SOCIETY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

24th ANNUAL NATIONAL MEETING-CONFERENCE

Friday-Saturday, October 28-29, 2016
Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Full Conference Schedule
All conference sessions, with the exception of the Masses and board
meetings, will be held in either the Wege Student Center or the Academic
Building (see enclosed map of Aquinas College). The specific room
assignments for the concurrent sessions are yet to be determined; they will
be included on the final schedule that will be distributed during check-in at
the conference.
Friday, October 28
CSSR Editorial Board Meeting: 9:15-10:30 a.m. -- Wege Boardroom in
Jarecki-Lacks-Hauenstein Library Complex
Pre-conference Mass 10:30-11:30 a.m. Bukowski Chapel
---Conference Begins--Welcome 12:45 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions I 1:00 2:30
1. Toward an Education for the Whole Person
Moderator: David Tamisiea, Ave Maria University
David Lutz, Holy Cross College
Integrating the Liberal and Practical Arts
Benjamin Brown, Lourdes University
We Shall See Him as He Is: Moving from Skills-focused Busy-ness to
Holisitic Contemplative Formation
2. Assessments of Political Theory
Moderator: Sean Cunningham, Aeterni Patris Institute
Kenneth Poirier, Holy Apostles College and Seminary
Hans Kelsens Position that Justice is an Unknowable and Irrational Ideal is
Flawed
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Robert Gorman, Texas State University

Moral Realism and the History of International Relations
3. Catholic Social Teaching and Business
Moderator: David Dieteman, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Sarah Beiting, University of Notre Dame
Are There For-Profit Firms Applying Catholic Social Teaching to Regular
Business Practice?
Brian Saxton, John Carroll University
Catholic Social Thought and Decision-Making under Uncertainty
Concurrent Sessions II 2:45-4:15
1. Teaching from a Catholic Perspective
Moderator: Clifford Staples, University of North Dakota
Ian OHagan, St. Louis University
Teaching Church History in the 21st Century; Synthesis or Separation?
2. Issues in Psychology and Morality
Moderator: John Nelson
Cynthia Nolan, American Military University
The Moral Dilemma of Edward Snowden: Tell the Truth or Keep Secrets?
James Harold, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Empiricism, Self-Presence, and the Formal Dimension of Psychological
Theory
3. Catholic Appraisals of Contemporary Political Culture
Moderator: L. Joseph Hebert, St. Ambrose University
Stephen Krason, Franciscan University of Steubenville
An Evaluation of Current American Liberalism and Conservatism in Light of
Catholic Social Teaching
Tobias Nathe
The Liberal Paradigm, Compromise, and the Death of Love

David Wemhoff
John Courtney Murray and the American Ideology
4. Thomism: Contemporary Applications
Moderator: David Tamisiea, Ave Maria University
Sean Cunningham, Aeterni Patris Institute
Aquinas on Mans Natural Inclination to Live in Society
David Dieteman, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
MacIntyre and the Thomist Tradition: Understanding The Catholic Option
Plenary Address 4:30-5:45 Wege Ballroom
Dr. Samuel Gregg, Acton Institute Catholic Social Teaching: New Horizons
and Old Problems in the 21st Century
Dinner Banquet 6:00 Wege Ballroom
Pope Pius X Award to J. Budziszewski, University of Texas

Saturday, October 29
Morning Prayer 8:15-8:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions III 8:30-10:00
1. Issues in Theology: The Laity and Authority
Moderator: Kevin Schmiesing, Acton Institute
David Tamisiea, Ave Maria University
In the World, Not of the World, But Still For the World: The Christian Laitys
Secular Character
P. Bracy Bersnak, Christendom College
Weighing and Interpreting the Documents of the Social Magisterium
2. Panel: Vaccinations: The Case for Parental Rights and
Responsibilities versus Government Control
Panelists:
Gerard McKeegan, ProCare Hospice Care
Jeffrey Starre, M.D., Trinity Health System, Steubenviile, Ohio
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3. The Religious Significance of Social Events

Moderator: Sean Cunningham, Aeterni Patris Institute
Jos David Lapuz, University of St. Thomas, Philippines
The Philippines Eucharistic Conference as an Application of Catholic Social
Teaching
Joseph Zahn, Franciscan University of Steubenville
The Nature and Significance of the Festival in Light of Piepers Thought on
Leisure
4. Catholic Engagements of Contemporary Social Theory
Moderator: Robert Gorman, Texas State University
Germain McKenzie, University of British Columbia
Sociology in a Catholic Key? Charles Taylors Meta-Narrative of
Secularization in the West as a Case Study
Clifford Staples, University of North Dakota; and Brian Jones, University of St.
Thomas, Houston
The Spirit of Modern Social Theory
Plenary Session 10:15-11:45 Wege Ballroom
Panel: Contemporary Thomist: J. Budziszewski and Natures Law
Chairman: Kody Cooper, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Paul DeHart, Texas State University
Natures Lawgiver: On Natural Law as Law
John Hittinger, University of St. Thomas, Houston
Can an Atheist Have a Conscience? Budziszewskis Notes on Aquinas
Bill McCormick, SJ, Fordham University
Budziszewski on the Natural Law as a Sign of Contradiction
Kevin Stuart, Austin Institute
Furies and Dark Coasts: Conscience in the Work of J. Budziszewski
Matthew J. Wright, Biola University
The Earth Itself Is a Suburb: Attachment, Custom, and Universality in the
Natural Law
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Response: J. Budziszewski, University of Texas

Lunch 12:00-1:00 Wege Ballroom
Disciplinary Sessions 1:00-1:45
Business and Economics
History
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Concurrent Sessions IV 2:00-3:30
1. Panel: The Future of the Catholic Church in the American Public
Order
Chairman: Kenneth L. Grasso, Texas State University
Ryan Barilleaux, Miami University, Ohio
Put Not Your Trust in Princes: Catholics in the Administrative State
Steven Brust, Eastern New Mexico University
Catholicism, the American Nation, and Politics: Transformed or Being
Transformed?
Gary Glenn, Northern Illinois University (emeritus)
Tocqueville's Prediction about the Pantheistic Tendency of 'the Democratic
Social State' and Catholicism's Present Situation
Discussant: Kenneth L. Grasso, Texas State University
2. Philosophical Foundations of Social Science
Moderator: David Dieteman, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
James Gaston, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Reflections on the Philosophic Foundations of the Social Sciences
Colbert Rhodes, University of Texas of the Permian Basin (emeritus)
Philosophical and Religious Foundations of Integralism
3. Abortion and the Holocaust in Western Thought and Culture

Moderator: Jerome Foss, St. Vincent College

Michael Farrell, University of Quebec
Have Nazi Values Triumphed in Western Society? Evidence from Quebec
Charles Bellinger, Brite Divinity School/Texas Christian University
The Use of Historical Analogies in the Abortion Debate
4. Sexual Identity, Politics, and Culture
Moderator: Stephen Krason, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Cecilia Castillo, Texas State University
The Achievement of the Radical Individual: Gender Identification the Last
Barrier
Laurence Reardon, Belmont Abbey College
Identity, Person, and Society: New Challenges
Concurrent Sessions V 3:45-5:00
1. The American Civil War and Catholic Social Thought
Moderator: John Pinheiro, Aquinas College
Adam Tate, Clayton State University
"Whence the Treasury of Virtue? Re-interpreting the Civil War after 9/11"
David Dieteman, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Just War Doctrine and the War Between the States
2. The Political Insights of Thomas More and Flannery OConnor
Moderator: Lawrence Reardon, Belmont Abbey College
L. Joseph Hebert, St. Ambrose University
Who Will Follow A Traitor? Philosophy, Poetry, and Statesmanship in Sir
Thomas More
Jerome Foss, St. Vincent College
Flannery OConnors Engagement with Political Thought
3. Ethnicity and Catholic Identity
Moderator: Stephen Krason, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Jeffrey Burwell, SJ,

Weathering the Storm: How Can Schools Maintain Their Catholic Identity in
the Face of Demographic Shift? Evidence from Northern Ireland, the Middle
East, and India
David Reichardt, Comenius University, Slovakia
Ethnicity in Slovakia: Hungarians, Slovaks, and the Search for Catholic
Unity
4. Social Teaching: Its Reception and Challenges
Moderator: Brian Saxton, John Carroll University
Fr. Michael Agliardo, SJ, Loyola University Chicago
The Reception of Laudato Si': A Multi-Society Comparative Study
Michael Matheson Miller, Acton Institute
How the Rise of Crony Capitalism Should Inform Catholic Social Teaching
Anticipatory Mass: 5:15-6:15 Bukowski Chapel
SCSS Board of Directors Meeting: 7:30 Wege Boardroom in JareckiLacks-Hauenstein Library Complex