Professor of Theology John Cavadini, director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, reflects on the role of research at a Catholic university.
In the very first paragraph of St. John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation Ex Corde Ecclesiae we encounter a paradox: A Catholic University's privileged task is "to unite existentially by intellectual effort two orders of reality that too frequently tend to be placed in opposition as though they were antithetical: the search for truth, and the certainty of already knowing the fount of truth"(3). If one already knows the truth, in fact the "fount of truth," is there really any meaningful way of speaking of "searching for truth?" Is the search for truth through research at a Catholic university an intrinsically incoherent enterprise? Can you have your cake and eat it too? This talk is an exploration of the implications of this sentence from Ex Corde for the enterprise of research at a Catholic university.
A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1990 and chair of the Department of Theology 1997–2010, Cavadini teaches, studies, and publishes in patristic and early medieval theology, the theology of Augustine, and the history of biblical and patristic exegesis. He has served a five-year term on the International Theological Commission (appointed by Pope Benedict XVI) and in 2018 received the Monika K. Hellwig Award from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Intellectual Life.
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Originally published at ethicscenter.nd.edu.