All is not lost:
Hunt, Michael J.
Methodist tradition in the humanities? A Baptist? A Pentecostal? religious tradition that speaks more critically, more coherent- An evangelical? Indeed, is there a university or college left...
...Parents, cam- rorizing half the city's population are one and the same man...
...We are not reach- helped push Douglas's car out of the way, gradually comes to ing out entirely to strangers and aliens but more likely to young realize that the disgusted motorist and a certain madman terpeople who have their own reasons to hear us out...
...Almost a third, 31.7 percent, say they are...
...religious tradition that speaks more critically, more coherentAn evangelical...
...their employees, and are convinced that the best way to con- I think that both these readings are fundamentally inaccurate...
...privacy and freedom, the divorce of public law from the reach What makes that 30.5 percent noteworthy is that students them- of traditional morality, tolerance of all manner of diversity (exselves, and not their parents, were asked...
...In other words, cept that which questions the dominant culture), and the relegation of most individual or personal morality to a private, and MICHAEL J. HUNT, a Paulist priest, is the Catholic chaplain at Tufts irrelevant, sphere...
...Some in the church wring their siveness with regard to behavior, freshmen think too much con- hands over the inroads of evangelical and/or fundamentalist cern is shown in the courts for the rights of criminals, support groups among young Catholics, others resign themselves to the the death penalty and the criminalization of marijuana, feel em- perceived estrangement of the young from religious practice...
...Overall, off financially...
...Elsewhere in the study, 64.1 percent of all need to cultivate alternatives to family life...
...Nevertheless, Assumptions often made about the divorce rate being closer to approximately 60 percent of this year's freshmen are not there- 50 percent may have some statistical warrant but not apparby deterred from identifying themselves with one of the two ently among the parents of college freshmen...
...survey of 213,630 entering freshmen, statistically adjusted to That such a large number would claim affiliation with either represent the 1.7 million young people who entered college in Catholicism or born-again Christianity-the two most controthe fall of 1992...
...Douglas's role is that of a walking time bomb and we are meant to share the fear of his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) that he will wreak destruction on her and her child...
...To reach an L.A...
...when they were asked if they had "attended a religious service" Raising a family is simply not something you hear much about during the past year...
...Some no doubt program on the topic of raising a family...
...Do they by Ebbe Roe Smith and directed by Joel Schu- take us so close to the character's thoughts and feelings that macher, this is a vigilante movie with a heart of we empathize with and pity this man even as we cringe at his (fool's) gold...
...Young people are, in large numbers, 20: 9 April 1993 Commonweal rooted in religious tradition and, if their understanding and knowl- The action unfolds in parallel lines...
...A closer look at the study (The Chronicle of Higher Education, Born-again Christianity and Catholicism arrive at their enJanuary 13, 1993), yields some very interesting, if less publi- counters with modernity from different histories and employ cized, insights into the religious identity and religious values largely incompatible theological methods...
...Taking the easy way out, Smith and it methodically arouses in the audience for most of its running Schumacher simply caricature everybody Douglas meets so time is punished only in the last few minutes...
...two religious traditions strongly oppose abortion...
...When asked to name their current reli- odds with some aspects of American society, propelling them gious preference (italics mine), 30.5 percent identify themselves into the center of several current controversies, some of them as Roman Catholic, indicating that Catholics, usually estimat- considered beyond the need of argument: complete personal ed at 22 per cent of the U.S...
...A plainclothes cop (Robert Duvall), who has cepted filters we use to hear and to see them...
...Courses are arranged within two three-week modules (June 21-July 9; July 12-July 30...
...But now that strategy has itself become rigid and doctrinaire...
...Program in Christian Ethics Philip J. Chmielewski, S.J...
...Application deadline is February 1. For more information write to : Director of Graduate Programs Department of Theology Loyola University Chicago 6525 N. Sheridan Rd...
...El problems) trying to track down Douglas...
...On the other hand, they do think that there tribute the high response to a lot of one-time weddings and fu- should be no laws prohibiting homosexual relationships, that nerals, it is clear that over four out of five freshmen come from national health care should be provided for all, that the govfamilies that continue to celebrate these rites of passage in re- ernment should do more to control handguns, and, as mentioned ligious ceremonies...
...If the patriarchal tradition which awareness of the raging debates over political correctness, permitted men to think they had a sexual license denied to women multiculturalism, race, class, and gender...
...The results of the UCLA study of freshman class of 1992the assumed secularization of young people does not show up in its responses-should alert us to an error that may be embedded across the entire spectrum of our current readings of the "signs of the times...
...But the filmFailing Down is a dishonest film but it's not hard to makers don't want us to be completely distanced from him see how its very dishonestly has made it a hit...
...Less than 2 percent exlarly discussed safe sex, while 84 percent attended a religious pect to major in history and English, departments service, raises doubts about the prospect of a strongly secular- where the culture wars have been most in evidence...
...The numbers in this study of college freshmen are For those of us serving in the church's ministries to higher yet another indication of the superficiality of secularist analyeducation, the UCLA study also suggests that we may have a sis that holds that the role of religion is in great decline and that much more receptive audience among college students than we the future belongs to those religious traditions that make the have imagined...
...gree...
...The appeal of a secularist solution endured for years until many among the religiously committed came to understand that, far from being a modus vivendi among religious viewpoints, secularism had become the nemesis of religion...
...ministrators and campus ministers (myself included) would have The UCLA-sponsored study also provides other interesting estimated the percentage of students with divorced parents at data...
...Q Studies Thomas J. Tobin, S.J...
...It is far from perfect and necessarily incomplete...
...It's an obvious set-up but a perfectly valid one for a melodrama or a satire or a serious study of urban anomie...
...in Liturgy or Theology or simply take courses for enrichment...
...Globe's education reporter, An- A major and frequently neglected religious demographic thony Flint, had been sifting through a statistical treasure house...
...Synoptic Gospels...
...Falling Down that we cheer him on as he retaliates: an unrelievedly nasty has its poisonous cake and eats it, too...
...One approach, undertaken by some now declining mainline religious traditions, was to embrace secularity as a kind of neorevelation and to make the appropriate moral and doctrinal adjustments to its requirements...
...The fields ized and alienated future...
...So what is their solution...
...tible to theories that illustrate the alienation, secularization, and Far from fulfilling the image of an ever-increasing permis- cultural radicalism of the young...
...funeral or wedding, while many will surely be somewhere in Nor are they open to having the federal government raise taxes between...
...As with the issue of religious identity, most observers past year...
...Many college adtraditions...
...Even so, both are at of today's freshmen...
...We know the two are bound to meet at the climax of the story with fatal results for SCREEN either or both...
...Most observers I know than undecided, which draws the highest response, with 6.2 perwould have estimated that figure at about 90 percent...
...traffic jam and starts walking "home" to an ex-wife and serve them, we need to discard many of the commonly ac- who fears him...
...nected, either personally or through their families, with communities of faith...
...How the Catholic church calibrates its history-laden proclamation of the gospel to a dismantled American harmony poses one of the most interesting religious questions of our time...
...The Summer Program is conducted in a congenial atmosphere where morning and evening prayer are a daily part of community life...
...or Ph.D...
...Flint, along with other commentators, noted a versial and certainly the least politically correct religious groups growing social awareness among this year's freshmen...
...All would cent, is nursing...
...Notre Dame's scenic campus is situated in northern Indiana, within easy driving distance of Lake Michigan and Chicago...
...When asked about "objectives they considered essential a much higher figure and, of course, that may well be the case or very important," 73 percent of the freshmen cite "being well- at some schools and in certain parts of the country...
...Korean store owner...
...Ecology John Haughey, S.J...
...yes or no answer, the numbers suggest that the appeal of bornThis year's study of college freshmen provides us with a snap- again Christianity cannot be treated as a transitory fad in shot of attitudes, plans, backgrounds, and opinions based on a American religious life...
...Much more likely attended weekly, perhaps at their parents' insistence, others may Ph.D...
...They also form the largest reing of the decade of greed-and a ligious group among freshmen, followed by Baptists at 19.3 f f hint that the '60s-style social ac- percent...
...For example, 44.2 percent think its all right for two peo- ondary), engineering, premed, predental, preveterinary, ple who really like each other to have sex even when they have communications, and law enforcement...
...It would be both foolish and inaccurate to as18: 9 April 1993 Commonweal sume that every freshman who identifies as a born-again will be speakers and programs offering enlightenment about Christian or as a Catholic fully subscribes to that tradition's the oppressive nature of the family, or its obsolescence, or the stance on abortion...
...ployers should be allowed to require mandatory drug tests from There are vivid and numerous anecdotes of both phenomena...
...Fundamental Ethics Ph.D...
...El ALL IS NOT LOST MICHAEL J. HUNT AN EARLY LOOK AT THE CLASS OF '96 he strongest signal yet of the pass- they're self-identified Catholics...
...Program in New Testament & Early Christianity David E. Anne Hellenism and Christian Origins Wendy J. Cotter, C.S.J...
...on campus or among the topics of hot seminars...
...Written during his long trek home...
...he portrait of the freshman class that emerges from A freshman class in which, during the preceding year, only these numbers is one of independent-minded 9.1 percent say they regularly felt depressed, and only 24.6 say young people, unfettered by the party line of eithey regularly discussed politics, and only 22.4 percent regu- ther the Right or the Left...
...rent controversy...
...This ly depicted in the media as commonplace...
...emerges in response to another question: "Are you a born-again It is the annual study of college freshmen that has been com- Christian...
...When was the We do not know precisely what kind of services or how frelast time anyone saw a campus poster advertising a speaker or quently the 84 percent attended religious services...
...A close second is "raising a family" (70.6...
...But even if we adopt the cynic's viewpoint and at- to reduce the deficit...
...The second highest score, 84 percent, was registered of the college scene should find some cause here for surprise...
...University and the author of the recently published College Catholics: Abortion alone illustrates the substance and climate of curA New Counterculture (Paulist Press...
...Even allowing for the predictable shifts in their be surprised to see the dramatic gender gap in this response: career plans, it seems safe to say that most of the class of 1996 58.8 percent of the men thought such sex was fine but only 31.9 will move through their college years with only a peripheral percent of the women agreed...
...None" ranks third as a religious preference, with tivism is on the rise...
...Chicago, IL 60626 312-508-2353 LOYOLA 1870 UNIVERSITY a CHICAGO 0 Department of Theoloirv Commonweal 9 April 1993: 19 have qualified for a yes answer by their presence at a family should be given preferential treatment in college admissions...
...Indeed, is there a university or college left in ly, and, yes, more controversially to our sorely afflicted socithose traditions which manifests a discernible intellectual pedi- ety than that tradition to which we are all the unworthy heirs...
...Michael Douglas, recently edge are deficient, they have nonetheless remained attached to fired, divorced, and subject to dementia, abandons his car in the identity and values of their religious communities...
...We do have an audience, a young one, already send- more violent encounters to Duvall (who has his own domestic ing out signals that it verges on being receptive...
...But clearly gether, with 24.2 percent of their parents divorced or separatany freshman admitted to college will at least know that these ed and an additional 4.9 with one or both parents deceased...
...Business Ethics Michael J. Schuck Social Ethics James J. Walter Bio-medical Ethics...
...Public Policy William C. French War and Peace Studies...
...Whether this is the "Catholic Moment" or the "Moment of Catholic Irrelevance" is a quandary without apparent resolution...
...the Boston Methodists in fourth place (8.8 percent...
...UnVIGILANTE CHIC fortunately, Falling Down just slaps all three genres together 'FALLING DOWN' into one phony mess...
...The great majority of freshmen are still con- earlier, that abortion should remain legal...
...greatest accommodations to the prevailing culture...
...pus ministers, and other committed adults are not whistling in We are switched back and forth from Douglas's progressively the wind...
...trol AIDS is through widespread, mandatory testing...
...For ex- in America today-constitutes a first point of reflection: ample, when asked if they agree with the statement that "racial Religious groups that offer a countercultural alternative to the discrimination is no longer a major problem in America," 85.1 dominant, highly secularized culture are exactly those religious percent disagree, up from 79.1 percent of last year's freshman options which attract the largest numbers and the greatest parclass...
...Latino punks played as the inhabitants t ~-- -~ SUMMER PROGRAMS IN THEOLOGY AND LITURGY AT THE IVERSITY OF NO D E J U N E 2 1 J U L Y 3 0 You can work toward an M.A...
...Financial assistance is available...
...The feeling of justified vengefulness dangerousness...
...You may choose to attend either or both of these...
...The field of study, other only known each other a short time...
...freshmen favor legal abortion...
...Gnosticism Urban C. von Wahlde Johannine Studies John L. White Pauline Studies Two programs for full-time students which draw on the distinctive resources of the Roman Catholic theological tradition...
...Other views caught by the survey tend of study to which more than 2 percent aspire are biology, acto reinforce skepticism of the usual stereotypes of young peo- counting, business, management, education (elementary and secple...
...population, are over-represented...
...Hellenistic Judaism...
...counters another stereotype of the young, that the selfish col- Another insight into the lives of these young people can be lege grad wants to make money only for his or her own indul- gleaned from a question that asked about their activities in the gence...
...They do When our culture's contentious disparities jell around relinot think students from disadvantaged social backgrounds gious differences, secularism is often promoted as a form of peace-making...
...Some elements of that outcome are already contained in our reading of the "the signs of the times" as these are revealed in the lives and thoughts of young people...
...ticipation...
...But I ask: Must Hear me when I say that in politics, in the arts, in the more our Catholic college and university students be the last to nocomprehensive task of reimagining the social weal, there is no tice that it exists...
...has been overthrown by the sexual revolution, the class of 1992 The church, like publishers and the mass media, is suscepoffers meager evidence of such a turnaround in attitudes...
...THEOLOGY FACULTY AND COURSES INCLUDE: LITURGY FACULTY AND COURSES INCLUDE: George Carey (Archbishop of Canterbury)- Paul Bradshaw-Liturgical Prayer*** Anglican Theology* Emmanuel Cutrone-Eucharist*** Regina Coll-Women and the Theological Enterprise** James Dallen-Penance*** Lawrence Cunningham-Spirituality*** Kathleen Hughes-Christian Initiation*** Charles Curran-Social Ethics* Roland Murphy-Psalms in the Worship of Israel** Paul Griffiths-Asian Religions** Gilbert Ostdiek-Liturgical Catechesis** Zachery Hayes-Doctrine of God*** Robert Taft-Liturgical Year*** h h Kenneth Himes-Social Ethics** Geoffrey Wainwright-Liturgical Theology*** Lawrence Hoffman-Sanctification in Judiasm** James F. White-Liturgical History*** Richard McBrien-Ecclesiology*** Gerald O'Collins-Christology*** Thomas O'Meara-Grace*** *1 credit-Iweek David Steinmetz-Reformation History*** **2 credits-2 weeks Kern Trembath-Fundamentals of Systematic Theology*** ***3 credits-3 weeks IS DO James VanderKam-Old Testament*** Tuition: $130 per credit hour 9 For further information on all graduate programs (summer, academic year, M.Div...
...however, the strong majority of freshmen nationwide will not The numerical closeness of these two objectives suggests that have experienced the kind of family breakup on which many many who chose financial well-being as their objective joined of their college courses will be focused and which is routineit with their desire to provide well for their future families...
...Social Ethics...
...The question as asked does not, The high value given to raising a family might not surprise as is often the case, make further inquiry into various levels of so much had we realized that, as the study also informs us, fully restriction on abortion as, for example, spousal notification, 70.9 percent of the 1992 freshmen have parents who live towhich will usually produce very different results...
...While piled for the last twenty-seven years by the Higher Education little ambiguity was permitted by this question with its direct Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles...
...write: DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Theology, Room 15 University of Notre Dame Is Notre Dame, IN 46556 Telephone (219) 631-7811 Commonweal 9 April 1993: 21...
Vol. 120 • April 1993 • No. 7
