The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Ìý
A Search for Truth and Meaning


As a Jesuit, Catholic university, Boston College is rooted in the conviction that faith and reason are mutually illuminating and that each discipline offers the potential to reveal the sacred.

The Catholic intellectual traditionÌýis not static traditionalism, but is constantly evolving, drawing from the riches of the past to give life to the future and, in its search for truth, engaged with every discipline and with all forms of belief and nonbelief.

This tradition also contains a vast repository of theological thought; philosophizing; devotional practices; works of literature, visual art, music, and drama; styles of architecture; legal reasoning; science; social and political theorizing; and other forms of cultural expression that have emerged in different parts of the world during the course of 2,000 years of Christian religious experience.

Boston College faculty are teachers and scholars, caring for students as whole persons and helping them integrate what they learn with how they live. They draw from the Catholic intellectual tradition to challenge and engage the next generation of leaders and scholars. Our explicit Catholicity strives for wholeness and encourages all members of our community to see their research, study, student formation and administrative service in the context of the most profound questions that can be asked about human life and the world in which we live.

Resources from Church 21

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The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: A Guide for Conversation

The C21 Center published these guides to encourage faculty, students, and thinking people everywhere to consider the gift of the Catholic tradition and to enter actively into the conversation.

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Rev. Michael Himes, Professor of Theology

Rev. Michael Himes, Professor of Theology

The Catholic Intellectual Tradition Video Series

An extensive collection of videos from faculty, clergy, and other thought leaders.

Why a Catholic University?

“The university is Catholic in its deliberate determination to render the Church and the broader world this unique service: to be an intellectual community where in utter academic freedom the variant lines of Catholic tradition and thought can intersect with all of the traditions and convictions that constitute contemporary culture and move toward a reflective unity between world culture and the self-revelation of God.”
Michael J. Buckley, S.J., Author and scholar
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