In my (admittedly limited) experience, student valedictory addresses tend to be lame. This one, delivered at Notre Dame by Michael Rossmann, definitely was not. Check it out. (Apparently, Mr. Rossmann is entering the Society of Jesus.)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
A really good valedictory address
Two interesting church-autonomy cases
Prof. Friedman at the Religion Clause blog reports that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has dismissed, on internal-church-governance grounds, a challenge to the decision of the Archdiocese of Boston to close and sell off St. James Church in Wellesley. And, the Supreme Court of Canada's Northwest Territories has ruled -- citing "societal change[s]" toward more "inclusive" understandings of school governance -- that (quoting Prof. Friedman) the "Yellowknife Catholic school board that operates state-supported religious schools may not prevent non-Catholics from running in school board trustee elections."
Love and Urbanism
Thanks to MOJ-friend Philip Bess (buy his book, "Til We Have Built Jerusalem," here) for this G.K. Chesterton quote:
Let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing--say Pimlico. If we think what is really best for Pimlico we shall find the thread of thought leads to the throne of the mystic and the arbitary. It is not
enough for a man to disapprove of Pimlico: in that case he will merely cut his throat or move to Chelsea. Nor, certainly, is it enough for a man to approve of Pimlico: for then it will remain Pimlico, which would
be awful. The only way out of it seems to be for somebody to love Pimlico: to love it with a transcendental tie and without any earthly
reason. If there arose a man who loved Pimlico, then Pimlico would rise into ivory towers and golden pinnacles; Pimlico would attire herself as
a woman does when she is loved. For decoration is not given to hide horrible things; but to decorate things already adorable. A mother does not give her child a blue bow because she is so ugly without it. A lover does not give a girl a necklace to hide her neck. If men loved Pimlico as mothers love children, arbitarily, because it is _theirs_ Pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than Florence. Some readers will say that this is a mere fantasy. I answer that this is the actual history of mankind. This, as a fact, is how cities did grow great. Go back to the darkest roots of civilisation and you will find them knotted round some sacred stone or encircling some sacred well. People first paid honour to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it. Men did not love Rome because
she was great. She was great because they had loved her.
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Death Penalty for Child-Rape
Constitutional doctrine relating to capital punishment is (in)famously tangled. That said, one proposition that, I suspect, most who litigate, teach, or write in the area have long thought -- since Coker v. Georgia (1977), anyway -- one could take to the bank is that the death penalty is an unconstitutional punishment for non-homicide crimes. The New York Times is reporting, though, that the Louisiana Supreme Court has "upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl. Legal experts say the man, Patrick Kennedy, is the only inmate on death row in the United States who was not convicted of committing or participating in a killing."
For more, here is my post at the University of Chicago Law Faculty blog.
Miller on Kinsley on Hitchens
Over at the First Things blog, Professor Robert Miller has a devastating take-down of Michael Kinsley's lame reivew of Christopher Hitchens's effort to cash in on the hipster-atheist trend, God Is Not Great:
Here’s the latest example of a fascinating, though depressing, cultural phenomenon. A fellow who clearly knows nothing about a deep and difficult intellectual problem produces a manuscript purporting to resolve the problem definitively. Such a fellow is a crank, you might think, and will quite properly be ignored. But, no, he actually finds a publisher for his book, and a respected one at that. Even more surprisingly, the New York Times commissions a review of the book from a famous columnist, and, instead of exposing the book for the ignorant twaddle that it is, the columnist writes a glowing review. How does this happen?
Generally speaking, of course, it doesn’t. We have social institutions like the New York Times Book Review precisely in order to make sure that it can’t. Given the amount of material published nowadays, it’s essential to be able to sort the good from the bad, and we rely on prestigious publications like the Times Book Review to do part of the work for us. Book reviewers for this paper are expected to know something about the topics of the books they review, and they are expected to exercise informed judgment, separating the serious books from the intellectual junk in a basically fair sort of way. If a book like the one I describe makes it all the way to a positive review in the Times, there has been a serious failure of the epistemic institutions of our society.
And such there has been, and such there commonly are, when the subject is the philosophical treatment of religion.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Another plug for Vox Nova
I'm sure I will disagree often with the Vox Nova crowd -- this post, for example ("Sterile Nation, Sterile Hearts") is too quick to deny that limiting abortion represents a "victory over evil" (after all -- as is noted at another great blog, Evangelical Catholicism -- a victory does not have to be total to be a victory) -- but it's a great blog (if not quite as "diverse" as MOJ). Indeed, one might say it's downright MOJ-esque in its read-worthiness! (insert smiley emoticon).
"Anti-Rudy Catholics Plan Their Assault"
. . . reports this story in the New York Observer. We'll see if efforts like these are sufficiently "serious[]" to satisfy E.J. Dionne.
Monday, May 21, 2007
"Inventing Human Rights"
Here is a review, by Gary Bass, of Lynn Hunt's new book, "Inventing Human Rights: A History." It's (i.e., the review is) a very good read. That said, it sounds like Hunt gives relatively short shrift to an important part of the story.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Student thoughts re: "Law and CST"
Here are two students' comments on the "Law and Catholic Social Thought" seminar that I just wrapped up.
For years, I've been struggling with how to deal with my Catholicism in my professional life, and my profession in my spiritual life. I was so pleased that the course gave me a chance to think through some tough issues, hear what scholars in both legal and religious studies fields had to say on the subject, and think about the kind of lawyer I want to be beyond 'litigation or corporate'. I guess classes of Professor Garnett's sort are more standard fare at colleges and law schools with religious bents, but I was pleasantly suprised to be able to really *study* this subject with the seriousness it deserves, along side my other UChicago 'standard fare' classes. . . . I hope that all students, regardless of religious persuasion or personal spirituality, may come to see our profession as a 'calling' or 'vocation,' rather than a mere job or career.
And:
Professor Garnett's "Law and the Catholic Social Tradition" course was a profound challenge. It demanded a unique combination of humility and assertiveness -- assertiveness in arguing for one's own application of Catholic Social Teaching to a particular problem or concern, humility in trying to form and promote that answer in a faithful, faith-filled manner. The class was largely comprised of Catholic students, which made painfully obvious the catechetical shortcomings of family faith formation, CCD and Catholic schooling. So often the answers to the more subtle questions we were trying to answer remained virtually impenetrable because of a missing baseline level of knowledge . . . . The discussion, too, was inevitably tainted by years of University of Chicago-style consequentialism. But as a graduating 3L, Law and the Catholic Social Tradition provided an invaluable alternative to that prevailing ethos as my classmates and I begin law-firm life.
More to come (I hope).
Vox Nova: A GREAT new blog
Check out this new blog, "Vox Nova: A Catholic Perspective on Culture, Society, and Politics." It's a group blog and -- among many other things -- an excellent CST resource. Here's how they describe what they are about:
Vox Nova is a response to the ecclesial mandate to promote the common good in every sphere of human existence. We come from varying backgrounds and carry diverse social outlooks, traversing a wide range of demographics and political sympathies. Vox Nova is free, to the furthest extent possible, from partisanship, nationalism and demagoguery, all of which banish intellectual honesty from rational discourse.
United in our Catholic, pro-person worldview, yet diverging in our socio-political opinions, we seek to provide informed commentary and rigorous debate on culture, society, politics and law, all while unwaveringly adhering to, and aptly applying the principles of Catholic doctrine. We are not intellectually wedded to any single political ideology. Following the example of the rich tradition of Catholic social doctrine from Pope Leo XIII to Pope Benedict XVI, we do not forge artificial blockades between "faith and morals" and "social judgments." We do not and will not filter Catholic doctrine and morality through contrived categories in order to morph our Catholic faith and practice into some ideologically acceptable form.
We understand that the grace of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of humanity, extends to and permeates every human act, however private or public, and that the only viable path to peace, prosperity and justice in the world is to recognize that grace saturates, sanctifies and perfects every aspect of nature. Thus, faith informs and grace affects the full scope of human effort, from the deepest devotion of spirituality to the most mundane activity in the social sphere. Vox Nova seeks to be a herald of this glorious truth and its manifold implications for culture, society and politics.
Like the man said, "this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
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