DiscoverCatholic University of AmericaMcLean Center for the Study of Culture and Values
McLean Center for the Study of Culture and Values
Catholic University of America
Historical Background The 1960s Work on culture and values began as a series of workshops in 1961 in an attempt to articulate the new sense of the person which underlay the post war and post-colonial changes sweeping across the world. These issues were addressed in the following years in the Second Vatican Council, and later in 1968 by universities and society at large. The 1970s and 1980s To break through ideological barriers, a system of joint colloquia was developed with the national academies of science in Central and Eastern Europe. The colloquia focused mainly on human dignity as seen by various cultures, and how it could provide philosophical foundations for a transformation of their social lives and systems. Held alternately at sites in Eastern and Western Europe, the meetings gradually opened new horizons for the area. One conference in Poland provided the philosophy of Solidarity with its final critical review before it became the transforming and liberating force for all of Eastern Europe. Concurrently, a number of continuing initiatives were realized: Interdisciplinary and intercultural seminars on such topics as "Urbanization and Values" and "Relations Between Cultures." 100 visiting research scholars, especially from Poland and in all fields, to update their competencies, bibliographical resources and methods of interdisciplinary work. The development of structures of interdisciplinary cooperation, e.g., on the foundations of moral education. The 1990s A series of joint colloquia and general conferences were held on crucial issues, including "Economic Ethics and Chinese Cultures" and "Civil Society and Models of Identities in Post-Communist Societies." During this period, a global network of 35 research teams, organized in regions according to shared cultural and social concerns, each produced an average of two volumes, resulting in the publication of the extensive RVP series: Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change. The Contemporary Challenge Today, we face a truly new situation: Cultural issues of race relations, refugees and even genocidal conflict in Africa, the Balkans and elsewhere need to be replaced by mutual appreciation. Globalization, in transcending colonialism and political hegemony, must be made to draw the multiple cultures into cooperative alliances. Spiritual values begin to take on renewed importance in deepening aspirations for human fulfillment. Nowhere has this become more obvious and more crucial for world peace than in the new openness between religions at the roots of the great civilizations. All this implies a challenge to draw together the many research competencies in the humanities and to provide focus and implementation for this new global situation.