In his book, Reading the Signs of the Times, Speaking to a Changing World (2003), Fr. McGrath narrates Catholic tradition as a dynamic interplay of reflection and practice, centered on God revealed in Christ, always in dialogue with broader developments in scholarship and society. UD carries on that reflective inquiry into our human nature, our world, our past, our communities, our successes and our failures, seeking the true and beautiful, so that we might serve the common good. That inquiry demands a diversity of persons and approaches. Truth is multifaceted and we often encounter it in the voices of those who have historically been marginalized. David Tracy reminds us that "The ideal is of course the whole … the whole not as a totality but as infinite, dynamic, open." How do UD students approach the whole of truth?
At the University of Dayton, we "pursue understanding as the path to wisdom and embrace both faith and reason." Engagement with the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) is central to the aims and purposes of UD's Common Academic Program (CAP). Flowing out of the Catholic and Marianist mission and identity of the university, students in Humanities Commons courses "engage central concepts of Catholic Intellectual Tradition as they contribute to humanistic inquiry and reflection in the relevant academic discipline."
As they progress through CAP, students' engagement with CIT also progresses. Crossing Boundaries courses "strengthen the Catholic intellectual tradition in significant ways. This tradition in Catholic and Marianist higher education emphasizes the centrality of theology and philosophy, the importance of linking faith and reason, the integration of knowledge and the application of that knowledge to personal and social situations in the world today." Integrative courses emphasize CIT's recognition that truth transcends any single discipline's methods. Students ideally glimpse what physicist Max Planck called "the intimate union between the beautiful, the true and the real." Courses in Advanced Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies "draw upon the resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition as [students] consider how to lead wise and ethical lives of leadership and service."
The McGrath Award encourages and recognizes outstanding student research related to the themes and resources of CIT in the context of CAP coursework. Students are urged to think about CIT broadly, with Mary Ellen O'Donnell, as "a dynamic, living and rich heritage that persists and evolves." Research is most welcome that engages sources of CIT — classical and/or oft-overlooked — in conjunction with the themes of vocation, faith and reason, environmental and social justice, beauty, human rights, the nature of work, the common good, etc. A starting point for thinking about CIT is an appendix to the 2012 UD document Common Themes in the Mission and Identity of the University of Dayton, "The Catholic Intellectual Tradition and the Mission of the University: A Continuing Conversation."
Sponsored by the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Intellectual Traditions, the award is named in honor of UD alumnus Fr. Jack McGrath (1935–2015), a dedicated teacher, who celebrated and embodied Marianist education in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.
