New online course on Russell Kirk

Over the next twelve weeks, I shall be presenting a course of discussions on the thought of the American Catholic intellectual, Russell Kirk.

I'll say more during the course on why I think Kirk's thought is worth engaging with from a Catholic point of view. As a brief taster, however, I'd give the following reasons:

a) Russell Kirk is an important social thinker and figure within American conservatism. He was also a Catholic convert. It would be surprising, given such a combination, if nothing worthwhile resulted from reflection on his thought.

b) He was a conservative and an important historical figure, together with other Catholics such as William Buckley and Brent Bozell, in the revival of American conservative thought and activity after World War II. This US Catholic intellectual engagement with politics is significantly different from the Christian Democratic tradition of Continental Europe, or the more centre-left tradition of Christian social thought in the UK. This difference will allow us to revisit Catholic social teaching from a fresh perspective.

c) Kirk thought of himself as a Burkean thinker. One of my own intellectual interests is in the importance of the 'little platoons' of Edmund Burke's view of society and the resonance in Catholic social teaching's understandings of subsidiarity. Apart from this, there is much else to be gained from comparing and contrasting other aspects of Burkean conservatism with Catholic thinking in politics, particularly in the area of natural law.

Suggested preparatory reading:

George H. Nash: The Life and Legacy of Russell Kirk (here)

Wikipedia article: Russell Kirk (here)


Format of course:

The course will run online for eleven weeks from 1 August 2016 on. It will take the form of weekly posts with the opportunity to engage in discussion in the comment boxes. All necessary material will be found online, although suggestions for further reading off line will be made.


[Details of image: By Russell Kirk Center - http://www.kirkcenter.org/kirkbio.html, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1278459 ]

Catholic Social Teaching and the Labour Party

Pope Leo XIII

It probably hasn't escaped many people's notice that the Labour Party, both in the UK as a whole and in Scotland, has been undergoing some difficulties recently.

I came across a BBC Radio 4 programme on Catholic social teaching ('Left turn to Catholic Social Teaching?' archived here) last broadcast in 2012 which deals with a (then) resurgence in the teaching particularly in the Labour Party. Figures from 'Blue Labour' such as Maurice Glasman and John Cruddas figure prominently in the discussion. Well worth half an hour of your time.

Looking back on this from four years' distance, it's odd how quickly it's become dated. There are odd resonances with today (eg: a discontent with neo-liberalism and a concern for different patterns of political authority) but also striking distances (eg: the lack of much mention of the EU seems odd in a post Brexit scene; the debate around Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and the relationship between the party members and MPs is also absent). So while it's dated, I'm not sure that is a totally bad thing: the fundamental issues seem unchanged, but the absence of present day excitements probably allows some critical distance.

On the substance of the programme, for me, the key point is the need for a continuing engagement with fundamental issues of human flourishing which stands apart from the daily noise of political discussion, but which does affect that debate. I'm slightly suspicious about the branding of the Church's insights into politics as a package of 'Catholic Social Teaching', with its foundation charter only arriving in 1891 with the Encyclical Rerum Novarum. (This disquiet is in fairness addressed in the programme.) Whilst this does have the merit of making it easy to present as a package, it does raise deep questions about authority and application. Why should non-Catholics accept a Catholic package? (Indeed, isn't its status as 'Catholic' more likely provide a reason for its dismissal?) Perhaps more importantly, by presenting it as a package (or 'gift' as it is described in the programme), the role of practical reason in the development and application of those principles is obscured. Among other issues, this tends to sever deep connections between Catholic social teaching and other modern intellectual movements such as communitarianism and virtue ethics.

That said, the programme ends with the question: 'Will we be able to adapt to profound changes without social upheaval?' This takes up a theme that Maurice Glasman had addressed earlier in the programme (about 8 mins in) where he talks about the need for 'leadership from below' and 'negotiated change' and links both of these to insights from Catholic social teaching particularly on subsidiarity and solidarity  Not a bad focus for present reflection.


Further material:

Dr Adrian Pabst is a leading intellectual figure behind Blue Labour. A recent discussion between him and a critic of Blue Labour can be found here.

Catholic social teaching's influence is certainly not confined to 'the Left'. For example, Phillip Blond (featured in the above programme) has been influential in putting forward 'Red Toryism'. He is Director of the Think Tank Respublica whose website is here.

Dr Anna Rowlands is featured on the programme where she summarizes Catholic social teaching as based on the four principles of dignity of persons, the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity. A more extended interview with her can be found here.

New course October 2016

 

From the Institute's main website here:


Making something out of 'a whole lot of nothing': the Dominican contribution to teaching philosophy.
19:00, Mon 3rd Oct, 2016

St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy Edinburgh

Free.

To celebrate 800 years since the bull of foundation of the Dominican Order by Pope Honorius III, the Albertus will be offering a series of three talks this autumn on Dominican influence on the teaching of the sciences.

The lecture by Fr John O'Connor O.P. on "Making something out of 'a whole lot of nothing': the Dominican contribution to teaching philosophy" will be the second talk in this series. Further details on the other lectures in the series will follow shortly...


[Image: 'St Thomas Aquinas teaching a group of Dominican students c.1325' sourced here]