Discere et Docere: The Identity and Mission of the Dominican House of Studies in the Twenty-First Century

The Thomist 73 (2009): 111-27 DISCERE ET DOCERE: THE IDENTITY AND MISSION OF THE DOMINICAN HOUSE OF STUDIES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY1 J. A. DI NOIA, 0.P. Secretary, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Vatican City I. LEARNING AND TEACHING IN THE DOMINICAN ORDER WHEN HE WAS ASKED once to state what rule he professed, Blessed Jordan, the successor of St. Dominic at the head of the Dominican Order, declared: "Nothing beyond the rule of the Friars Preachers, which is to live virtuously, to learn, and to teach" (Lives of the Brethren 4.31). To live virtuously, to learn and to teach (honeste vivere, discere et docere)-for Blessed Jordan, it was a phrase that summed up the whole Dominican vocation. For us today, as we celebrate the dedication of this new academic center and theological library, Blessed Jordan's simple phrase can serve as a compact description of the mission of the Dominican House of Studies: learning and teaching in the setting ofa life of prayer. It will hardly be news to you-though it bears repeating-that the centrality of learning and teaching in the Dominican charism derives directly from St. Dominic himself.2 Blessed Jordan's succinct formula expressed what he had learned from St. Dominic whose experience with the Catharist heresy in southern France 1 This article was presented at a convocation marking the formal dedication of the new Academic Center and Theological Library at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. (18 April 2009). 2 Guy Bedouelle, O.P. St. Dominic: The Grace of the Word, trans. Mary Thomas Noble (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987). 111 112 J. A. DI NOIA, O.P. convinced him of the absolute necessity of a solid intellectual formation for his new band of preaching friars. The link between study and the apostolic aims of the Order was thus clear from the very beginning. The primitive constitutions state: "Our study must aim principally at this, that we might be useful to the souls of others."3 Blessed Jordan makes this point vividly when, in his encyclical letter of May 1233, he complains that brethren who are uninterested in study, "apart from neglecting their own benefit and depressing their teachers . . . deprive many people of a chance of salvation, when they could have helped them on their way to eternal life if only they had studied properly, instead of being careless about it"4 The Lives of the Brethren recount the story of a certain friar in the early days of the Order who, because he neglected study for the sake of long prayers and works of asceticism, was accused by the brethren "of making himself useless to the Order by not studying."5 With his usual clarity, Blessed Humbert of Romans, the fifth master general, sums it up nicely: "Study is not the purpose of the Order, but it is of the greatest necessity for the aims we have mentioned, namely, preaching and working for the salvation of souls, for without study we can achieve neither."6 The centrality of study for the apostolic aims of the Order meant that learning and teaching could not be left to chance. Successive general chapters created the organization and structures that would provide a solid institutional basis-unique at the time-for studies in the Order. They were organized in such a way that every priory took on the responsibility of structured learning and teaching in a system that was capped by the establishment of studia generalia, first in Paris, and subsequently at Oxford, Cologne, Montpellier, and Bologna.7 3 James A. Weisheipl, O.P., The Place ofStudy in the Ideal ofSt. Dominic (River Forest, Ill.: Dominican House of Studies, 1960), 11. 4 Simon Tugwell, O.P., ed., Early Dominicans (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 123-24. 5 Weisheipl, The Place ofStudy in the Ideal ofSt. Dominic, 13. 6 Ibid., 5. 7 William A. Hinnebusch, O.P., The History ofthe Dominican Order, vol. 2, Intellectual and Cultural Life to 1500 (New York: Alba House, 1973), 37-82. THE IDENTITY AND MISSION OF THE DHS 113 It is only within the framework of this long tradition...