Michael Buckley on the character of a Catholic, Jesuit university

Michael Buckley, a theologian at Boston College, has a nice book from 1998, The Catholic University as Promise and Project: Reflections in a Jesuit Idiom. (See a rather negative, and therefore quite intriguing, review here.) His thoughts on the place of theology in the curriculum were especially interesting to me. He grounds his characterization with a close reading of the "intent" of St. Ignatius- it's a bit like the originalism idea in U.S. Constitutional law- what did the founder have in mind- but he's explicit in arguing that originalism divorced from contemporary understandings is a failed enterprise. Resonant of a nice piece by someone I don't normally like (when he dabbles in international issues), but this time enjoyed immensely- Stanley Fish on originalism. So where does theology end up? At the summit, for Buckley, of a Catholic education. Theology is the synthesis, or architectonic capstone, of humanistic studies. Would Paul Crowley agree? We'll see!

Boston College, by the way, has an excellent website with links to first-rate readings on the idea of a Catholic University- a great resource.