Examines the contemporary social and pastoral context of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, from the perspective of the campus minister of the twenty-first century

As part of its Sesquicentennial celebration, Boston College invited leading Catholic educators to a symposium concerning the future of Catholic higher education in the United States. Participants gathered from October 22-24, 2013, at BC's Connors Family Retreat and Conference Center in Dover, Massachusetts. They discussed four critical issues requiring engagement by Catholic educational leaders: (1) strengthening awareness of and commitment to the Catholic intellectual tradition on Catholic campuses; (2) ensuring the personal and religious formation of students; (3) clarifying the relationship of Catholic colleges and universities to the Church, and (4) identifying and preparing future leaders of Catholic postsecondary institutions. The essays in this volume provided context for the days at Dover, and are intended to spotlight and urge action on critical challenges facing American Catholic higher education today.

How did Catholic colleges and universities deal with the modernization of education and the rise of research universities? In this book, Philip Gleason offers the first comprehensive study of Catholic higher education in the twentieth century, tracing the evolution of responses to an increasingly secular educational system. At the beginning of the century, Catholics accepted modernization in the organizational sphere while resisting it ideologically. Convinced of the truth of their religious and intellectual position, the restructured Catholic colleges grew rapidly after World War I, committed to educating for a "Catholic Renaissance." This spirit of militance carried over into the post-World War II era, but new currents were also stirring as Catholics began to look more favorably on modernity in its American form. Meanwhile, their colleges and universities were being transformed by continuing growth and professionalization. By the 1960's, changes in church teaching and cultural upheaval in American society reinforced the internal transformation already under way, creating an "identity crisis" which left Catholic educators uncertain of their purpose. Emphasizing the importance to American culture of the growth of education at all levels, Gleason connects the Catholic story with major national trends and historical events. By situating developments in higher education within the context of American Catholic thought, Contending with Modernity provides the fullest account available of the intellectual development of American Catholicism in the twentieth century.

A seminal moment in the study of U.S. Catholic parish life came in the 1980s with the publication of a series of reports from the ground-breaking Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life. These reports are now badly outdated, as Catholic dioceses grapple with new challenges that didn't exist in the 80s. Topics that were not considered then, like greater Catholic mobility, increased cultural diversity, and structural re-organization as well as the rise of lay leadership, have attained new significance. This timely book, based on more than a decade of research, provides an in-depth portrait and analysis of the current state of parish life and leadership. Unique in the scope of the research and the timeliness of its findings, the book critically examines the current state of parish life. The authors draw on data from national polls of Catholics, national surveys of parishes, and thousands of in-pew surveys which explore parishioners' needs, experiences, and satisfaction with parish life in the twenty-first century. The book provides a unique 360-degree view of parish life from the perspective of pastors, parish staff, parishioners, as well as the larger Catholic population.

Knowledge of Catholic educational scholarship and research has been largely confined to specific national settings. Now is the time to bring together this scholarship. This is the first international handbook on Catholic educational scholarship and research. The unifying theme of the Handbook is ‘Catholic Education: challenges and responses’ in a number of international settings. In addition to analyzing the largest faith-based educational system worldwide, the book also critically examines contemporary issues such as church-state relations and the impact of secularization and globalization.

Professor Leahy recounts the academic tensions between religious beliefs and intellectual inquiry, and explore the social changes that have affected higher education and American Catholicism throughout this century. He attempts to explain why the significant growth of Catholic colleges and universities was not always matched by concomitant academic esteem in the larger world of American higher education.