On December 3, 2021, the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas gave me a belated retirement party — belated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These were my remarks.
As some of you know, my project this fall at the Collegeville Institute at St. John’s has been to start a book on Catholic social teaching and peacebuilding that uses J.R.R. Tolkien and his epic The Lord of the Rings as a hook to draw in students and other readers. So please indulge the fact that I have elves and orcs and hobbits on my mind these days – almost as though Tolkien were a church father.
‘Your quest is known to us,’ said Galadriel [the Elf queen] to Frodo. … Not in vain will it prove, maybe, that you came to this land seeking aid, as Gandalf himself plainly purposed. … Together through the ages of the world we have fought the long defeat. … Yet hope remains while the Company is true.’
The Elves of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth are an evocative mix of light and music – and melancholy. They are wise and immortal, yet they know that they must soon fade into the trees or pass over the sea, leaving Middle-Earth. The victory that they willingly are abetting against the forces of evil will hasten their departure as it gives way to “The Age of Men.” With them will pass much ancient wisdom and lore. But the alternative would be the complete domination of machines over trees, of smokey furnaces over horse-riders and hobbit gardeners. And so, in the midst of their own “long defeat,” the Elves share their counsel and their songs and their abiding hope.
Is this the role of theologians in the university today, to fight a long defeat? Is this the role of the liberal arts in American higher education? I retired 2-3 years earlier than I expected because I was finding energy in new possibilities elsewhere – a chance to re-wild a piece of land near the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Elves would approve) and to accompany my Mayan Indian friends in Guatemala (on the shore of another lake) by helping them tell their stories. But I also retired a bit early because I was tired out from our struggle. “Yet hope remains while the Company is true.” It is not the time to give up on Catholic higher education, but it was time for me to turn the struggle over to the next generation – to Mark and Mark and Amy and Cara and Kim and many more of you.
To all of you in this company of those who treasure the lore of faith and pass on the wisdom of the humanities and bear the wisdom of the cross, I am immensely grateful. You have been my colleagues. You remain my friends. You have been generous with your knowledge of the tradition and your teaching tips alike. You have inspired and sustained the creativity we all need to connect with young people distracted by social media and fearful of their futures.
In a time of climate change and pandemic I am certain that we in the College of Arts and Sciences are all humble enough to generously recognize the need for the disciplines in other colleges – for creative business plans and sound science and adequate supply chains, even. But let us never concede the idea of the university in the Catholic intellectual tradition. For the telos of supply chains – it is ours to argue – always remains the thriving of human communities. The telos of science – we have more reason than ever to insist – is not the manipulation of nature but the dignity of the human person and the health of the natural world. The test of a sound economy is always its preferential option for the poor. The heartbeat of professionalism is still vocation. The purpose of profit is time for poetry – and space for prayer.
Earlier in The Lord of the Rings Frodo Baggins has begun to comprehend the peril that he and his beloved hobbits of the Shire have unknowingly come to face:
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us….’
I believe that joining you on this adventure at the University of Saint Thomas for 2 decades, I have used my time well. I trust you to carry on, and well.
Gerald W. Schlabach