. Morey has worked primarily as a researcher and consultant to Catholic colleges and universities, religious congregations, and other Catholic institutions, dealing with issues of governance, sponsorship, leadership, institutional identity and Catholic culture. She is the assistant dean for assessment at Saint Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, CA.