Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

Widely considered the foundational document of modern papal social teaching, Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum articulates a host of principles that have informed Catholic social teaching and thought through the twentieth century and beyond. Of these principles, one of the most enduring is Leo's defense of private property as a natural right. Yet, as a host of commentators have pointed out, this defense bears a striking affinity with the property theory of John Locke. Most crucially, Leo seems to assume the Lockean principle that the natural right to property derives from the act of labor. Insofar as Locke is often referred to as the “father” of classical liberalism, it seems that Leo writes one of, if not the, primary tenets of laissez-faire liberalism into papal social teaching at its foundation. Rather than challenge the general consensus concerning Locke's influence on Rerum Novarum, this dissertation argues that the “Lockean problem” extends beyond Leo's defense of private property as a “sacred and inviolable” natural right on two interrelated fronts. First, while challenging the Lockean notion of “free consent” as the sole determinate of remunerative justice, Leo's argument for a just wage terminates in a characteristically Lockean eclipse of the laborer's natural right to property. Second, Leo situates this Lockean approach to both property and remunerative labor in the insurmountable conditions of postlapsarian exile. In concert, these factors constitute the modern economic subject, the subject of labor and property, in the conditions of supernatural necessity, the postlapsarian conditions that require supernatural mediation for consolation in and deliverance from this “vale of tears.” Ultimately, this dissertation will argue that the Lockean problem underlies a coherent, though problematic, theology of labor in Rerum Novarum. At the root of this theology sits the voluntary alienation of labor under the auspices of remunerative consent. While the sor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vincent Miller (Committee Chair) Subjects: Theology

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, Theological Studies

The Vatican's condemnation of Fr. John Augustine Zahm's most famous work, Evolution and Dogma, in the autumn of 1898 has traditionally been the subject of great interest among religious scholars and historians. This thesis describes several coalescing factors that negatively affected the book's fate: the neo-Thomists' critical reaction to Zahm's use of Saints Augustine and Aquinas in defense of evolutionism; the author's Americanist connections; the release of the French translation of Walter Elliott's The Life of Father Hecker; and the Church's resistance to the advancements of liberalism in European society, especially after the French Revolution. However, this thesis also takes a step further and argues that Fr. Zahm's writing and teaching career did not cease after the condemnation of his book. His passion for imparting an intelligent faith to his Catholic readers and audiences did not cease; his expansion efforts at the University of Notre Dame as Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross and his later publications, such as the trilogy of South American travelogues and the apologetic work Woman in Science, are testaments to his enduring “teaching heart” -- his passion for pursuing knowledge and communicating new understandings to others. This thesis emphasizes the importance of acknowledging Fr. Zahm's life holistically, in broad strokes. His contribution to American Catholic history need not be limited to the intrigue surrounding Evolution and Dogma.

Committee: William Portier (Committee Chair); William Trollinger Jr. (Committee Member); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Religion; Religious History; Science History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Theology

This dissertation examines the social magisterium of Pope Leo XIII as it is developed in the aftermath of the French Revolution and during the nationalizing process of the liberal Italian state. The thesis of the dissertation is that Leo XIII provides Catholic social teaching with a proper vision of human relationship as a mode of analogical participation in the Lord's goodness. In his own historical context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations is developed in tension with the nation-state's proposal of political citizenship as the social relation that relativizes every other relation – most especially one's ecclesial relation. In our own context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations stands in tension with the late-modern proposal of consumerism as the social reality that relativizes every other relation – including one's matrimonial, familial, social, and ecclesial relations.

Committee: Kelly Johnson Ph.D. (Advisor); Russell Hittinger Ph.D. (Committee Member); William Portier Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jana Bennett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Carter Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Philosophy; Religious History; Social Structure; Theology