Catholic Legal Education: Responses to Kevin and Mark

Thank you Mark and Kevin for your challenging posts.  Just a few thoughts in response.

First, this is not the first time that I have pointed out the limitations of the blog medium, and probably will not be the last - but I think that this is one instance where one reason we might be talking past each other is because we're not able to ask for clarifications mid-stream.  I think some of these questions might need to be worked out over lunch or a beer.  In the course of this kind of clarifying conversation, I think it would emerge clearly that all of us - and especially Mark Sargent - care deeply about promoting right practices AND right belief, and right practices grounded in right belief; and that no one in this group has dogmatically rejected theological inquiry into political and legal theory.  Some of us on this blog struggle with how we express the theological connection because few of us have advanced degrees in theology - but I think we could safely say that all of us care deeply about this dimension, or we wouldn't be in this conversation.  And speaking for myself, I'm very grateful for any help in articulating those connections.

That said - a few thoughts for both of you. 

First, Kevin - I think in many ways you have hit on the $64,000 question.  I agree that the relationship between theology and identity should be at the core of our discussions not only about Catholic education, but also about the relationship between the Church and the culture as a whole.  Let me work with your line: "Too often we say that the practicalities of our current situations must be taken into account, that faith doesn't really speak to our unique situations, that the realities of our current situations limit what we can think or do." 

I would say that much of my work is precisely at the intersection of recognizing and appreciating the practicalities of a given situation, and bringing a faith persepctive to bear - and that for me these really come together in a theology of the cross.  In many of the struggles that Mark listed - eg, fear, confusion, uncertainty, misunderstandings about the tradition that we encounter in others, but also in our own failures as a Catholic community to effectively communicate the tradition or to be a shining example of its vitality - for me, these have a name: they are all an expression of Jesus on the cross.  In recognizing that it is precisely and especially here where I am called to love him, and be a presence of love in response, I believe it is also precisely and espeically here - in and through this love for the cross - that we will have the light of the Holy Spirit - that flows from the cross - to know exactly what it means to love and be faithful to the tradition in the context of any given practical situation.  And it will also be the Holy Spirit which flows from this love that also helps us to trace the work of God (or in Jesuit parlance, find "God in all things") - even in unexpected ways and places. 

It might also be interesting to explore how the Trinitarian theology could be especially helpful as we engage the practicalites of our current situation.  The Trinity as a model of unity in diversity, as a model of self-emptying life-giving love, might speak deeply to ways to build real communities in which we can be formed by the tradition.

Mark, a few thoughts.  First, my point about history is that since we are at the very beginning of this project, no school - and certainly no group of schools - should be written off yet.  Second, and related, I am saguine not because of numbers or statistics, but because I have seen how even a tiny group (which is made up not only of Catholics) focused on listen to each other, and appreciating the presence of "God in all things," can create a community in which an open conversation about the role of religion, and particularly about the Catholic intellectual tradition, in legal education.  Finally I would push the point that efforts grounded in ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue are not adjacent too, but actually the heart of Catholicism, at least as the life of the Church is described in Gaudium et Spes and in the Second Vatican Council more generally. 

Sorry to go on.  But I do look forward to continuing the conversation - I don't think the two of you are that far apart.  You may both disagree with me!  But in any case, I'd look forward to a lunch conversation in the near future!

Amy