Dr. Dennis O’Brien, a scholar and author who has taught at Princeton University, will give a talk, "Is a Catholic College a Contradiction in Terms?," at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, in Somers Lounge on The College of St. Scholastica campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

O’Brien is past president of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, and the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY

His talk's title comes from an assertion by social critic George Bernard Shaw that a Catholic College is a contradiction in terms in that Catholicism stands for closed dogma while colleges stand for open inquiry.

"It would seem that Catholic colleges have heeded Shaw's admonition to the extent that they have more and more problems deciding in what way they are 'Catholic'," O'Brien says. "The drift from Catholicism has caused concern most pointedly expressed in John Paul II's document 'Ex Corde Ecclesia,' which enjoins Catholic colleges to be clearly Catholic. How can the Pope's instruction be realized without jeopardizing the academic freedom which academic inquiry requires?"

O'Brien is the author of several books including "The Idea of a Catholic University" and "All the Essential Half-Truths about Higher Education." He has written for many publications on the topics of philosophy, religion and modern art. He taught and held leadership positions at Princeton University and Middlebury College. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in English from Yale University.

The talk is part of the Here Comes Everybody lecture series sponsored by the Braegelman Catholic Studies Program at The College of St. Scholastica.

The Braegelman Catholic Studies Program explores the Catholic intellectual tradition with students and the larger community. Here Comes Everybody takes its name from author James Joyce, who offered the phrase in his definition of Catholicism. For more information contact the Rev. William Graham at (218) 723-6699 or wgraham@css.edu.