seemingly estranged intellectual impulses lay in Shuster's understanding of the Middle Ages as a time of flourishing for the human spirit, one that saw the achievement of what he called "the spirtualization of democracy."8 This democratic spirit of medieval cultural and intellectual life was not a mere matter of nostalgia, for in Shuster's view, it had taken root in America, thus bestowing on the United States a pivotal role in preserving and defending the cultural heritage of the Christian West. It made perfect sense for him to see Catholicism and America working hand in hand for the benefit of civilization, and to see Notre Dame's mission as part of this momentous task, providing its students with the moral and intellectual vision needed to serve both God and country.

In this essay, I tell the story of this dual mission, symbolically represented in the War Memorial attached to Sacred Heart Church and also very much alive in the minds of Catholic scholars in the twentieth century. In part one, I portray the mission of Catholic higher education over the course of the four decades after World War I, 1920-1960, at Notre Dame and in the nation at large, paying special attention to the central role of Neoscholastic philosophy in carrying out the mission and then briefly describing how the vision fell apart during the 1960s and brought an end to the so-called Neoscholastic synthesis. In part two, I use the work of Alasdair MacIntyre to show how we need to rethink the mission of Notre Dame and of Catholic higher education in the United States generally. In conclusion, I argue that, in rethinking it, we will need to re-order the University's longstanding missionary priorities: God, Notre Dame, Country.

1. "The Scholastic Synthesis" at Notre Dame

As an English professor at Notre Dame, George Shuster was only beginning to fulfill his vision of fighting an intellectual "war for Christendom." In 1924, he left Notre Dame for New York and soon joined a group of lay people who had recently founded a journal for that purpose called The Commonweal. It was while serving on the staff of The Commonweal that he wrote an editorial chiding Catholic institutions of higher education for promoting personal piety and "excellence in football" on their campuses (a jab at his alma mater) at the expense of genuine intellectual pursuits. But his most provocative critique appeared in the Jesuit journal America. It was entitled "Have We Any Catholic Scholars?"9

Published in 1925, the article ignited a storm of controversy among Catholic educators in the United States. At the time, Catholic colleges

8 Ibid., 91. 9 George Shuster, "Have We Any Catholic Scholars?" America 33 (August 15, 1925): 418-19.

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God, Notre Dame, Country: Rethinking the Mission of Catholic Higher Education in the United States

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