Noted Catholic Philosopher Takes Post at Baptist University
Across Doctrinal Borders
As one of the world’s leading Roman Catholic philosophers, John Haldane might seem an unlikely addition to the faculty of Baylor University, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Waco, Tex.
In the fall Mr. Haldane, an adviser to popes and a frequent print and broadcast commentator on social issues in Britain, became the first holder of the J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Distinguished Chair in Philosophy at Baylor.
He professes to be undaunted, saying he values Baylor as an exception to a “secularization, or desacralization” of American religious universities, and as an institution that, nonetheless, “is quite open and wants to be part of a larger conversation about the future of higher education.”
Mr. Haldane has crossed doctrinal borders before. When he began teaching at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, more than 30 years ago, the Jesuit-educated scholar, whose paternal grandfather was an anti-Catholic Presbyterian, became the country’s first declared Catholic professor of philosophy since the Reformation.
Mr. Haldane became known for pioneering the school of Analytical Thomism, which applies philosophical analysis to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, a pivotal 13th-century thinker.
His teaching at St Andrews has been intermingled with frequent short appointments around the world. He says he almost turned down Baylor’s invitation to take up the new chair because his schedule is perpetually full.
In the next few months, he will undertake lectureships in Birmingham, England, and in Sydney, Australia. He remains chairman of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Between Baylor semesters, he will continue to teach at St Andrews, where, for 25 years, he directed the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs.
Helping to sway Mr. Haldane to take the Baylor position, he says, was that on many trips to the United States, he has found that academics and public intellectuals “don’t just keep within their narrow specialism, so you have a much wider-ranging intellectual conversation” than in Britain, which he believes many Americans rather romanticize.
American artistic life appeals to him, too. As an undergraduate, in London, he originally trained as an artist. That was before he found his way to Aquinas and wrote books in such areas as metaphysics, the history of philosophy, and moral and social philosophy.
At Baylor, he says, he will try to catch up with tasks that have gotten away from him. He wishes, for example, to prepare for publication his prominent lecture series at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and in Scotland on such topics as personhood, the mind, and religion.
He also wishes, while in Waco, to develop the notion that when it comes to difficult public contentions, “we are more likely to make progress by recognizing the difficulty, but we’re also more likely to avoid the kind of corrosion and separation that’s going on if we extend the hand of civic friendship.” — Peter Monaghan
SOURCE:
http://chronicle.com/article/Noted-Catholic-Philosopher/235362/