with George Weigel / Devlin Hall 008

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This dissertation studies how Catholic schools in a post-feminist world approach the topic of educating women both with a professional mindset but also with a Catholic understanding of the importance of motherhood. The theoretical framework of the dissertation draws on second-wave feminism as well as Catholic scholars on feminism, with a special focus on scholars using Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. The study aims to reveal specifically how four faithfully Catholic high schools in geographically different areas of the United States are united in a mission to educate students to live an integrated life, through a personal faith based on reason, virtue ethics, vocation, and exemplars. Through interviews with alumnae, teachers, and administrators, the study concludes that the schools’ vision of a fully integrated virtuous life is a prerequisite for the girls to peacefully make vocational decisions about balancing professional life and motherhood. The alumnae and the school administrators show that while the mission is clear, the execution of the mission in all four schools is fraught with tensions because of the conflicts between the integrated life view and mainstream cultural views regarding happiness and fulfillment.

This thesis argues that a close reading of Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and Emmanuel Levinas reveals a common phenomenological and ethical interest in the embodied human person. Attention is also given to points of disagreement that are theological in character. Despite different religious commitments, their treatment of the body provides the basis for an overlooked dialogue in which both emphasise the giftedness of the embodied human subject, the ‘other’. In the postmodern context, the body is a key theme and the focus of much debate, yet little has been said of observations made by both Wojtyla and Levinas about each other’s work, or how this relates to their own development. This is surprising given their huge contribution to philosophy, ethics and theology in the 20th century. Levinas' mature philosophical works build on his ongoing interest in phenomenology, but the body remains problematical. For him, incarnation is questionable, because he refuses an incarnational avatar. There is no escape from commitment or responsibility and the theme of alterity is absolute. Yet, communio is the necessary objective of the human situation, in which bodies do not simply make incarnate presence possible, but are fragile, wounded and vulnerable. This is crucial: bodies can be violated and even crucified. Wojtyla addressed this paradox in his Wednesday audiences in what became known as his ‘theology of the body’, which in turn shaped his principle paradigm of alterity, the nuptial mystery. There is an irreconcilable difference in these two views of the body, in which Wojtyla’s nuptial mystery contrasts strongly with Levinas’ alterity. With this important variation in mind, it is demonstrated that the thread of agreement between Levinas and Wojtyla is the logic of the gift; that the body speaks a language of gift-exchange that is fundamentally ethical and theological.

From the time of the early church to the present century, Christian assumptions about and theological responses to sport have been problematic. In the present century, evangelicals in North America lack a developed theological ethic about how Christians should regard modern sport--the practices, purposes, and values. What little theology there is, is an uninformed folk theology of muscular Christianity in which the primary means of evaluating sport is in terms of its instrumental utility with no recognition of goods that might be internal to sport. In this thesis, I formulate a modest Christian ethic for sport as a way toward reimagining sport in the Christian life as an embodied, penultimate good. I have chosen Augustine, John Paul II, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the three primary interlocutors with whom to shape a theological discourse about and construct for modern sport. Together, they assist in exploring fundamental convictions of the Christian tradition and determining what bearing these should have on Christian moral reflection and deliberation on this cultural activity. In chapter one, Augustine‘s ethic is organized around three integral motifs: God and happiness, ordered and disordered loves, and the use and enjoyment of goods. By beginning here, a Christian ethic addresses the charges against Augustine‘s idealism set in the historical context of ancient Rome where the Christian tradition first engaged sport extra-biblically. These motifs lay the groundwork for how a Christian might relate to sport. In chapter two, I examine an exemplary modern attempt—by the American philosopher Paul Weiss—to give a moral and philosophical account of sport. Weiss develops a philosophy of sport around themes derived from classical Greek literature, including bodily excellence, anthropology, and teleology. Weiss‘s Greek ideals and philosophical categories function as heuristic tools because many issues of modern sport are connected in a variety of ways to these ancient Greek ideals. Weiss forms a bridge historically and philosophically to thicken our description of modern sport, to refine this thesis‘s analysis of some important categories native to modern sport, and to focus on what this phenomenon entails for a Christian ethic today. In chapter three, I engage with John Paul II's complex and rich account of the internal moral and theological goods of sport. John Paul II's personalism provides a much stronger basis for analyzing the goods intrinsic to sport than does Weiss--one that is, moreover, consistent with (while building on) the Augustinian foundation laid in chapter one. I demonstrate that in John Paul II's theology of sport, sportive actions find a significant analogue in the Christian doctrine of creation in relation to the body of the athlete, in which perspective sport may be seen as sign and gift shared with other embodied sportspersons. I propose that sport is an ontic-embodied good and gift that is only properly conceptualized in a Christian ethic, an ethic in which the pursuit of excellence is an objective that fulfils the dignity and worth of the whole human person. By contrast, Paul Weiss' philosophy of sport instrumentalizes embodied pursuits, such as sport. In chapter four, Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s Christological basis for Christian ethics serves to repair the persistent problem of dualism—two-sphere thinking—for modern muscular Christianity. Bonhoeffer‘s comprehensive vision of reality places Christ at the center of life and existence so that the question of the good becomes the realization of the reality of God in Christ. Therefore, a Christian ethic does not justify how the reality of God in Christ relates to sportive culture by appealing either to the sacred or secular, but justification is in Christ, since He has drawn and holds it all together. In chapter five, I continue with the problem of modern muscular Christianity in order to constructively reimagine how to relate the reality of Christ as the ultimate to sportive reality, the penultimate. This eschatological paradigm further organizes the final chapter in two important ways. First, the logic of sport is often governed by alien ends and loves. Augustine‘s ethic refines this problem as a matter of how the practice of sport can educate our desires according to competing teloi. Second, I elucidate the importance of St. Paul‘s sport metaphor (1 Cor 9:24-27) as another angle for interpreting and ethically engaging the complex lived experience of sport itself. This sport metaphor functions eschatologically to integrate sport and the Christian life and to ennoble this activity as a practice for moral and spiritual formation.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / Solidarity as spiritual exercise: a contribution to the development of solidarity in the Catholic social tradition By Mark William Potter Director: David Hollenbach, S.J. ABSTRACT The encyclicals and speeches of Pope John Paul II placed solidarity at the very center of the Catholic social tradition and contemporary Christian ethics. This dissertation analyzes the historical development of solidarity in the Church's encyclical tradition, and then offers an examination and comparison of the unique contributions of John Paul II and the Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino to contemporary understandings of solidarity. Ultimately, I argue that understanding solidarity as spiritual exercise integrates the wisdom of John Paul II's conception of solidarity as the virtue for an interdependent world with Sobrino's insights on the ethical implications of Christian spirituality, orthopraxis, and a commitment to communal liberation. The dissertation probes the relationship between spirituality and ethics in general, and Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social teaching, in particular. My analysis of solidarity in the encyclical tradition (Chapter 1) provides an historical overview of the incremental development of solidarity in the writings of successive popes and ecclesial councils from Pius XII through Paul VI. In considering the unique contributions of John Paul II, I turn first to the theological and philosophical formation of Karol Wojtyla and the sociopolitical context of Poland (Ch. 2). My analysis then turns to a consideration of Pope John Paul II's social encyclicals (Ch. 3), with the goal of offering a definition of solidarity that integrates his intellectual formation and social context with the development of solidarity in the official social tradition. Next, I examine the development of solidarity in the writings of Jon Sobrino, first through an analysis of his intellectual and spiritual formation in the revolutionary context of El Salvador (Ch. 4), and then through an analysis of his unique theological contributions to the topic (Ch. 5). Based on Sobrino, I offer an articulation of solidarity as spiritual exercise as an original contribution to the development of solidarity in the Catholic social tradition (Ch. 6). / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Marina B. McCoy / Thesis advisor: Peter Kreeft / An in-depth study of Karol Wojtyła's creative synthesis of medieval and modern thought, in which he brings together 1) traditional Thomistic metaphysics and anthropology and 2) the insights of contemporary phenomenology, in order to understand the reality of man as person in his integral totality. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Philosophy.

This is the first published edition of Suita Maryjna (1987), a nine-movement Marian suite intended for three-part treble chorus, string quartet and two flutes composed by the Polish neoclassicist composer Irena Pfeiffer (1912-1986). The work was most likely intended for performance during Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Wawel Cathedral in Cracow, Poland in June 1987. It is structured according to a Marian prayer service known as the Jasna Góra Appeal, first prayed in the Jasna Góra Sanctuary in Częstochowa, Poland when the nation gained its sovereignty in 1918. The appeal was popularized by Pope John Paul II, who prayed it across Poland during his pilgrimages. Following the 1987 pilgrimage, Pfeiffer sent a manuscript of Suita Maryjna to the Lira Ensemble, a professional ensemble in Chicago specializing in Polish music, song and dance. Pfeiffer played an important role in the Lira by serving as a long-distance artistic advisor and by providing co-founder and current artistic advisor Lucyna Migala with modern Polish compositions for nearly twenty-five years. Suita Maryjna became a cornerstone of the ensemble’s repertory and was performed frequently, including in a studio recording in 1996. This edition of Suita Maryjna is placed in the context of Pfeiffer’s career, with particular attention to her working relationship with Pope John Paul II and the Lira Ensemble. Moreover, it discusses how Suita Maryjna reflects archaism, one of several strands of Polish neoclassicism in which diverse styles from earlier historical periods are fused.

Temos aktualumas: Šiais laikais, kuomet gyvenimo kokybė išreiškiama ekonominiu efektyvumu, besaikiu vartojimu, kuomet pagrindu tampa fizinis grožis bei malonumai, tokiame pasaulyje jauni žmonės dažnai jie jaučiasi nesaugūs, neramūs. Tame nerime ir nesaugume pulsuoja tai, kas giliausiai žmogiška, tai tiesos ieškojimas, nepasotinamas poreikis gėrio, laimės, laisvės alkis, grožio ilgesys, sąžinės balsas. Todėl vis svarbesniu ir aktualesniu tampa krikščioniškas mokymas apie gailestingumą.Darbo tikslas yra atskleisti gailestingumo dorybės sampratą Jono Pauliaus II mokyme bei nustatyti jos aktualumą X ir Y mokyklų 14 – 15 metų amžiaus mokiniams. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Aptarti gailestingumo dorybės sampratą Jono Pauliaus II raštuose. 2. Apibūdinti Jono Pauliaus II ir šv. Faustinos Kovalskos mokymų apie gailestingumo dorybę sąsajas. 3. Atskleisti Dievo gailestingumo Bažnyčios misijoje būtinumą. 4. Įvertinti 14 -15 metų amžiaus mokinių žinias apie gailestingumo dorybę. 5. Nustatyti šiandieninių mokinių požiūrį į gailestingumo dorybės aktualumą. / Relevance of the Theme: Nowadays when the quality of life is expressed in economic efficiency and inordinate consumerism, when physical beauty and pleasure becomes a background, young people often feel insecure and anxious in such a world. Seeking for truth, insatiable need of goodness and happiness, hunger for freedom, longing for beauty, voice of conscience, which all are in the depth of a human being, pulsate in this anxiety and insecurity. Therefore Christian teaching about mercy is emerging with more importance and relevance.Relevance of the Theme: Nowadays when the quality of life is expressed in economic efficiency and inordinate consumerism, when physical beauty and pleasure becomes a background, young people often feel insecure and anxious in such a world. Seeking for truth, insatiable need of goodness and happiness, hunger for freedom, longing for beauty, voice of conscience, which all are in the depth of a human being, pulsate in this anxiety and insecurity. Therefore Christian teaching about mercy is emerging with more importance and relevance.The aim of the research: To reveal the concept of the virtue of mercy in the teaching of John Paul II and to determine its relevance to the 14 - 15 years old pupils from X and Y schools. Objectives of the study: 1) To define the concept of the virtue of mercy in John Paul’s II writings. 2) To describe connection between the teachings on the virtue of mercy by John Paul II and St. Faustina Kowalska. 3) Reveal the necessity of... [to full text]

The role of religion in shaping geopolitics and its associated norms is often overlooked by international relations scholars. This influence can be examined through the lives of transnational religious leaders (TRLs), particularly those who contribute to new definitions of state sovereignty through their involvement in regime change. Two seemingly incomparable figures center in this paper's case studies- Pope John Paul II and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. Pope John Paul, through the roles of pastor to a transnational community and head of an international organization, lent international legitimacy to the Solidarity movement, which contributed to the fall of Communism in Poland. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam authored the theological concept of "defensive jihad", led the transnational Afghan Arabs in armed resistance against Soviet invasion in Afghanistan during the Soviet Afghan war, and contributed to the creation of a global jihadist movement. Traditionally, Westphalian sovereignty claims that the territorial state holds ultimate authority over the affairs within its borders and that it is the primary actor in the international system. This dissertation examines how the characteristics of a TRL and the characteristics of the associated transnational social movement (TSM) qualify regime change as an indicator of challenges to conceptions of Westphalian sovereignty and modern state sovereignty. Characteristics of TRL include leadership style, hard versus soft power, relationship to secularization, and relationship to modernity. Characteristics of TSM include political theology, mobilizing structures, political opportunity structures, and nature of transnational activism. In both case studies, a transnational leader used soft power, based in a transnational religious identity and civil society, to contribute to a transnational social movement that helped alter the domestic authority structures in Poland and Afghanistan. As individual actors determining the actions of nation states, these TRLs ultimately challenged state sovereignty. Pope John Paul II's theological worldview was compatible with the Westphalian system, and he contributed to the birth of a stable, democratic Poland with sovereign authority within internationally respected borders. Azzam, however, envisioned an alternate world order based on religiously defined, pre-Westphalian boundaries. His theological and pragmatic contributions to the Afghan Arabs and the modern day jihadist movement further challenged the Westphalian system. / 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z