State, Society, and Economics Course in Rome

I apologize for being absent from blogging the past several weeks while teaching in Rome and adapting to a new administrative role as vice dean at Villanova. I go away for a while and come back to learn that the Supreme Court upheld (mostly) the Affordable Care Act and that Rick and Nicole Garnett have a new son!

Speaking of Rome, the course I taught was a survey of some major themes in the Catholic social tradition, with readings from Augustine, Aquinas, Maritain, and the modern papal encyclicals and conciliar documents. Interested readers can see the syllabus here. Guest speakers Father Robert Dodaro, OSA and Father Stephen Brock brought their great expertise to bear on our discussions of Augustine and Aquinas, and I took the class on a side trip to the magnificent Augustinian mother church in Rome, the Basilica Sant'Agostino, which includes the tomb of St. Monica and a wonderful Caravaggio (Madonna di Loreto).