Evangelicals and Catholics Apart, at Wheaton

Thanks for Mark for posting the evocative story about Joshua Hochschild, who was fired from the Wheaton College (IL) philosophy department after he converted to Catholicism.  It appears that Prof. Hochschild took a step of conscience and has suffered for it -- not greatly compared with a lot of  people around the world, but suffered nonetheless.  Just a few quick reactions.

First, Wheaton unquestionably has the legal right to restrict hiring to evangelical Protestants, just as a Catholic college (if it wanted to) would have the right to restrict hiring to Catholics.  CLARIFICATION: So what I'm saying is that this is an issue of theology and judgment, not law.

Second, I was struck by Prof. Hochschild's argument to Wheaton's president (as stated by the WSJ) that "[t]he Bible ... is indeed the supreme authority for Catholics, who turn to the Church hierarchy only as Protestants consult their ministers."  Let me ask a question back: what is the reaction of others to this statement (whic admittedly may not reflect Hochschild's argument perfectly)?

Third, I imagine things like this happening less and less over time as evangelical Protestants more and more make common cause with traditionalist Catholics on cultural and theological issues -- and more and more conclude that many Catholics have a "personal relationship with God through Christ" even if that relationship is more fully constituted by and mediated through membership in the institutional Church.  (Note the professor who called for the school to "draw on evangelicals within the major Christian traditions -- Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.")  As evangelical Protesants develop their sense of Christian history (often through conversations with Catholics in the common-cause efforts mentioned above), they will more and more see Aquinas and other Catholic thinkers as significant figures in their tradition too, and they will want or accept the faculty most equipped to teach those thinkers -- who are likely to be disproportionately Catholic.

Fourth, and on the other hand, as time goes on there may be more evangelical scholars deeply grounded in and appreciative of the Catholic intellectual tradition, and that may reduce the perceived need that the article refers to at the end to hire Catholics to teach things like medieval philosophy.

Tom