Artisans, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, and Other Skilled Exemplars of the Way

We introduce management and spirituality scholars to the “knack” passages from the c. 4th century B.C.E. text, the Zhuangzi. The knack passages are parables about low status figures, such as wheelwrights, furniture makers and cooks, whose actions offer insights into the spirituality of ordinary work and, we argue, of entrepreneurship. Such non-corporate settings are lesser-studied domains for spirituality. Ancient Chinese writings have been noticed by spirituality and management writers but we call for deeper scholarly textual attention. We seek also to model more attention to the renaissance in scholarship on classical China. More ambitiously, we hope to show that these passages are not only germane but worthy of careful consideration. Our efforts reflect the influence of Slingerland\u27s (2003) study of “effortless action” as a central soteriological goal in ancient China

Growth and characterisation of titanium sulphide nanostructures by surface-assisted vapour transport methods; from trisulphide ribbons to disulphide nanosheets

Surface Assisted Chemical Vapour Transport (SACVT) methods have been employed to grow nanostructures of titanium disulphide (TiS2) and titanium trisulphide (TiS3). SACVT reactions occur between titanium and sulphur powders to form TiSx species transported in the vapour phase to grow nanometric flower-like structures on titanium-coated silica substrates. The evolution of structure and composition has been followed by powder X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. At 1 : 2 Ti : S ratios, the size and shape of the hexagonal 1T-TiS2 titanium disulphide structures formed can be varied from flower-like growths with 'petals' formed from nanosheets 10 nm thick to platelets microns across. Increasing the proportion of sulphur (Ti : S 1 : 4) enables TiS3 flower-like structures composed of radiating nanoribbons to grow at elevated temperatures without decomposition to TiS2. TEM/SAED suggests that individual trisulphide ribbons grow along the [010] direction. Magnetic properties of the disulphide nanomaterials have been determined using SQUID magnetometry and Raman spectra for disulphides suggest that their crystal and electronic structures may be more complex than expected for bulk, stoichiometric, CdI2-structured TiS2

Ignatian Spirituality and the Life of the Lawyer: Finding God in All Things – Even in the Ordinary Practice of the Law

All of us know lawyers who seem unhappy, unfree, directionless, and dis-integrated, who seem to be following paths they haven’t consciously chosen, leading them to places they would never have chosen to go, seemingly locked in lives they haven’t freely chosen to live. Some would characterize this reality as a manifestation of a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning and value in the law, rooted in the difficulty lawyers have integrating the practice of the law into the whole of their lives. This article argues that the spirituality flowing from the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, offers resources for addressing the spiritual crisis afflicting the contemporary legal profession. Ignatius shows us how to pay attention to God calling us to freedom and wholeness in the ordinary experience of our daily lives. The Ignatian understanding of God as one who labors, who struggles with hard work to bring all things to life, wholeness, freedom, and integrity, may well resonate with people whose lives are given over to the hard and rigorous work of practicing law. Ignatius understands God as one not distant from our labors in the law. Instead, we are working in the trenches alongside God who is always already at work in our midst, giving a “religious density” to our lives as lawyers, and the challenge for us is to try to discern more clearly how God is at work in us and around us, so that we can more fully align our labors with God’s. If lawyers today experience a spiritual crisis because there is a compartmentalizing wall between their faith and their work, the Ignatian understanding of God might spark the renewal this crisis calls for, by bringing a new depth of meaning and integrity to our labors in the ordinary practice of the law

John Paul II, John Courtney Murray, and the Relationship Between Civil Law and Moral Law: A Constructive Proposal for Contemporary American Pluralism

In his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II outlined a jurisprudential vision which includes the “doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with moral law.” The Pope’s jurisprudential reflections prompt the question I consider in this Article: How should we understand the doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with moral law in a religiously pluralistic democratic society like that of the United States today? My objective is to articulate a vision of the relationship between moral values and civil law that is grounded in the tradition of Catholic social thought and that can allow the church to contribute credibly and effectively to public discourse regarding the law and public policy in our religiously pluralistic democratic society. After outlining the understanding of the relationship between law and morality that John Paul II articulates in Evangelium Vitae, I discuss the understanding of the differentiated relationship of law and morality developed in the work of John Courtney Murray, S.J. Finally, complementing Murray’s views with insights gleaned from a number of contemporary voices in Catholic social thought, I propose six axioms that ought to inform our vision of the appropriate relationship between religious values, the objective moral order, and civil law and public discourse in the context of twenty-first century American pluralism

Red Mass: 2009 Homily

This homily was delivered by Fr. Kalscheur at the Detroit Red Mass celebrated at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Detroit, Michigan on September 29, 2009. The Red Mass (a Mass at which red vestments are worn, marking the beginning of the new judicial term and invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit), is attended by judges, lawyers, and public officials of all faiths asking God’s blessings in their work as servants of the law seeking to work more effectively for justice and freedom for all. The homily invited those present to reflect on a critical question: who are we becoming as people as we live out our vocations as lawyers, judges, and public servants? The challenge is to live lives that do justice with humility, gentleness, and civility, responding in gratitude to all that God has done for us with a life that reflects God’s faithful love in all of our relationships

Catholics in Public Life: Judges, Legislators, and Voters

Does the desire to avoid culpable cooperation in moral evil make the conscientious Catholic judge unfit for judicial service in a constitutional system that will inevitably bring before the judge cases that implicate a host of issues as to which the Church offers moral teaching? Confused answers to this question reflect a larger confusion which often accompanies contemporary discussion of questions related to Catholic participation in public life. The confusion stems in large part from a failure to recognize that Catholics participate in public life in different ways that give them different sorts of public roles. This Essay tries to bring clarity to the confusion by focusing attention on one of those public roles, that of the judge. The analytical framework for exploring possible conflicts between the demands of the law and the demands of the judge’s conscience is provided by the principle of cooperation with evil. Applying that traditional principle of moral theology, I conclude that there are not likely to be many situations in which a Catholic Supreme Court justice’s fidelity to his or her conscience might require the justice to refuse to fulfill their judicial duties in a particular case. Indeed, it is more likely to be trial court judges who will face the most difficult questions of cooperation with moral evil