Catholicism in Arts and Letters

Catholic Intellectual Traditions

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From Our Faculty and Students

Notre Dame is a place where the Church does its thinking, drawing on a wealth of reflection and cultural expression from the tradition in order to engage dynamically with the issues of the day.

Strengths in Departments, Institutes, and Centers

The Departments of Theology and Philosophy, traditionally at the heart of university life, are centers of particular excellence within the College and the University. World-renowned faculty within these disciplines dedicate themselves to sustaining the vital traditions of Catholic theology and philosophical reflection. Through the two courses in each of these disciplines required of each Notre Dame undergraduate, Philosophy and Theology play a special role in the formation of Notre Dame students. At the same time, reflective engagement with Catholic thought is not bounded by these disciplines, but takes place in a myriad of ways throughout the College.

"As I examine Byzantine intellectual history or aesthetics or works of art, my responses to this material derive from the conditions set by the things I study and by my own intellectual formation and direction. Having said that, I do believe that this material from beyond the Catholic domain poses questions that can both engage with and inform the discussions that take place here at Notre Dame." Charles Barber, Associate Professor, Department of Art, Art History, and Design

Interdisciplinary Programs

Students engage with Catholic intellectual traditions not only through traditional majors, including a challenging Joint Major in Philosophy and Theology, but also through interdisciplinary minors tailored to their interests:

Opportunities for Faculty

Faculty may deepen their understanding of Catholic traditions relevant to their own disciplines and to make connections with their teaching and research projects:

The Arts

The arts are one of the most important incarnations of the sacramentalism of the Catholic tradition: through the arts, the transcendent reveals itself in finite reality.

Together with the Snite Museum of Art, the new $64-million DeBartolo Performing Arts Center embodies Notre Dame’s aspiration to make the arts, in all of their complexity and ambiguity, a central component of the University’s Catholic identity.

Special Events

Various elements of Catholic thought and tradition are highlighted and engaged in many of the conferences, lectures, and other special events that take place within the College. Recent events have included:

"Films and Faith"
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting
Faith and Health: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Dynamics of Religious Coping
Joy in the Truth: The Catholic University in the New Millenium, Center for Ethics and Culture
“Catholic Tradition and Traditions,” Francis Sullivan, S.J., of Boston College
Sex and the City of God: A Conference on Sex, Catholicism, and Contemporary Culture

Journals

Journals based within the College that reflect particular attention to matters of religious faith are another way in which the intellectual life of the College expresses the Catholic identity of Notre Dame:

Faith and Philosophy
Hindu-Christian Studies
Religion and Literature

Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate students undertake research projects on a variety of subjects related to Catholic identity and tradition:

The Role of Expatriate Christian Missionaries in Contemporary East Africa (Michael Rossman, Theology and Economics)
Persecution on Grounds of Religion: Problems in Documentation (Kaitlin Shorrock, Anthropology)
Community Based Rehabilitation by the Faithful: A Theological Study of Disability and the Church, (Catherine Herman, Theology)
Jean-Luc Marion and a Catholic Post-Modernity, (Kevin Patrick McCabe, Program of Liberal Studies)
The Case for a Catholic President in the 21st Century, (Michelle McCarthy, Political Science)
Ambiguous Neutrality: The Roman Catholic Church and the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia, (Michelle M. Garvey, History/Italian)
Thomas Merton and Literature as Spiritual Nourishment, (Katherine Nieaber, English)
Contending Languages on Sexuality? The Perspectives of Evolutionary Biology & Catholic Theology, (Mark Thomas, Philosophy/Theology)
Comparing Religious Influences in the Political Lives of George W. Bush & Tony Blair, (Nicholas Millar, Political Science)
Struggle for Equality: Comparing Catholic and Muslim Efforts of Integration into American Society (Jeffrey Dean Jones, Political Science)
A Study of the Dignity of Women and the Catholic Church in Honduras, (Mary Ann Doughton, Program of Liberal Studies)

Graduate Placements

The College has a particularly strong record of placing its doctoral students at outstanding religious colleges and universities:

Medieval Institute: Ph.D. at Brigham Young
History: Seton Hall
Psychology: Georgetown, Luther College, Marquette University
Theology: Baylor, California Lutheran, Duquesne, Fordham, Seattle, Xavier, former graduates at CUA, Duke Divinity, Georgetown, St. Michael’s College of U Toronto

Courses

Attention to Catholic traditions, lived Catholicism, and human religious experience are embedded within an array of specific courses in different disciplines. Learn More >

University of Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters