Saint John’s Abbey
College of Saint Benedict / Saint John’s University
Saint John’s Preparatory School
Saint Benedict’s Monastery Sesquicentennial
Benedictines in Central Minnesota — 150 Years

Heritage Day Discussion Sessions

Don Ottenhoff   Simons G40
Are you a liberal or a conservative?
The terms “liberal” and “conservative” play a convenient role in wedge politics, but how useful are they in capturing the actual political and religious views of large numbers of Americans?  Join us for an exercise in exploring life outside these terminological boxes.

Richard Virden  Quad 339
Community, national interest and foreign policy
This seminar will connect the general theme of community to foreign policy.   Participants will consider the merits of working with friends and allies versus a more “unilateral” approach to advancing the national interest.  

Jane Byrne  Simons 310
Food Security and the Common Good.
How we define or experience food security will influence how we direct our attention to act upon it.  This discussion will focus on food (in)security from three different perspectives:  as a function of poverty, as an aspect of eating and activity habits, and as an outcome of agricultural policy and land use.

Michael Patella  Quad 353
The politics of abortion: Is there a way for Pro-Life and Pro-Choice to move forward together?
No issue in American politics over the last thirty-five years has been more divisive than abortion.  Questions such as the right to choose, the right to life, and the separation of church and state have been front and center of the national scene since the election of 1980.  Jim Wallis, in his book, God’s Politics, uses abortion as an example of why the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn’t get it.  The result has been a stalemate in American politics causing serious damage to the state of the country and world.

Ron Pagnucco  Simons 330
Spiritual Values and International Relations.
We will discuss  Wallis' talk and chapters 9 ("Dangerous Religion") and 10 ("Blessed Are the Peacemakers") in God's Politics. We will focus on Christian perspectives on America's role in the world, and some Christian approaches to peacemaking in today's world. 

Kaarin Johnston Quad 346 (Little Theater)
Fine Arts, Community and the Common Good
Where are American Fine Arts today?  Arts in Education today?  Right?  Left?  Wrong?  Dead?  Different?  We have just built a multi-million dollar extension on the BAC---different audiences can read a variety of messages in this financial commitment.  What role do we see the CSB/SJU Educational Fine Arts playing in creating discussions on Community and the Common Good and in modeling communities that translate ideals into action??

Rene McGraw  Quad 261
How Should Religion Play into Politics:  Separation of Church and State
Whether a person is on the right or the left on the political spectrum, religion seems to play a role in his/her political action.  Should it?  Should it not?  Can "Church and State" ever be separated? 

Ken Jones  Quad 343
Patriotic Sacrifice for the Common Good: the US Homefront in World War II
During World War II, Americans at home both voluntarily altered their habits and willingly accepted enormous constraints in order to support what they regarded as the common good.  What were they willing to do?  What motivated them and shaped their actions?  Were they somehow better people as the “Greatest Generation” label implies, or was it simply that the circumstances were different?  

Michael Livingston  Quad 344
Community in Action:  The History of the Psychology Department at CSB/SJU
Psychology at CSB/SJU was a late arrival.  The field had been around for 80 years when the department was organized in the early 1960s.  I want to talk about the first decade of the department, why it took so long for the college to organize such a department, and the impact the department had and continues to have.

Dan McKanon  Simons 340
From Controversy to Common Ground
Can people come together by talking about issues that divide us? We can if we share a commitment to dialogue, a vision of what constitutes a good conversation, and a respect for one another’s wisdom.  This session will share findings from the “Controversial Conversations” survey and explore ways to make our conversations more civil and courageous.

Miguel Diaz  Quad 361
God's Life, Human Life, and the Common Good. 
Among the most salient challenges we face is how to respond to an increasingly polarized world.  The need to extend hospitality to others and their otherness is increasingly becoming the ethical mandate of our times.  In creating places where authentic hospitality can transform strangers into friends we advance the Common Good of society. 

Bernard Evans  Simons 360
The Common Good in Catholic Social Teaching
This workshop serves a dual purpose.  One is to explore the theological basis for Catholic teaching on the common good and how this relates to other aspects of Catholic social teaching.  The second purpose of the workshop is to recognize the practical implications of this “common good teaching”, especially in relationship to the electoral and broader political process.

Dennis Beach  Quad 252
Christians AND/OR Communists
The Catechism of the Catholic Church strongly links two ideals: the dignity of the human person and the communal character of the human vocation. At the same time, the social ideal of community is tempered by the “principle of subsidiarity,” which says that collectives serving the common good should never interfere with or displace the value of individual dignity or more basic, “natural” human communities, such as the family. Are these two ideals as coherent and compatible as the Church wants to believe? Or has the Church’s fear of communism led it to undermine the ideal of community and the common good even as it tries to embrace it?

Richard Bohr  Quad 349
Building the Asian Century: Seeking the Public Good Across the Pacific
This session will explore American and Asian approaches to civil society, sustainable development, ethical government, and environmental stewardship as America and its Asian partners seek to develop a trans-Pacific community in the twenty-first century.