INTRODUCTION

BY DR. TIMOTHY T. O’DONNELL , PRESIDENT

the vision statement was written in 1998 and remains an essential declaration of the fundamental principles which inspired the college from its founding.

Dr. Warren Carroll and the entire college community of administration, board, faculty and staff were involved in this historic undertaking. It has lost none of its vital freshness with the passing of the years. It clearly articulates the founding principles of the college’s commitment to the renewal of Catholic higher education.

The mission of the college as presented in this founding document has only become timelier with the widespread confusion and ideological corruption in so much of our culture and in higher education.

The liberal arts, especially theology and philosophy, are essential components to free man from the shackles of materialism, relativism and a host of ideologies which prevent the human person from seeing the transcendent horizon which gives meaning to life.

The education offered and proclaimed here at Christendom has a perennial validity as it reflects the timeless wisdom of the Church bringing together the fruitful interplay of faith and reason.

This Catholic vision can be seen particularly in St. John Paul II’s 1990 Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae and his brilliant 1998 Encyclical Fides et Ratio .

The vision set forth here has also inspired other institutions to pursue a Catholic liberal arts education on a humane scale seeking to educate and form the entire person. The fruit of this education will lead to a transformation of our culture in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this way, a Christendom education will aid the new evangelization and help build a civilization of love thereby transforming the temporal order with graduates witnessing to the Catholic Faith in their family and professional lives.

May this new edition of the Christendom College Vision Statement continue to contribute to the authentic renewal of Catholic higher education for generations to come. E

Foreword

the only rightful purpose of education is to learn the truth and to live by it. The purpose of Catholic education is therefore to learn and to live by the truth revealed by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” as preserved in the deposit of faith and authentically interpreted in the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Christ, of which the Pope is the visible head. That central body of divine truth illumines all other truth and shows us its essential unity in every area of thought and life. Only an education that integrates the truths of the Catholic Faith throughout the curriculum is a fully Catholic education.

On the foundation of this principle of immutable fidelity to the truth of the Catholic Faith, Christendom College was founded in 1977 by lay Catholic educators.

Christendom College seeks to form its students using a challenging curriculum centered on faith and reason, on the truths of Divine Revelation as taught by the Roman Catholic Church, and the truths of natural reason as derived from natural law and human experience in fidelity to the Magisterium. The curriculum undertakes to integrate harmoniously the knowledge acquired from these sources. The college desires to foster in its students a commitment to the lay apostolate, that is, the task of transforming the social order in Christ.

The faculty and administration present the following document as a statement of that vision of Catholic undergraduate liberal education, which the founders undertook to restore and promote by the establishment of Christendom College. E