Catholicism and European universities: From religious corporatism to the academic community

Abstract

The University is a European institution par excellence. Having emerged in the era of the mature Middle Ages, it remains to this day the most important type of educational institution that sets the patterns of western higher education development. Over the past centuries, the university, whose fate at the formation stage was closely related to the Christian tradition, has undergone significant transformations. In the context of the institutionalization of nation states, the role of the Catholic Church in university life has decreased. The European educational space began to acquire secular features. If in the Middle Ages Catholic universalism created favorable conditions for international cooperation of educational institutions, then in the XVIII–XIX centuries, universities were subject to nationalization. It was only after the Second World War that the idea of European reunification, embodied in the European integration project, marked the need for cooperation between both secular and religious educational institutions. At the same time, it actualized the problems of harmonious interaction between the church and the state, including educational policy issues. The article examines the main milestones in the history and current status of relations between European universities and Catholicism. The article analyzes the documents of the Holy See and modern classifications reflecting the variability of Catholic universities. Particular attention is paid to secularization as a long-term and predominantly European process of separation of religious and political spheres, which was accompanied by the removal of religion from the public space, and theology from the curriculum. The authors conclude that secularization is a key factor in changing the university identity from a religious corporatism to an academic community.