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Mario Telò focuses on the intellectual impetus for the rise of a large domestic consensus in favour of a federal European Union achieved in Italy during the First Republic (1947–1992), particularly in the 1989 referendum, and addresses the role of intellectuals in explaining the continuities and discontinuities found in ideas about Europe between the First and Second Republic (1992–2008). The main argument is that the current normalisation of a pro–European intellectual presence in Italy maintains national particularities which cannot be explained without what the French historian Fernand Braudel called a longue durée approach. To this end, Telò demonstrates how seminal figures such as Altiero Spinelli and Alcide De Gasperi, and Catholic intellectuals more generally, laid the foundations for contemporary Italian narratives on Europe. He argues that these are now moving towards bipartisan convergences on EU Treaty ratification and a decline of the classical Euro‐federalist approach that are moving Italy closer to a mainstream stance of pro‐Europeanism.

The secularisation of mentalities in France and England was denoted by the shift towards a more anthropocentric conceptualisation of humanity and by the way in which certain secular discourses came to dominate the public mind. This chapter addresses how the French and English Catholic writers seek to undermine what Owen Chadwick famously called the secularisation of the European mind. The chapter considers the critique of naturalistic readings of the material world, of mechanisation, scientism and the secularising influence of German thought. Such critiques exemplify the need they felt of being buffered against secular mentalities at large. It examines the views of intellectual and anti-intellectual Catholic writers about the proper methodology with which to attack secular thought. This study shifts through the ways in which they asserted meaning in the cosmos by re-establishing links between the material and the spiritual domains.

Catholic “threnodists” lament the state of the contemporary pagan (i.e., nonaffiliated with Christian or Jewish tradition) university; “spoliasts” look for and find the goods evident there, eager to discover resources that permit the Church to arrive at a fuller understanding of revelation. Pagan universities can inculcate intellectual virtues and certain moral habits, but they cannot offer students or represent to faculty any shared unitary idea of what intellectual work is or what it is for, because there is no agreement on such an idea. Catholic intellectual tradition can give an account of intellectual life and of how its various specialties relate one to another. Practitioners of Catholic intellectual tradition within the pagan university should celebrate and expropriate—spoliate—the genuine goods that are there.

Walker Percy suggested old confidence was gone but new beliefs had not emerged to replace it. One possibility—that love and truth go together (caritas in veritate) and mutually undergird intellectual work—seems like an ancient (even outdated) idea but has significant new possibilities. The history of the past 50 years of the Catholic academy needs to be reconsidered in light of preceding centuries. It could open the door to reconnecting theology to other disciplines (especially philosophy). Building on the tradition of modern Catholic social teaching, it could spur fresh reflection on the connection between the value-neutral ethos and intense specialization of the natural and social sciences and the clear need for academic and intellectual work to serve the human community. Ironically, it may be most useful to confront the future by mining the past, in approaching this question afresh. Despite crises internal and external to Catholicism, the resources of Catholic intellectual life are both more accessible and more urgently needed than ever before.

This introduction describes the thinking and process behind the “in the lógos of love” conference held in September 2013, cosponsored by the University of Dayton and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, exploring the current challenges and future possibilities of Catholic intellectual life. It identifies a number of factors, both positive and negative, that form the recent history and current context for intellectual work informed by Catholic tradition. It then briefly summarizes each of the nine essays included in the volume, along with a short description of possible audiences and uses for the essays, especially in faculty development at Catholic universities. It concludes with a short reflection on the themes of the originating conference’s keynote address, given by Richard Rodriguez.

Furfey’s legacy is considered. A succinct summary of Furfey’s professional accomplishments leads to a consideration of Furfey’s view on the role of the Catholic intellectual in society. He advises that the Catholic intellectual should avoid the extremes of ultra-conservatism or ultra-liberalism. Instead, the intellectual must remain open to facts through intelligent study of social reality; she must reflect on that data through the sources of Christian revelation; she must act on that data to promote the common good. Reference is made to the University of Central America as an example of a university that has made a total commitment to participating in social change for social justice.

Catholic intellectual life in the United States has primarily been housed in Catholic colleges and universities. These institutions broadened their curricula, research, faculty, and students in the years surrounding Vatican II, while embracing Catholic social teaching as a resource for engagement beyond the Church. The current generation of Catholic students is both less formed by a Catholic subculture and less inclined toward intellectual life. How, then, will Catholic intellectual life be sustained? Expanding the horizon of Catholic social engagement and spirituality beyond the United States is a promising way to engage young adults and renew the American Church. The missionary roots of American Catholic globalization, as seen in the history of religious orders such as Maryknoll, have been succeeded by a generation of students and young people committed to a discourse of global justice. This new generation’s experience may help reinvigorate theology, Catholic intellectual life, and the Church itself.