The Catholic Studies Master of Arts program will hold its first student-run disputation – "The New Evangelization: Radical Engagement or Radical Identity?" – on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
The question that will be taken up concerns how the Catholic Church should respond to contemporary culture. Is the right response one of radical engagement in the "Jamesian open space," as Charles Taylor suggests, or is it more along the lines of recovering radical identity through "local forms of community," as Alasdair MacIntyre proposes?
Terence Sweeney, M.A. ’11, Catholic Studies, and Jacob Rhein, M.A., ant. ’12, Catholic Studies, will take up this topic from the standpoint of history, philosophy and theology, each defending one side of the issue in the hope that through academic disputation and collegial conversation they will arrive at a true consensus.
The disputation will be conducted from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the McNeely Hall Great Room (100), on the St. Paul campus.