Draft Syllabus for a Seminar on the Common Good The primacy of the common good over merely private

goods is a fundamental principle in the Christian Tradition. How can we become imitators of Christ? writes Chrysostom, By acting in everything for the common good, and not seeking our own. (Homilies on John, 15,3; cf. Phil 2:4) The purpose of this course is to come to an understanding of the nature of the common good, and the reason why it ought to ought to have primacy. We begin with Charles De Konincks profound synthesis of the traditional teaching. We then try to further explicate the depth and scope of the principle by looking at its role in intellectual historyboth its authentic application to various questions by theologians and philosophers of our tradition, and the problems raised by important errors about this principle. We conclude by examining De Konincks defense of his synthesis against objections. Date 1 Topic Part I: The Nature of the Common Good A) Introduction Reading Marcus Berquist, Common Good and Private Good, Charles De Koninck, On the Primacy of the Common Good, Part I Charles De Koninck, On the Primacy of the Common Good, continued

B) The Primacy of the Common Good Part II: Difficulties and Applications A) The One and the Many

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Selections from Platos Republic, Aristotles Ethics and Politics B) Christ and the Common Good Luke 17:33 and Phil 2:3-11 with selections from Patristic commentaries. C) The Common Good and of the unity Clement of Rome, 1st Epistle to the of the Church Corinthians D) The City of God Selections from Augustines City of God E) Humanism Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man F) Classical Liberalism Selections from Hobbes Leviathan, Lockes Two Treateses of Government, Tocquevilles Democracy in America G) Leftism Selections from Rousseau, Robespierre, Proudhon, Marx H) Authoritarianism and Fascism Selections from Charles Maurras, Giovanni Gentile, Alfred Baeumler, Gottfried Feder, and Carl Schmitt I) The Liturgical Movement and the Ildefons Herwegen on individualism, Common Good Pius Parsch, Objective and Subjective Piety, Romano Guardini, The Spirit of the Liturgy, ch. 2. J) Personalism Selections from Emmanuel Mounier, Jacques Maritain, Max Scheler, and Dietrich von Hildebrand Part III: The Nature of the Common Good-Recapitulation The Eschmann-De Koninck I. Th. Eschmann, In Defense of Controversy Jacques Maritain, Charles De Koninck, In Defense of Saint Thomas