Underwriting Action:CST as IHD

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Underwriting Action takes students through the creation of the key components of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as it moves towards Integral Human Development (IHD). The course uses case studies to examine the context behind the creation of key writings and principles in CST, as well as to understand how CST is interpreted, used, and understood by people around the world. The “correct” interpretations of CST are often debated in various circles, emphasizing different elements of the teachings without reference to their context; the case studies will thus enable students to understand CST in its complexity, priming them to make their own informed decisions about CST and Integral Human Development in their own work and practice. By taking students through the contextual developments and applications of CST from its inception in the 1890s to the present day’s understanding of IHD by looking at diverse topics such as Polish positivism, the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement, the Colombian Civil War and Liberation Theology, and Indigenous Restitution Movements, the course weaves together a truly global story of the influences and impacts of belief on policy and community through the lens of CST and IHD.