When Notre Dame Chose Theology 60 Years Ago: A Decision That Continues to Shape the Church

Sixty years ago, in March 1966, the University of Notre Dame made a decision that would permanently alter its intellectual and ecclesial profile. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, and under the visionary leadership of Fr. Ted Hesburgh, C.S.C., Notre Dame inaugurated its doctoral program in theology. What may have appeared at the time as an academic expansion was in fact something far more ambitious. It was a declaration that Notre Dame intended to help the Church reason about the gift of faith.

To appreciate the magnitude of that decision, one must recall how unlikely it once seemed. By the late 1930s, the University offered only seven doctoral programs: chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy since 1936, physics, mathematics, biology, and politics.[1] Even by 1952, when doctoral work had expanded to include English, history, sociology, education, mechanical engineering, medieval studies, botany, and zoology, there was still no graduate program in theology.[2] Theology, the intellectual heart of the Catholic tradition, had not yet found a home at the doctoral level in America’s flagship Catholic university.

Yet, there were signs of movement. A small undergraduate program in liturgy had existed since 1947, supported by the School of Liturgy founded by Michael Mathis, C.S.C.[3] Beginning in 1948, Mathis also offered a summer graduate program in liturgical studies.[4] But within the regular master’s curriculum of the University, only a general major in “religion” was available then.[5] A doctoral degree explicitly in liturgy would not be conferred until 1970.[6] A regular graduate program in liturgy itself began in 1965 with the appointment of Aidan Kavanagh, O.S.B.[7] The big transformation, however, came with Vatican II.

Between 1962 and 1965, the Council reshaped Catholic life and thought. Dei Verbum articulated a dynamic and Christocentric understanding of Revelation. Sacrosanctum Concilium renewed the Church’s liturgical life. Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae, promulgated in December 1965, opened new paths of dialogue with non-Christian religions and offered a robust affirmation of religious liberty. The Council called the Church to engage the modern world not defensively but with intellectual rigor and spiritual openness. University president Theodore Hesburgh grasped immediately what this meant. In a major address on campus on March 20, 1966, he outlined Notre Dame’s responsibility in implementing the Council’s vision.[8]

Shortly thereafter, the University announced an ambitious theological conference for the spring of 1966.[9] The gathering brought together Catholic theologians such as Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, and Yves Congar with Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant thinkers, including Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Marc Tannenbaum, Georges Florovsky, and George Lindbeck. The proceedings would later appear as Vatican II: An Interfaith Appraisal (Notre Dame 1967). The message was unmistakable. Notre Dame intended to stand at the center of the Council’s reception. The University archives still preserve the photographs and audio recordings—unfortunately, not all are digitized yet—from this landmark symposium, which first established Notre Dame as a major place of theological discourse. This gathering of the world’s leading theologians helped usher into existence what would become the world’s leading doctoral program in theology.

It was during this time that Hesburgh also announced the creation of the doctoral program in theology. Structured initially around systematic theology, biblical theology, and liturgy, the program aimed to expand into ecumenical studies, history of religions, and pastoral theology. In a University that had once lacked even a master’s degree in theology, the shift was dramatic. Strategic appointments quickly followed. David Burrell, C.S.C. would pioneer engagement with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, later publishing works such as Learning to Trust in Freedom and Towards a Jewish Christian Muslim Theology. John S. Dunne’s The Way of All the Earth exemplified a theological method attentive to existential questions across religious traditions. Rabbi Samuel E. Karff began teaching Old Testament in 1966, while James Kritzeck deepened Catholic engagement with Islamic theology. News reports in 1967 already highlighted the growing prominence of the new program.[10]

The University went further still. It established the Institute for Advanced Religious Studies, conceived along the lines of the Harvard Society of Fellows and the Institute for Advanced Study. The Institute aimed to host annually twenty-four residential scholars to examine the relationship of religion to contemporary life and to “encourage studies of the convergence of’ religious values with education and science, and of the relation of Christianity to the non-Christian world.”[11] Although it had already received in 1968 a sizeable endowment from the Rosenstein Foundation for a fellowship in Jewish Studies, it could not attract major donors and closed its doors in 1974.[12] In the decades that followed, the theology department became a global leader. Eugene Ulrich and James VanderKam advanced Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship at the highest level. John P. Meier completed his monumental five-volume Jesus – A Marginal Jew, arguably the most comprehensive study of the historical Jesus, while teaching at Notre Dame. Dialogue with Jewish thought flourished, particularly through Rabbi Michael Signer (on faculty 1992–2009).

Protestant theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas (from 1970 to 1983), Robert L. Wilken (from 1972 to 1985) and Gerald McKenny (since 2001) enriched ecumenical conversation, and a number of its female scholars began shaping different fields of theology. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (1970 to 1984), and later Catherine LaCugna (1981 to 1997), advanced feminist theology; Jean Porter (on faculty 1990–2025) spearheaded the retrieval of natural law from a Thomistic perspective; and with Eating Beauty, Ann Astell (since 2007) made a field-defining contribution to medieval theology, inspiring generations of readers. As a Catholic theology department with a sizeable number of Jewish faculty (today also Muslim), the department embodied the Council’s hope that mutual understanding between Christians and Jews would arise “above all from biblical and theological studies as well as from fraternal dialogues” (Nostra Aetate 4).

Since 1965, professors of systematic and historical theology at Notre Dame have also excelled in their commitment to the Council’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes and engaged contemporary philosophy, art, and culture. During the 1980s, under the chairmanship of Richard McBrien (1981–1992), the department became, however, highly politicized and found itself often in the national spotlight as a center of theological controversies. Yet even in that period, important seeds were planted for a different future. The 1988 appointment of Joseph Wawrykow proved decisive. By directing dozens of dissertations on Thomas Aquinas, Wawrykow became a central figure in the post-Vatican II recovery of Thomism in the United States. A clearer shift came under McBrien’s successor, Lawrence Cunningham (1992–1997), who reoriented the department toward sentire cum ecclesia—thinking with the Church, rather than defining itself in opposition to her.

That renewed ecclesial fidelity culminated in the 1997 appointment of the young Augustine scholar John C. Cavadini as chair. Cavadini inaugurated his expansive vision to make Notre Dame the premier place in the world to study theology. Over the course of his thirteen-year tenure (1997–2010), he executed that vision with strategic precision and persistence. The appointments of Cyril O’Regan in 1999 and Gustavo Gutiérrez in 2002 sent a clear signal to the global academy: at Notre Dame, rigorous intellectual inquiry would be inseparable from the lived vocation of the theologian—attentive both to the deepest resources of the tradition and to the cry of the poor. The message was: truth and discipleship belong together. Alongside figures such as fellow Ratzinger Prize winner Brian Daley, S.J. (on faculty 1996 to 2021), and Francesca Murphy, O’Regan helped shape a distinctive culture of theological ressourcement, marked by sustained engagement with Scripture and the tradition. Moreover, Cavadini convinced the university administration to continue its commitment to a strong theology program, dramatically expanding the department’s size and reach.

By establishing World Religions/World Church as a formal area of expertise, Cavadini positioned Notre Dame at the forefront of both ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. The result was not merely growth but formation. Graduates carried Notre Dame’s ecclesially rooted, intellectually confident theology into hundreds of colleges and universities, quietly renewing the American Church from within. At the same time, the department demonstrated that American theology could engage European scholarship on equal footing. Such sustained, strategic leadership bore visible fruit. The department rose to worldwide prominence in subject rankings, becoming Notre Dame’s only globally top-ranked PhD program.

Remarkably, there is still no institutional history of the department’s development. The complex story of how Vatican II was received and implemented at Notre Dame remains a significant scholarly lacuna. Such a study would shed light not only on the University’s own trajectory but also on the wider evolution of Catholic theology in the United States—an importance recent works, such as Benjamin Dahlke’s Katholische Theologie in den USA (unfortunately not translated into English) have begun to underscore. As theology declines in some regions of the world, it continues to thrive at Notre Dame. That vitality is not accidental.

The vitality rests on a clear mission: fidelity to the Catholic intellectual tradition, openness to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, intellectual excellence, and an unwavering stance against antisemitism, anti-religious bigotry, and the undermining of religious liberty. Sixty years after its founding, the doctoral program in theology stands as one of Notre Dame’s most consequential achievements. It has helped the Church to do its thinking, as Fr. Hesburgh used to say. It has formed generations of scholars who teach, publish, and lead across the globe. And it has shown that faith and reason are not opponents but thrive best in open and generous dialogue, grounded in the awareness that we all belong to the same human family.

The anniversary is more than a commemoration—it is a summons. If 1966 marked a bold beginning, 2026 calls for courage no less steady. The Church still needs places where difficult questions are examined with intellectual honesty and faith, and the world hungers for theologians who can bridge traditions, confront injustice, and help the next generation of Catholics to encounter Jesus. Sixty years ago, Notre Dame rose to that challenge. The task now is to sustain and strengthen that work with equal resolve.

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