This piece is a bit light, and seems ot think that it's discovered something that is news to most academics (the "is becoming" in the first sentence below is a few decdes belated), but I think that's simply the parochialness of the author. (It's not like worries about the commodification of the university haven't been common currency in the academy for a long time, pal. For starters, check out Veblen's The Higher Learning in America.) But still, it's got an interesting point about whether theology in particular can survive.
what’s happening with theology and religion at Catholic colleges and universities is related to what higher education in general is becoming. Universities are themselves now seminaries of a sort for the formation of candidates in the high priesthood of capitalism, and for the minor orders of the service economy. How does this reconcile with the need for Catholic universities to be the locus for constructive theologizing and the transmission of the theological tradition? This is not a liberal or conservative issue, but an issue of viability of academic theology. Theology survives mostly as a piece in the core curriculum of required courses, and even then it’s not so easy to “sell” it as something a student needs. Where does theology (indeed, the other humanities as well) fit in courses of study increasingly built around professional preparation? What is the curricular rationale? How to think about this in a time when world faiths aren’t so much the debate on campus as is the conflict between religious and spiritual worldviews and the “technocratic paradigm” Francis describes in Laudato si’?
A well-rounded early picture of the question of the Suleimani killing by the US, two weeks later. Has it been deterring? As with all this stuff, much depends on what happens. So the "early" picture will need to be updated later.
Twitter, contemporary leftist politics in the US, and Walter Ong. Yes!
A really interesting story about a community of members of the Society of St Pius the X, an anti-modernist Catholic splinter group with a complicated relationship to the Vatican. Key is that this is a group that is not about building culture warriors, but about turning away from the culture, into their own community. Is this the future for theo-conservatives in America? It is certainly one future. Also worth noting is that at no point in the article, or in the accompanying images, is there any suggestion that anyone who is not white is part of this group. I wonder if the SSPX thinks about that at all. Back to the Future!
I totally get this guy's addiction to buying old books. I am less committed than he is to first editions, but it's still pretty powerful to hold a four hundred year old book in your hand. Imagine all the others who have touched it! Now, go wash your hands.
Happy Tuesday everyone. Where I am it is a bright, brisk, crisp day; rain the rest of the week.