CAST a brighter light on your life with
the Catholic Studies Undergraduate Program:

- Connect Catholic tradition to science and the arts.
- Action drives a community where faith, intellect and friendship thrive through
  interdisciplinary study and activities.
- Service allows you to discover dynamic cultural experiences through a global
  Catholic lens.
- Think and learn with faculty members who transform Catholic thought into Catholic
  life through education and dialogue.

The many dimensions of Catholic culture come alive for students participating in the Interdisciplinary Program in Catholic Studies.

While grounded in Catholic theology and belief, the program engages the student in the imaginative and sacramental expressions of Catholic life in literature, the arts, social systems and personal experience. Its interdisciplinary dimension and range of electives give students insight into Catholicism's dynamic interaction with cultures, traditions and intellectual life throughout history. At the same time, the program's interpersonal approach and opportunities for sustained reflection on current issues invite students to enter into a deeper, more mature understanding of the Catholic faith.

The Major

How would you like to visit Rome and see some of the world's greatest art? Hear some of its most beautiful music? Read the short stories of Flannery O'Connor and Andre DuBus, or the novels of Walker Percy and Graham Greene? How would you like an education that is truly "liberal," that exposes you to best literature: The Confessions of St. Augustine, Dante's Divine Comedy, the literature of courtly love and of mysticism, and the poetry of Girard Manly Hopkins? How would you like to study this in the context of a community of life and of study? Then the new major in Catholic Studies is for you!

The major is interdisciplinary. It consists of 36 credits, half of which are basic courses and the rest are electives dealing with the Catholic intellectual tradition and culture. Among those electives are "course-trips" to Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, and other areas influenced by Catholicism. There is also the possibility of various "study-abroad" programs.

The aim of the major is to provide a broad liberal education illustrating the interaction of Catholicism with various cultures throughout the ages. The major would be an ideal "double major." The major is supported by a student group called "CAST," which engages in service-oriented and cultural activities.

Some scholarship monies are available for the program. For information on the major please contact one of the following:

The Program

Bachelor of Arts in Catholic Studies

Major

A. Core – 6 Courses (18 credits)

B. Electives - 6 Courses (18 credits)

Students may apply credits from any courses in sections B-D, with four courses coming from the one of the areas of concentration listed in this section. No more than three of those courses should be from the same department.

The Catholic Intellectual Heritage

The Catholic Cultural Heritage

CAST/LATN 2101-2: Intermediate Latin
CAST/GREK 2207-8: Intermediate Greek I&II (NT)
CAST/CLAS 3150: Medieval Latin
CAST/CLAS 3290: Archeology & Christianity
CAST/CLAS 3999: Emergence of Christian Rome
ARTH 1112: Medieval Art
ARTH 1113: Italian Art of the Renaissance
ARTH 1114: DaVinci and Michelangelo
ARTH 1115: Baroque/Rococo Art
MUHI 1137: Gregorian Chant
ENGL 2211: Medieval Literature
ENGL 2105: Literature of Courtly Love
ENGL 2316: Poetry of Hopkins
ENGL 2428: Contemporary Literature & Religion
CAST/ENGL 2311: Chaucer
CAST/ENGL 2410: The Bible as Literature
CAST/ENGL 3412: C.S. Lewis/Chesterton
CAST/ENGL 2422: Catholic Literature/Film
CAST/HIST 2230: Europe in the Middle Ages
CAST/HIST 2233: Dante and His World
CAST/HIST 2234: Medieval & Renaissance Italy
CAST/HIST 2235: Italian History II 
CAST/HIST 2240: Renaissance & Reformation
CAST/HIST 2264: Modern Ireland  
CAST/HIST 2387: Catholic Church in the U.S.
CAST/HIST 2611: Italian Literature  
ITAL 2312/2: La Divina Comedia I/II   

Special Topics: Catholicism & Culture
    CAST 2290-2299; 3293; 3995-3999

Independent Study: CAST 3300                

C. Foreign Study Opportunities (optional)

Students may apply credits from SHU Catholic Studies courses conducted as part of foreign travel and/or credits from overseas Catholic Studies programs conducted by other universities with the prior approval of the director. Seton Hall has a special arrangement with the Rome program of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. It also has a special arrangement for qualified students to study with the Medieval and Renaissance Studies program of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford. The maximum number of these credits that can be applied to the Catholic Studies Major is six. The Center for Catholic Studies annually offers its own foreign study courses.

D. Service Learning (optional)

PHIL 1107/8: Self and Community: Philosophy in Theory and Practice (I & II)

[NB Students declaring Catholic Studies as a second major at the end of first year must have sophomore status and a GPA of 2.5.]

Other Educational Opportunities

Minor

A minor in Catholic Studies consists of six, 3-credit courses:

Total credits: 18

Certificate

A certificate in Catholic Studies consists of five, 3-credit courses:

CAST/RELS 1302: Introduction to the Catholic Vision
CAST 3193: Integrating Seminar in Catholic Studies
PHIL 3950: Faith and Reason Seminar
One course (3 credits) on religion or literature
One elective (3 credits) approved by the director of Catholic Studies

Total credits: 15

Enrichment

The Interdisciplinary Program in Catholic Studies appeals to students, Catholic or not, who seek to deepen their knowledge of the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Its interdisciplinary nature allows students to encounter the beauty and vitality of Catholicism as it is expressed across the disciplines. By examining the role Catholicism has played in various cultures, students are challenged to take seriously its influence in every aspect of intellectual, spiritual and social life.

Because of its emphasis on close interaction between faculty members, students, and alumni, those who choose to participate in the program enter into a unique type of intellectual community. Such community, singularly lacking in today's impersonal world, can be instrumental in forming character and good intellectual and spiritual habits.

The program is flexible. Most courses are cross-listed with other departments. Students majoring or minoring in other disciplines are invited to take an occasional course in the program. Such courses can shed light on the religious and humanistic dimensions of the various disciplines.

"To aim at improving the condition, the status, of the Catholic body, by a careful survey of their argumentative basis, of their position relative to the philosophy and character of the day, by giving them juster views, by enlarging and refining their minds, in one word, by education..."   - John Henry Newman

This program offers students the possibility of connecting Catholicism with history, politics, art, literature and music. Travel to the Cloisters in New York to experience the interaction of Catholicism, architecture and art. Listen to the ancient and living tradition of Gregorian chant. Study the interplay of Catholicism and politics, the origins of the modern legal system in medieval canon law. Learn for a semester in Rome, the center of Catholicism and art.

Discover the interplay of Catholicism and philosophy in Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman and modern Catholic theologians. Examine the classics of Catholic literature: The Confessions of St. Augustine, Dante's Divine Comedy, Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Read contemporary writers inspired by the Catholic vision of redemption: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Andre Dubus. Study the particular manifestations of Catholicism in various cultures around the globe. Engage in a hands-on examination of Catholicism's impact on the social problems of our day.

For more information, contact one of the following at the Center for Catholic Studies:

Office Phone:
(973) 761-9000 ext. 2175

Msgr. Richard Liddy, Director
liddyric@shu.edu ext. 2175

James McCartin, Ph.D., Associate Director
mccartjb@shu.edu ext. 2773

Danute M. Nourse, Director of Programs
nourseda@shu.edu ext. 2525

Marissa Kutoloski, Graduate Assistant
kutoloma@shu.edu ext. 2175

Elliot Guerra, CAST Coordinator
guerrael@shu.edu