The Freedom to “Bridge” Silos and the Role of Theology in a Catholic University

Abstract

Brady argues that the discipline of Theology has the distinctive role to advance interdisciplinary dialog in the contemporary Catholic university. He advocates a broad understanding of academic freedom that includes both negative and positive expressions, freedom from interference in scholarship and teaching as well as the freedom to create the complex social goods within the university. He describes the discipline of Theology in relation to the Catholic intellectual tradition and its characteristic practices of convergence, contrast, advance, finality, discernment, and community (citing “The Land O’Lakes Statement,” Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Vatican II, et, al.), as paths in interdisciplinary dialog. He cites the Core Requirement at the University of St. Thomas as an example of a curriculum that aims to actualize the practices of this tradition.