Constructing a Catholic Social Science

Abstract

At one time in the not-too-distant past, American Catholics could boast of a robust Catholic academic publishing sector. Major Catholic universities, most notably Loyola University in Chicago, ran presses that turned out solid textbooks for Catholic schools and works of Catholic scholarship to support the efforts of higher education. Today, these publishing houses have reshaped themselves into imitations of the presses operated by state and private secular institutions. Loyola, whose Voyages in English series taught good writing and faith to generations of schoolchildren, now offers a multicultural, carefully sanitized (i.e., secular) version of its once-dominant English text (although homeschooling programs such as Seton make the old Catholic version available.) Georgetown University Press, which promotes itself with prominent displays at academic conferences, maintains a list in public affairs that is indistinguishable from what is published by secular houses. A recent edition of the G.U. Press catalog touts the release of a major new book on religion in American public life, but it was written by prominent Protestant scholar and takes a decidedly non-sectarian approach. Perhaps the situation in Catholic academic publishing is related to the state of Catholic higher education more generally. The classes and publications of faculty at many of the nation's Catholic colleges and universities betray little in the way of Catholicity. Certainly, there are bright spots on the campuses and in their presses. Indeed, whole institutions—Franciscan University of Steubenville and Christendom College to name only two—are carrying on in the ancient tradition of Catholic teaching and publishing. But for students and faculty at many of America's Catholic institutions of higher education, the veneer of Roman Catholicism is thin indeed.