Reexamining Academic Freedom in Religiously Affiliated Universities

Kenneth Garcia presents an edited collection of papers from the 2015 conference on academic freedom at religiously affiliated universities, held at the University of Notre Dame. These essays reexamine the secular principle of academic freedom and discuss how a theological understanding might build on and further develop it.
The year 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the leading advocate of academic freedom in America. In October 2015, the University of Notre Dame convened a group of prominent scholars to consider how the concept and practice of academic freedom might evolve. The premise behind the conference was that the current conventional understandings of academic freedom are primarily secular and, therefore, not yet complete. The goal was to consider alternative understandings in light of theological insight. Theological insight, in this context, refers to an awareness that thereis a surplus of knowledge and meaning to reality that transcends what can be known through ordinary disciplinary methods of inquiry, especially those that are quantitative or empirical. Essays in this volume discuss how, in light of the fact that findings in many fields hint at connections to a greater whole, scholars in any academic field should be free to pursue those connections. Moreover, there are religious traditions that can help inform those connections.

Addresses the dearth of scholarship and books focusing explicitly on the relationship between academic freedom and religiously affiliated universities Offers a unique and valuable interdisciplinary approach, mixing historical scholarship with philosophical reflection Argues compellingly that interdisciplinary scholarship, especially that which brings theology to bear on other fields, should be encouraged and current discouragement of such scholarship represents a violation of academic freedom

Autorentext
Kenneth Garcia is Associate Director of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He is the author of Academic Freedom and the Telos of the Catholic University (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), which won the award for Best Book Published in Theology in 2012 from the College Theology Society. He has also published in scholarly journals such as The Journal of Academic Freedom, Theological Studies, and Horizons: the Journal of the College Theology Society.

Inhalt
Introduction; Diane J. Chandler.- Part I. Interdisciplinary Perspectives .- 1. Spiritual And Relational Formation: How Contemplative Prayer And Psychodynamic Therapy Enhance Loving God And Others; Kelly Breen Boyce and Nanci Fisher Erkert.- 2. Emotional Formation: A Trinitarian Interaction; Ray S. Yeo.- 3. Psychological Formation: A Pentecostal Pneumatology And Implications For Therapy; Stephen Parker.- 4. Suffering As Formation: The Hard Road To Glory; Elizabeth Lewis Hall.- Part II. Theological Perspectives.- 5. Scriptural Formation: The Power Of The Biblical Story; Cornelius J. Bekker.- 6. Ethical Formation: The Theological Virtues; Michael Palmer.- 7. Theological Formation: Dialogical Interplay Between Barth, Hauerwas, and Bonhoeffer; Derek W. Taylor.- Part III. Practice-Oriented Perspectives.- 8. Sacramental Formation: The Role Of The Eucharistic; Mary Patton Baker.- 9. Vocational Formation: Navigating Leadership Disorientation; Philip T. Howard.- 10. Physical Formation: Health Stewardship And Embodied Realities; Diane J. Chandler.- 11. Character Convergence: The Prospect Of Holy Living; Stanley Hauerwas.- Epilogue; Diane J. Chandler.