A conference will highlight Orestes Brownson with the hopes of making him “a household name” among Catholics, organizers said.
The “Orestes Brownson and the Mission of America” conference will be held at The Catholic University of America (CUA) on April 16 for “all those seeking a vision of the United States to carry us into the next 250 years,” according to conference organizers.
Brownson was an American intellectual, activist, writer, and a Catholic convert. He had little formal schooling but rose from poverty in Vermont to become one of the original Transcendentalists.
Brownson worked as the editor of the Boston Quarterly Review and then the Brownson Quarterly Review, an influential 19th-century American publication edited and written by the philosopher and theologian.
He wrote about many of the constitutional and political debates of his day, notably in his work “The American Republic,” which was published just after the Civil War and received praise from both Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Brownson’s death, the Politics Department of CUA with the American Family Project and the Orestes Brownson Studies Foundation organized the conference dedicated to his writings, particularly on the U.S. Constitution.
The groups are hoping “to spread the word on Orestes Brownson,” Tom McDonough, co-founder and president of The American Family Project, told EWTN News. As the motto of the conference and of the Orestes Brownson Studies foundation says: “What Aquinas was to Aristotle, Orestes Brownson is to our American founding.”
The conference is intended to raise Brownson’s profile “particularly among Catholics, because he has so much to say about modernity,” McDonough said.
While his works were written 150 years ago, “he’s dealing with the same issues that we’re dealing with today — progressivism, increase in the federal government, collapse of the family, and we the people being replaced by private interests,” McDonough said.
“He was dealing with this back in 1865. So he’s got a lot to say about us today, and particularly from a Catholic’s perspective,” McDonough said. “He was one of the finest minds of the 19th century. Even Arthur Schlesinger, no fan of conservatives or the Catholic Church, regarded him as the premier intellectual of the 19th century.”
The groups organizing the event have also been working on other ways to spread Brownson’s message. Over the next year or two, they plan to build a library of every essay written by Brownson in searchable text.
“We’re trying to make his work more available, more accessible to people … and to build up a library of all of the scholarly work that’s been done over the last century,” McDonough said.
They also hope to create written and visual content on his works, form a bibliography of all the best Brownson scholarship, and hold at least one annual conference on Brownson’s insights.
The organizations will also continue to conduct the Orestes Brownson Essay Contest for college students. The first contest was held this year, which invited students to enter their work on the American writer.
Conference schedule
The conference program will include multiple keynote addresses, panels, and other discussion among organizers and attendees.
Peter Kilpatrick, CUA president, will give a keynote called “Orestes Brownson and the Mission of America.” Seth Smith, clinical associate professor of history at CUA, will present a talk called “Orestes Brownson’s Place in American History.” The last keynote will be led by Rick Santorum, attorney and former U.S. senator, who will speak about “Brownson and the Family.”
A number of panels will also address Brownson’s contributions and approaches to matters including constitutional thought, post-Civil War democracy, American Catholics, and church and state.
Panel speakers will include academics and professors from a number of universities including CUA, University of Massachusetts School of Law, Purdue University, Belmont Abbey College, and Benedictine College.
Other panelists from organizations including The Heritage Foundation and the Orestes Brownson Studies Foundation will also offer insight on Brownson and the mission of America.