Carmen Casillas (History and Medieval Studies)

I'm a senior majoring in History and Medieval Studies. I'm in the Chorale, I love living in PE (Pyros forever!!), and I am a defender of the North (Dining Hall, that is). I'm your average Notre Dame student: over-involved, over-stressed, and under-slept. I also happen to be Protestant. 

Denominationally speaking, I was raised United Methodist, but that's a little more fluid these days. I also think that the Theology requirement is a necessary component to keeping the Catholic identity of Our Lady's University.

Why, you might ask, is a Protestant student writing to defend the one piece of the University's curriculum that could alienate her even further from her peers? Why would a student of history--who has taken courses on the history of the Catholic Church--believe that theology shouldn't be replaced by a Catholic Studies or history of the Church course? Here's the short list of reasons:

Reason 1: We have more on which we agree than disagree, and I did not know that coming in to Notre Dame. I was staunchly on the "ain't nobody got time for that" train of understanding Catholicism and on talking to Catholic students about my own faith. I couldn't fathom how what I saw as such insurmountable differences--transubstantiation, the veneration of Mary, the Saints--could be bridged without incurring a wrathful dialogue. As much as my Foundations course frustrated me due to its intensity, it gave me the opportunity to encounter the Catholic tradition from the inside, and realize that 1500 years of unity doesn't just disappear. My Catholic--and non-Catholic--peers and I were able to honestly encounter the Bible, learn about how tradition fits in to every faith, and come to greater understanding of God and of each other.

Reason 2: We are a Catholic University. I knew this when I applied, and so does every other student. We know when we choose to attend Our Lady's University that we are going to encounter the Catholic faith, and that it is a vital aspect of the university as a whole. Theology is a discipline that distinguishes Notre Dame as the premiere Catholic university it claims to be. Without Theology, we might as well pack up and join the Ivy Leagues. I chose to come to Notre Dame because of its Catholic identity. Because, even as a Protestant, I would be able to look upon the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Mary atop the Dome, and the doors of my dorm chapel every day and be reminded of the presence of God that surrounds us. I wanted to grow in my faith, and that is what coming to a truly Catholic university, where I can encounter young theologians, allows me to do.

Reason 3: The Second Theo. I had some great moments in my Foundations course, but I did not understand Theology until I took "Vision Theo" or, "The Christian Experience: Vocation and the Theological Imagination" with Dr. Tim O'Malley. I could wax poetic about the brilliance of my professor for days--and I'm sure he wouldn't mind--but what he and his course did for me was open my eyes to the true nature of theology as a discipline, and how necessary it is for young people today. I read works by de Lubac, St. Augustine, Flannery O'Connor, and C.S. Lewis among others. I was challenged on a daily basis about what it meant to be a Christian, what it meant to be called to unity, what it meant to be a martyr, what it meant to face death. My peers and I grappled with the "big questions" and came up empty, only to go back to the sources, read more, ask more questions, and come to revelation.

What theology at Notre Dame does is gift you with a combination of academic knowledge and spiritual revelation that no history of the Papacy, course on the Crusades, or course looking from the outside in can give you. Learning about the controversy surrounding leavened vs. unleavened bread to be used in the Eucharist cannot replace learning about the unity to which the Church is called in partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. Theology at Notre Dame cannot be replaced because it is what allows students to question themselves and encounter God openly, honestly, and without judgment. I was lucky to be given that opportunity, and I know that I would never have been able to do so in a course that didn't begin where theology begins: with a little bit of faith.