Catholic Studies and Religious Studies : Reflections on the Concept of Tradition

Positioning Catholic Studies within religious studies highlights the question of "what is a tradition?" and simultaneously allows us to do three things: elaborate a non-essentialist second order understanding of the concept of tradition appropriate to Religious Studies, study Catholicism as a tradition that has been created and maintained through first order reflection on the meaning of tradition, and position the move toward “Catholic Studies” reflexively with respect to Catholic efforts at selfdefinition.