Catholic Higher Education in a Globalizing World

Abstract

My thesis is that the reality called globalization raises both a deep challenge and a thought-provoking opportunity for the work of every university today. In particular, globalization challenges Catholic higher education to a new vision of community and solidarity in a world that today is paradoxically more intimately interconnected and more painfully divided than ever before. These new interconnections and divisions present Catholic students and scholars with an opportunity to advance our understanding of what a more humane global community requires of us today. Globalization is therefore a stimulus to development of a classic task of the Catholic university – the advancement of a Christian humanistic vision of the full flourishing of all people. To advance this argument I will first sketch some of the dimensions of the globalization process. Second, I will take note of some of the tensions and contradictions raised by globalization that require serious intellectual attention. Finally, I will suggest several ways that universities, especially Catholic universities, can contribute to a more just future in a world where globalization has such important impact on human well-being.