Building Catholic Higher Education: Unofficial Reflections from the University of Notre Dame

American Catholic universities and colleges are wrestling today with how to develop in ways that faithfully serve their mission in Catholic higher education without either secularizing or becoming sectarian. Major challenges are faced when trying to simultaneously build and sustain excellence in undergraduate teaching, strengthen faculty research and publishing, and deepen the authentically Catholic character of education. This book uses the particular case of the University of Notre Dame to raise larger issues, to make substantive proposals, and thus to contribute to a national conversation affecting all Catholic universities and colleges in the United States (and perhaps beyond) today. Its arguments focus particularly on challenging questions around the recruitment, hiring, and formation of faculty in Catholic universities and colleges.

In an increasingly secularized culture, where institutions can be tempted to ignore or sideline their Catholic identity, Professors Smith and Cavadini offer a striking, rich, and alternative vision.
--Kevin C. Rhoades, Bishop, Fort Wayne-South Bend

Fully embracing the ambitious goal of Notre Dame's president to create first-rate undergraduate and graduate programs, all rooted intellectually in Catholicism, Christian Smith spells out why it is very difficult to achieve all three . . . As difficult as it is to reach that goal, Smith suggests a way forward.
--James L. Heft, President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies

Building Catholic Higher Education offers a compelling vision of the unique contribution Catholic colleges and universities make to higher education, and explains why we should take care to preserve them.
--John Garvey, President, The Catholic University of America


Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.

John C. Cavadini is Professor of Theology, former Chair of the Department of Theology, and Director of the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.