Introduction to Religious Studies
Religious Studies 111
Saint Martin's College
Dorothy Day Assignment Sheet
 

This project depends upon the use of small groups and cooperative learning to explore and discuss issues related to Dorothy Day's autobiography, The Long Loneliness. You will be divided into small groups to work both in and outside of class developing a case for or against Dorothy Day's canonization in the Catholic Church as a saint. The questions and suggestions for research and discussion at the end of the project description are intended for the group to work on as a whole (dividing the various questions among its members). At the end of the group part of the project, each group is to present its findings to the class as a whole. Each individual is then to write a reflection paper, identifying an issue or question related to Dorothy Day and your group's research and discussion, and exploring it at the length of four or five pages.

Questions and topics for research and discussion:

1. What is a saint, and how does the Roman Catholic Church go about "making" saints? You will find answers in a book by Kenneth Woodward entitled Making Saints (on reserve in the library and also available in the Lacey and Olympia branches of the Timberland Library system). There is also information in the New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a more general discussion of sainthood in world religions in the Encyclopedia of Religion. Find out about differences between Protestants and Catholics on the idea of "saint," and be sure to identify the meaning of the terms "faith," "hope," "love" and "heroic virtue," which are essential to understanding what a saint is (see the New Catholic Encyclopedia under "virtue"). The Encyclopedia Britannica is available on-line through the SMC Library's Web page, provided that you access it from on-campus. You will also find the Religion One and Religion Two indexes useful in finding other literature, and we now have access to these indexes through the Library Web page (look under Resources and Databases, then OCLC First Search, then Arts & Humanities, then ATLA Religion. The New Catholic Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Religion are in the reference collection in the Library. Ask the Reference Librarian for assistance in finding literature on Dorothy Day, Saints, or the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church.

2. Find out what an autobiography is and what one might expect to discover by reading (or writing) one. Donald Capps defines autobiography this way: "While memoirs, usually written in old age, address the question, 'What has become of me?,' autobiography, usually written in mid-career, asks the question, 'What is becoming of me?" See his article in Theology Today 40 (October 1983), pages 260-272, for a discussion of autobiography. Figure out, from his perspective, why it might be interesting that Dorothy Day begins The Long Loneliness by speaking of "confession" in the Roman Catholic Church.

3. Everyone in the group is expected to read pages 9-188, 204-6, and 285 in The Long Loneliness carefully, identifying the factors, events, experiences, and influences that shaped Dorothy Day's values and religious faith. I've cut most of part III from the assignment to make it more manageable. There is also a good video tape on reserve, "Entertaining Angels: the Dorothy Day Story", that you or your group might want to watch to help understand why some Catholics might want to have Dorothy Day canonized as a saint. It reflects a somewhat different viewpoint from Day's autobiography, and someone might want to compare it to Day's own viewpoint of her life in The Long Loneliness. For such a comparison, someone would need to read the parts of part III of The Long Loneliness that I did not assign to the whole class. The answer here is first of all in the details. Who does she seem to be becoming in the book, if you take Capps ideas (above)? Why is it important that she tell you the things she chooses to tell you? Do you suspect her of leaving anything essential out? Why does she begin in the way that she does? Why does she end the story where she does? When she wrote this book, what led her to think that anyone would be interested in her autobiography, or did she write it for herself? If someone is really adventuresome, he or she might compare Day's story to Augustine's in his Confession. You might also look up information about Day's life in other sources (see Woodward, Making Saints, mentioned above, for example) to see if there is any connection between the person she thought she was becoming in the book and the person she became.

4. Find out about how children develop moral values, or faith, as they grow up. Investigate Lawrence Kohlberg's concept of cognitive moral development. For ideas on the development of faith look for works by James W. Fowler (Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, and Stages of Faith) or Richard W. Kroph (Faith-Security and Risk: The Dynamics of Spiritual Growth). You might also find Erik Erikson's eight stages on life's way relevant to the question (the classical source is in his Childhood and Society, but you might find simpler explanations elsewhere). What do psychological studies of human behavior have to do with religious questions like faith? The books in this section are difficult and perhaps should be left to someone in your group who has a background in Education or Psychology (Lawrence Kohlberg may be easier to get at, since you'll find chapters in textbooks that summarize his ideas). I do have a few handouts that summarize these different perspectives that might be helpful to the person working on them. If your group doesn't have someone with a background in Education or Psychology to do this section, you probably should skip it.

5. Find out about the social values of the Roman Catholic Church. What does the Church teach about war and peace? What does it teach about Christian values in the economic life of a nation? How does Dorothy Day fit into these teachings? Look for information in the American Catholic Bishops pastoral letters on the nuclear arms race and on the economy (The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, and Economic Justice for All). You may also find articles on Catholic social teachings in recent Catholic periodicals, since the Church has just celebrated one hundred years of Catholic teaching since Rerum Novarum.

6. Each group should discuss whether it thinks Dorothy Day should be a "saint" given the Catholic understanding of sainthood, and given all of the seemingly "unsaintly" things she does in her life like take a lover, bear a child out of wedlock, demonstrate against war, etc. Does she fulfill the three "theological" virtues to a heroic degree? Is she a "people's" saint? What would she think about the idea? What is the place of social ethics and a witness to the social ethical values of the Catholic Church in the idea of sainthood.

Return to top

Contact me by email
Return to list of courses
Return to homepage