Marquette University goes Lutheran

"My greatest fear," said the Milwaukee archdiocese's judicial vicar Paul Hartmann, is that hiring Dr. O'Brien as dean of Marquette's College of Arts And Sciences would "dichotomize reason from faith."

Whether that means Dr. O'Brien will recruit an army of lesbians or an army of lesbian atheists isn't entirely clear. But it can't be terribly mollifying to those academics within Marquette University who are both devout Catholics and supporters of Dr. O'Brien, a Catholic.

Hartmann's "greatest fear" is remarkable and strange, considering the purpose of a Jesuit education is to inculcate the reconcilability of reason with faith. At least, that's what I took away from one.

Reason is the greatest enemy of faith. — Martin Luther

JSOnline: Milwaukee archbishop Jerome Listecki raised the alarm

Here's another character pronouncing on the entire corpus of Dr. O'Brien's published scholarship after perusing one informal article on the internets, a tremendously unfair and unwarrantedly dismissive assessment. John McAdams pulled a similarly disingenuous stunt.

Its appears some of these actors are more interested in undermining Dr. O'Brien's reputation rather than directly engaging her ideas.

Vive le patriarche: O'Brien couldn't have made the point any better.

The spirited support of my colleagues reflects the inclusivity of the Jesuit mission as I have experienced it at Seattle University over the past 15 years. This mission—with its focus on excellence, faith, leadership, and social justice—has been at the center of my own evolution as a teacher and a scholar. This show of support has deepened my commitment to this mission. — Jodi O'Brien

Except Dr. O'Brien is too hip for the house, according to Mr. Listecki.