Criteria for Grants and Aid
The Loyola Institute for the Study of Catholic Culture and Tradition is interested in spurring new efforts and serious study of the Catholic intellectual tradition in all its diversity and vitality. How well a particular proposal or grant application embodies this goal is of central concern to the advisory board. The particular discipline or approach that an applicant chooses in order to accomplish this goal may be as broad as the range of Catholic contributions to the intellectual life itself. Thus, while a given proposal or project seeking institute support might not include all areas or aspects mentioned in the criteria below, it is essential that the basic thrust of the grant proposal be to enhance the understanding of the Catholic intellectual and cultural traditions.
It is expected that faculty who receive grants from the institute will be respectful of Catholic Doctrine and not advance as authentic Catholic doctrine positions at variance with the Magisterium, and that Catholic professors in the Theological Disciplines who apply for a grant to the Institute will possess the Mandatum.
The institute seeks to encourage imaginative and creative initiatives that examine, explore, emphasize, illuminate, relate, and reflect the richness of Catholicism. Listed below are criteria that will serve the advisory board in judging the appropriateness of a particular proposal or project for institute sponsorship:
- Examine topics, themes, or questions pertinent to Roman Catholic doctrine and faith in its various aspects; elucidate the principles and teachings of Catholicism as expressed in literature, art, philosophy, the natural and social sciences, historical study, business disciplines, theology, and Sacred Scripture.
- Explore the historical, social, cultural, religious, scientific, and/or economic background of the dimensions of Catholic intellectual life, highlighting the contribution of the Catholic church, as well as individual scholars, thinkers, and artists, to a particular discipline.
- Emphasize the church-historical framework of a topic, thereby enabling students to develop a sense of the historical development of a particular theme in Catholic intellectual life, with an assessment of its continuing value for the present and the future.
- Illuminate the distinctive characteristics of the Catholic tradition within Christianity, for example: belief in the unity between faith and reason; a theory of Christian values; sacramentalism; emphasis on institutional structure; tradition of Christian education and humanism; monasticism.
- Relate the dimensions of Catholic intellectual life to ongoing concerns, discussions, or debates in the discipline(s) in question or investigate a variety of perspectives, including magisterial teaching, to insure that students have a critical appreciation of the central points of disagreement among scholars of the topic.
- Reflect the concerns of the church and the Society of Jesus for the interrelationship of faith and justice.