Senior Faculty Fellow 1998-99
Clarke E. Cochran (Political Science)
Texas Tech University
Catholic social thought and the transformation of
public institutions: "Catholic Thought and Institutional Challenge"
I intend to focus on the sacramental and incarnational emphasis
within Catholic thought. These are the conceptual resources that
the Church has drawn upon over the centuries to invent and transform
institutions to meet new conditions. Because sacrament and incarnation
are principally theological concepts, they have not recently found
their way into political theory. I propose to argue that greater
attention to sacrament in social thought will be a distinctive Catholic
contribution to the social sciences, as they struggle to think creatively
about institutional forms. Catholicism in both its social thought
and its institutional life is incarnational; that is, it believes
that, because God became human in Jesus, the church itself must,
as it were, take on human flesh. The Catholic Church is, therefore,
sacramental, viewing God's most significant contact with humanity
as mediated by tangible signs and symbols. Structurally, this means
institutions. Catholics build institutions that become embedded
in the world, in human history and culture, quite intentionally.
Institutions with authority structures, buildings, rules, and rituals
are important to Catholics because they are visible signs of God's
incarnational contact with humanity. Catholicism does not flee the
world. The Catholic style is never to deny what the world has done
or accomplished, but to engage the world of politics and culture
in and through new institutional forms.
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