President O’Reilly: Let Us Re-Dedicate Ourselves to Thomas Aquinas College

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by Paul J. O’Reilly, Ph.D.
President, Aquinas College
Inaugural Response 
October 22, 2022

 

Let me begin by thanking you for the honor you have given me by attending this Inauguration. I accept that honor not principally for myself, but for Thomas Aquinas College and for all those who founded and maintained it for more than 50 years.

Dean Goyette just reminded us of one the principal purposes of this ceremony. It is certainly not to celebrate me: I am just an imperfect instrument. But we are given today an opportunity to “re-dedicate ourselves to the College.” If we are to re-dedicate ourselves to this institution, we should remind ourselves why Thomas Aquinas College was founded.

Right from the beginning our founders were clear:

“Men do not create truth; they discover it. Nature loves to hide. She shows herself only to the docile and industrious, and then only when they are responsive to her manner of revelation. The object and the method of education are not arbitrary.”

“Since learning is for the sake of knowing the truth, and the truth is not of our own making, we must be willing to be receptive to what God and nature reveal to us.”

Since learning is for the sake of knowing the truth, and the truth is not of our own making, we must be willing to be receptive to what God and nature reveal to us. The pursuit of truth requires discipline and method, it requires guidance and docility, it requires the right dispositions of the soul.

So how, more concretely, should we re-dedicate ourselves to the College?

I would suggest to my colleagues, the tutors, that we remind ourselves of the wisdom we have inherited and been entrusted with maintaining.

Dr. Thomas Dillon as dean said, “The success of the institution will depend primarily upon its teaching faculty — as go the tutors, so will go the school.” He went on to make more concrete what he meant: one “pressing need is the general development of the faculty in Aristotle and St. Thomas. This is of prime importance for the future of the school.” The founders of Thomas Aquinas College wrote in our founding document, the Blue Book: “Following the teaching of the Church … the philosophical studies in this school will be governed by the method and doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas.”

One of Dr. Dillon’s successors as dean, Dr. Coughlin, also wrote a dean’s report. Dr. Dillon described Dr. Coughlin’s report as “true to the nature and purposes of Thomas Aquinas College, both as initially conceived in the ‘Blue Book’ and as actually established and developed.” In Dr. Coughlin’s report, he pointed out:

“The faithful philosopher is subject to a temptation to which the non-believer is also subject: the temptation to believe that he knows what he only believes. This is why we must be vigilant in our classes and in our minds, being sure to turn over each question and puzzle, to trace out the consequences of our positions, to be honest in our thoughts and words. We are in no rush; we intend to live an examined life … and we should be encouraging each other and the students to live this leisurely but demanding life.”

How should you students re-dedicate yourselves to the College?

I think that the students of TAC are remarkable in their willingness and ability to pursue a demanding curriculum. Without their careful preparation for class, and readiness to discuss the texts day in and day out, the College would be lifeless. Again, our founders saw this clearly:

“The student does his own understanding and reasoning. He is the primary agent in his education; he is led from the known to the unknown only by means of words and other signs. Rather than passively receiving knowledge, the student must strive to apprehend the concepts signified by the teacher’s words and to perceive the relationships that are pointed out to him. If he fails to see for himself, he fails to learn.”

So, students, give yourselves to this demanding program, and we, your tutors, promise you will receive a pearl of great price.

And to you, our Board of Governors, how should you re-dedicate yourselves to the College?

“Students, give yourselves to this demanding program, and we, your tutors, promise you will receive a pearl of great price.”

The Polity of Thomas Aquinas College states why the College exists: It exists “for the sake of Catholic liberal education as outlined in its founding document.” The Polity continues: The Board of Governors is a … body entrusted with the task of establishing and operating the College in such a way as to achieve that end.”

With that authority comes the responsibility of understanding the principles of education as articulated and defended in our founding document. The Board must engage regularly with the tutors and students so that its members grasp what our founding document says. And the Blue Book puts it well:

 “The Catholic school … if it is to be faithful to the teaching of Christ, will differ from its secular counterpart in two essential respects. First, it will not define itself by academic freedom, but by divinely revealed truth, and second, the truth will be the chief object of study as well as the governing principle of the whole institution, giving order and purpose even to the teaching and learning of the secular disciplines.”

And in another place: “Liberal education undertaken by Christians and ordered to theology turns out to be liberal education in its fullness.”

So today we re-dedicate ourselves to the College. To do so effectively, the Board of Governors, the tutors, and the students – all of us – must commit to understanding the unique mission of Thomas Aquinas College. As Mr. Berquist put it more than 20 years ago: 

“There is no better way of expressing … the mission of the College than this: faith seeking understanding. This defines the conception of the life of learning which animated all the founders long before the College was even thought of, and which animates every page of the Blue Book, and the entire project of founding and maintaining the College.”

 

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