The Thomist Connection: Conversion, Culture, and Civilization in US Higher Education (1930s-1950s)

THOMUS investigates how Neo-Thomism migrated from Europe to North America in the mid-twentieth century, focusing on the university networks shaped by Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson. Using interdisciplinary methods and network analysis, the project explores two interconnected levels: (1) student conversions fostered by Catholic clubs where the Summa and Western classics were read; (2) the rise of a “new humanism” that opposed prevailing pragmatism and scientism by reclaiming tradition, high culture, and a hierarchy of values. It traces Maritain’s and Gilson’s influence on secular campuses, their vision for a cercle d’études thomistes, and the role of prominent converts such as Allen Tate. The study also examines the Great Books Movement—spearheaded by Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago—and its impact on figures like Otto Bird, who launched Notre Dame’s Program for Liberal Studies in 1950. By mapping these ideas and relationships, THOMUS illuminates how Neo-Thomist thought reshaped U.S. curricula and pedagogies during the early Cold War, offering Christian humanism as an alternative moral foundation for the “free world.”