by Dr. Aurelie A. Hagstrom, Associate Professor Of Theology

Providence College is part of a consortium of 19 Dominican colleges and universities across the country. Every two years, one of these schools hosts the "Dominican Colleges Colloquium," a conference focusing on how the Dominican charism can be effectively enfleshed, lived, and promoted in higher education. Last summer, I attended the colloquium, which was held at Dominican University in River Forest, Ill. The theme of the colloquium was "In the Service of Truth." Over 200 people gathered to attend workshops, lectures, and seminars concerning our shared mission in Catholic higher education.

Something that became clear to me early on during the conference was that all of us shared some common questions and issues of concern on our campuses. In my opinion, these common questions would include:

• How can we be rooted in the Catholic, Dominican tradition, and yet be open to adaptation, innovation, and change?
• How does the Dominican intellectual tradition inform our campus ethos, curriculum, recruitment, promotion-  al material, faculty orientation, etc.?
• Is our Catholic, Dominican mission invisible, intuitive, and implicit or is it visible, focused, and explicit?
• How do we maintain a strong Catholic and Dominican identity without becoming sectarian or fundamentalistic in our approach?

As a professor of theology at Providence College, I am passionately interested in these questions and issues since I believe that the mission of any Catholic college flows from the very mission of the Church itself. Christ commissions the Church to be his presence in the world until he returns, and to seek the kingdom of God amidst temporal affairs. Put simply, the mission of a Catholic college is to educate with the presuppositions and principles that the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides. All of the enterprises of Providence College, therefore, find their foundation in the rich Catholic intellectual tradition and have as their context the incarnational and sacramental worldview that our Church-relatedness gives us.

While the mission of Catholic higher education goes all the way back to the medieval universities of Europe, we have a call-and perhaps even a sacred responsibility-to ensure that this mission is vibrant and flourishing today. The good news is that Dominican colleges and universities have a charism and a centuries-long tradition, which inspire and motivate our mission. The Dominican charism is rooted in the vision of St. Dominic and the genius of St. Thomas Aquinas. And it has been enfleshed for centuries by the men and women of the Dominican Order-clergy, religious, and third-order laity. This wellspring of spirituality, mysticism, and scholarship is the source of our inspiration as we engage a post-modern world.

The four pillars
Many of the presenters and participants in the Dominican colloquium last summer articulated the Dominican charism in higher education using the image of four "pillars." These four pillars of Dominican life are: study, prayer, community, and service. St. Dominic called this four-fold pattern of life "holy preaching." In most of the mission statements of the participating colleges and universities, these four pillars were explicitly stated.

The first pillar, study, is to be understood in the context of the pursuit of truth, which is central to the Dominican intellectual tradition. This would include, of course, all of the intellectual disciplines, and not just theology. The second pillar, prayer, is to be appreciated in light of St. Dominic's "nine ways" of prayer. He loved to pray with his whole body, kneeling, prostrating himself, and holding up his hands in various gestures. This spirituality highlights prayer and contemplation as the basis for action in the world. Community is a pillar because right relationships, reconciliation, common interests, and shared work are the basis for mission. And the final pillar, service, is how the challenge of loving God and neighbor is embraced as a way of life. It is said that these four pillars are a way of unpacking the Dominican motto: "to contemplate truth and share with others the fruit of this contemplation."

For nearly 90 years, Providence College has offered thousands of students a Catholic higher education within the Dominican tradition. Hundreds of Dominican Friars have taught in its classrooms, laboratories, and lecture halls. The legacy of the Dominican charism is not just a museum piece; it is a dynamic tradition that is lived day in and day out on our campus.

Besides serving on the faculty and in administration, the most important dimension of the Dominican presence, in my opinion, is their witness of prayer and vowed living in community. This is a campus soaked in prayer-from the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours each day in the Priory chapel, to the daily Masses offered in St. Dominic Chapel, to the personal contemplation of each Friar. And it is this prayerful presence that is the spiritual foundation of our campus community.

The Dominican charism is also expressed in a variety of other ways on our campus. One obvious way is in the curriculum. The theology and philosophy courses that are part of the core requirements of every student help to articulate the Catholic, sacramental worldview. We also have a physical and aesthetic environment that displays through architecture and symbol our Catholic, Dominican identity-inscriptions, sculptures, stained-glass windows, artworks, crucifixes in classrooms, chapels, and a grotto of Our Lady. Our chaplain's office offers a wide range of ministries, retreats, opportunities for Christian service, and spiritual direction. Finally, I think a case can even be made that our sports programs are consistent with our Dominican charism since even St. Thomas Aquinas argues that play and sport are necessary for the good of the soul (Summa Theologica, 2ae2ae, 168, I). These are only some of the major ways that the Dominican charism is manifested.

The challenges
Participating in the Dominican colloquium last summer gave me the chance not only to reflect on how this charism is the inspiration for our work but also to ponder the challenges that face us in maintaining this sacred enterprise. One challenge is trying to remain rooted in the Dominican charism that is carefully articulated and widely understood by the founding community, while being open to an evolving interpretation of this tradition as it confronts new challenges and new questions. In other words, is it possible to see legitimate innovation and thoughtful adaptation as a natural evolution of the College's mission without feeling threatened that we are diluting or forsaking our heritage?

Another challenge is the participation of the lay faculty in the Dominican mission. In my view, there will be no strengthening of the Catholic, Dominican character of our College unless the faculty voluntarily develop a substantive interest in this project. Neither the rhetoric of our Mission Statement in the catalog nor the artificial setting of percentages of faculty who are Catholic will get anywhere, it seems to me, without an indigenous intellectual community. How can the faculty, the community of scholars, which is at the heart of the College, also be at the heart of the religious vision of our educational endeavor? And, especially, how can faculty who do not share the same religious affiliation of the College be engaged by the Catholic, Dominican mission? My opinion is that there is indeed a distinctive way that faculty enhance and communicate the mission which is different from how administrators or trustees promote the mission. Genuine faculty engagement in the mission is an ongoing challenge as we move forward and grow as an institution.

As a member of the theology department, my personal responsibility is to teach and hand on the great Catholic intellectual tradition. And my context for this endeavor is the approach to theology in the Dominican tradition. This approach is dialogical and is modeled on the practice of St. Dominic himself. While traveling through Toulouse, St. Dominic encountered an innkeeper who was a member of the Albigensian heretical sect. St. Dominic stayed up all night sitting with him and talking about the truths of the Catholic faith. By dawn, we are told, St. Dominic had won the innkeeper back to the true faith. This famous incident illustrates that the Dominican approach to theology is dialogical-seeking to proclaim, persuade, and convince, rather than silence, defeat, and conquer its opponents and respondents.

The prism of Dominican charism
St. Thomas Aquinas also employed a dialogical model in his theology. In his Summa, he uses the teachings of a Jew, Maimonides, as well as a Muslim, Averroes. In fact, the philosophy of the pagan, Aristotle, which is an integral element in Aquinas' project, was largely available to him only through these Jewish and Islamic scholars. In this dialogue, St. Thomas was not afraid to find truth even from people with whom he did not agree philosophically or theologically. This sort of confidence in seeking the truth wherever it may be found is based upon the conviction that truth is one and that there can be no contradiction between the truth that flows from faith and that which comes through reason. This bold search for truth in a dialogical methodology is a challenge for anyone who desires to engage in theological inquiry in the Dominican tradition. The Dominican charism, founded on the vision of St. Dominic and the genius of St. Thomas, is the "prism" through which theology can be practiced.

Perhaps I can use this "prism" image to summarize what I think was the major emphasis of the Dominican colloquium: All that we are and everything we do must be channeled through this "prism" which includes not only the intellectual tradition of the Dominicans, but also their legacy of history, spirituality, and mysticism. That is, the ongoing conversation on the campus of any Dominican college or university must be focused on evaluating programs, services, agencies, and efforts through this "prism" of the Dominican charism.

This is, no doubt, a daunting task! But it is one we can accomplish if we remember that mission integration is an ongoing conversation which must give everyone on campus a place at the table. Through this ongoing conversation and dialogue in the Dominican tradition, ideas will surface, creativity will be enhanced, and genuine understanding will be achieved. And the fruits of this dialogue of mission integration will go beyond programs, plans, and strategies. Instead, it will promote critical self-conscious reflection that will lead to transformation, shared vision, and "Dominican dynamism" to meet the challenges of Catholic higher education in the 21st century.