Substantially Catholic Seminar at Marin Catholic High School 2011
The Goal
The primary goal is twofold: first, to demonstrate to faculty participants the links between their discipline and theology; second, to prepare them to actually address more topics in their discipline that are related to the Catholic intellectual tradition. The goal is reached when in the following academic year participants include more “Catholic topics” in their courses than they would have, had they not attended the seminar.
The Approach
Catholic high schools increase their positive impact on students when religion is integrated across the curriculum. The Substantially Catholic presenters are experts in making the important connections between particular academic disciplines and theology. In the seminar presentations participants learn more about Catholic teachings and themes through their own academic discipline. Participants will also come to understand how many topics usually covered in high school intersect with larger issues relating to Catholic belief and practice
Academic Disciplines
For June 2011, presentations will be offered in two basic areas: History and Fine Art. All presenters are university professors who, in addition to being practicing Catholics, can integrate their discipline and Catholic themes.
The Presenters
World History
Prof. Glenn Olsen, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Utah
Brief Bio:
In 2010 Dr. Olsenpublished The Turn to Transcendence: The Role of Religion in the Twenty-First Century, and the “Introduction” to a republication of Christopher Dawson, The Crisis of Western Education, both through Catholic University Press, as well as an article on Giotto. In 2011 he is scheduled to publish On the Road to Emmaus: The Catholic Dialogue with America and Modernity (Catholic U. Press); Of Sodomites, Effeminates, Hermaphrodites, and Androgynes: Naming Medieval Sodomy (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies); “Sex and the Romanesque in Occitania-Provence;” “Canon Law,” in The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine; “History in its Relation to Theology and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition; and “Toward a Post-Modern Christian Historical Hermeneutic”; “Christopher Dawson and the Renewal of Catholic Education: the Proposal that Catholic Culture and History, not Philosophy, should Order the Catholic Curriculum,” Logos 13: 3 (Summer 2010): 13-35.
U.S. History
Dr. Jeffrey Burns, Archivist, Archdiocese of San Francisco, Adjunct Professor at the Franciscan School of Theology
Brief Bio:
Jeffrey M. Burns is the director of the Academy of American Franciscan History and the archivist for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. He teaches at the Franciscan School of Theology and at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and has published widely in US Catholic history including histories of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Oakland. He has written Disturbing the Peace: A History of the Christian Family Movement and Keeping Faith: European and Asian Catholic Immigrants.
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