2016/02/29 by Michael T. DeStefano · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Catholicism and Religious Studies #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Apologetics #Beauty #Religious studies #Identity (music) #Christianity #Protestantism #Toleration #Theology #Worship #History #Philosophy #Aesthetics #Law #Political science
paper · doi:10.1017/s0009640715001353
openalex publication_date 2016/02/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
When the Baltimore Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church issued a pastoral letter critical of St. Mary's College in 1811 it provided an opportunity for Louis DuBourg, the college's president, to respond with an apologetic defense of the college and of Catholicism more generally. In doing so he synthesized several strands of Catholic apologetics, including the via notarum , the utilitarianism that came to dominate French Catholic apologetics in the eighteenth century, the emphasis upon beauty and emotion that characterized Chateaubriand's Genuius of Christianity , and the earlier work of Bishop Bossuet critical of the doctrinal instability of protestantism. Aimed at a popular audience, DuBourg's apologetics created an identity for the American Catholic Church that emphasized its place within the largest part of worldwide Christianity, its role as educator of the best minds of Western civilization, and the beauty of its worship.