Religion & Law

In my Catholic Social Thought and the Law seminar this year, one of the biggest questions was that of focus.  Should we read philosophical work?  Theological texts?  A close reading of the papal encyclicals?  Contemporary American cases that engage the issue of the Church and political life?

CST was born at a distinctive European geo-political moment.  It was deeply influenced by the turbulent history of Italy in the mid-19th century.  It is not possible, in my view, to understand properly what Pope Leo XIII was up to without understanding the situation in which Pope Pius IX found himself.  Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, Garibaldi -- and the tectonic shift in Italian politics that they brought with them (and the consequences for the Papal States) -- represent as large a part of the story as any other event.  These are the root causes that prompted what John Coleman so ably describes as the kind of delicate and sophisticated political moderacy that burgeoned in Leo's writing and would be developed thereafter.

Except by a very few, the history of Italy is, in this country, completely unknown.  Most people vaguely remember something about the Roman Empire and suppose that Italy, as a nation, must therefore be ancient.  That Italy is actually a good deal younger than the United States comes as a shock.  And that its becoming a nation coincides almost exactly with the emergence of CST (and CST's engagement with the concept of the nation-state) is no less surprising to many students.

How, then, to incorporate this history and its profound influence on the Church into the CST course?  One could spend a whole class learning about and discussing this history.  I assign Russell Hittinger's "Introduction to Modern Catholicism" (in the Witte and Alexander book), but it is difficult for the students, as it presumes a fair bit of sophistication with 19th century European history.  So something more is needed, but how much more before other features of a two-credit course are sacrificed?

It's here that I take refuge in an Italian cooking metaphor (I love to cook, and I love cooking metaphors, particularly those that involve marination): l'infarinatura, which means, literally, en-flouring, but is probably best translated as a dusting, or a light coating.  Un infarinatura is all that there is time for in the CST class -- just a light coating with respect to some of the main points, histories, ideas, and doctrines.  At the end, it would be nice to hope that the dusting will be enough for students to remember a little something as their lives go on.  But mostly, I just enjoy when they talk about a facet of CST that surprises them -- something totally unexpected.  The history of Italy, and the birth of contemporary Catholic political and social thought as a reaction to (and negotiation with) the struggles of the modern nation-state, was such a moment.