Contending with Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the Twentieth Century by Philip Gleason (review)

144book reviews Contending with Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. By PhUip Gleason. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. Pp. xüi, 496. $35.00.) In 1955 MonsignorJohn Tracy ElUs launched a Uvely debate about the quaUty of American higher education with his now famous essay, "American CathoUcs and the InteUectuaI Ufe." EUis's negative critique, which was reinforced by countless other scholars during the 1960's, has colored our view ofpre-Vatican CouncU II CathoUc higher education ever since. In his latest book, Contending with Modernity, PhiUp Gleason, distinguished professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, offers a reappraisal of that earUer era and a chaUenge to commonly held assumptions about preconcUiar CathoUc higher education. Gleason's study focuses on the organizational and inteUectuaI response made by CathoUc educators between 1900 and the 1960's to "the ideological challenge of modernity" (p. 12). That encounter, which was precipitated by the great transformation of American higher education that began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, resulted in a new beginning for CathoUc coUeges and universities. During the first three decades ofthe twentieth century educators responded to the modernization crisis by accepting accreditation and credit hours, by reforming the curricula of theU schools, and by undertaking a serious commitment to modern graduate work. Organizational reform was accompanied by ideological reaUgnment as CathoUcs grappled with the inteUectuaI chaUenge of modernity. Convinced that the root cause of the crisis in modern culture was its rejection of God, supernatural revelation, and the Church, CathoUc inteUectuals "chaUenged modernity by proposing an integraUy CathoUc culture as a superior alternative" (p. 1 14). The resulting "CathoUc Renaissance ," animated by a revival of Scholastic phüosophy and theology, transformed the inteUectuaI world of American CathoUc higher education. It also created a new kind of CathoUc Americanism whose world view permeated every aspect of existence. By 1930 CathoUcs were entering into national life on an unprecedented scale. However, an anti-CathoUc backlash against growing CathoUc influence in American Ufe two decades later provoked a CathoUc accommodationist movement that abandoned the CathoUc Revival. Unrest among CathoUc inteUectuals in the 1950's, incited in part by ecclesiastical authoritarianism , further set the stage for a new era of self-criticism and revolutionary change. Although a detaUed analysis of the present is beyond the scope of this study, the author offers some conclusions regarding contemporary Catholic higher education. CathoUc coUeges and universities find themselves at a critical juncture in their development, he observes, as they struggle to redefine their identities . Although they have effectively embraced the standards of modern higher education, these institutions stiU face an ideological chaUenge. Having long since abandoned Neo-Scholasticism as an integrating force, CathoUc coUeges and universities today stand in need ofa theoretical rationale for theU existence "as a distinctive element in American higher education" (p. 322). BOOK REVIEWS145 PhiUp Gleason has written a stimulating and important book that makes a valuable contribution to understanding American CathoUc inteUectuaI culture in the first half of the twentieth century. Because it offers a thoughtful challenge to many contemporary interpretations of that past, it deserves a wide readership. "The post-Vatican II reaction against Neoscholasticism," the author summarizes, "has tended to blind recent commentators to the positive role it played Ui the second quarter of the twentieth century" during the "CathoUc Renaissance " (p. 17). Scholars and students of CathoUc higher education wUl welcome this useful reappraisal and find Ui it rich subjects for future research as they re-examine the various personaUties,institutions,movements,journals,and organizations that played key roles in the history of preconciUar CathoUc higher education. Gleason has propeUed us toward a new comprehension of a largely ignored aspect of that story. Gerald McKevitt, SJ. Santa Clara University WhatParish Are You From!'A Chicago Irish Community and Race Relations. By EUeen M. McMahon. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 1995. Pp. Xu, 226. $32.95.) Throughout the years the CathoUc Irish have combatted the gibes and insults of a dominant and often-domineering Protestant-American culture,with the aid and concurrence of the CathoUc parish, Ui Chicago and elsewhere in the nation . CathoUc parishioners,from whatever parish, tackled die issue of their...