Reflections on A Light Unseen

(Excerpt) I am very pleased to have an opportunity to offer some reflections on the manuscript for A Light Unseen by Professors John Breen and Lee Strang. It is an extraordinarily comprehensive look at the history of Catholic law schools in the United States. That aspect of the work alone makes it an important contribution to the scholarship on Catholic higher education in this country, and I am sure it will become an essential resource for scholars and educators across a wide range of fields. Nevertheless, A Light Unseen is much more than a history.

It also raises a critical question: What does it mean to be a Catholic law school? It is a query that has generated much controversy in recent decades, particularly in the United States, and it has been answered in different ways across time and place. Professors Breen and Strang determine that past attempts to establish meaningful Catholic identity in American law schools have been wanting, and they propose a thought-provoking solution for the future.