Catholic Brain Trust

"Patrick J. Hayes has written an important work on the little-known effort of Catholic intellectuals to engage cultural challenges in mid-twentieth-century America. In virtue of the scholarship that lies behind it, the book will be an indispensable reference, and because of the issues that it addresses it will be consulted for what lessons it can provide for what is, after all, a permanent necessity of the Church." —Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of theology and religious studies, Catholic University of America

"This is a work of original archival research, on a subject of great interest to those interested in American intellectual and cultural history and those with an interest in the life and work of the Catholic Church in the United States. The book will add depth and context for contemporary discussion of Catholic higher education, Catholic intellectual life, and American Catholic identity and self-understanding." —David J. O’Brien, University of Dayton

“Patrick Hayes has written a learned and engaging account of an organization too little known today, even among Catholics. His narrative opens up fresh perspectives on the Catholic 1950s, especially with regard to church-state relations, and helps to frame today’s debates on the role of the Catholic intellectual. An admirably solid achievement.” —Leslie Tentler, Catholic University of America

“In the decades following World War II, an impressive collection of American Catholic intellectuals joined together to ponder what they believed was an urgent question: ‘What is an intellectual Apostle?’ . . . In A Catholic Brain Trust, Patrick J. Hayes chronicles the history and assesses the achievement of the organization these scholars created, the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (CCICA). Hayes’s thorough and well-documented account reveals a postwar moment ripe for just such an undertaking.” —Commonweal

“Patrick Hayes has written a thorough, workmanlike history of the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (CCICA), which first met in 1946 and was dissolved in 2007. . . . He offers a useful snapshot of postwar intellectual life even as he illustrates the difficulty in answering the question “What does it mean to be a Catholic Intellectual?” —The Living Church

“Patrick J. Hayes . . . tells the story of the CCICA’s ambitious, uneven, and—in some cases—almost quaint activities during the first twenty years of its existence. This careful study of a little-known but stunningly ambitious effort on the part of American Catholic intellectuals to come of age is the history of American Catholicism in microcosm.” —The Catholic Historical Review

“Patrick J. Hayes’ splendidly researched book records the short history of The Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, an exceptionally interesting project started by a small group of United States Catholic intellectual leaders at the conclusion of World War II. . . . Hayes’ account of CCICA’s noble failure may encourage a new organization that would benefit from the lessons of his exemplary history.” —American Catholic Studies

“Besides being a solid, well-documented institutional history, this book provocatively discusses a number of broader issues. Hayes discusses the concept of the ‘Catholic intellectual’ and the idea of ‘Catholic identity’ in America . . . . Intellectuals of all stripes will find ample food for thought in Hayes’s examination of American Catholic scholars’ struggles to define issues among themselves while fashioning an effective apostolate to the nation and to the world.” —American Historical Review

“In his history of the CCICA, Patrick J. Hayes concentrates on the organization’s first twenty years, covering its remaining decades in a thoughtful and provocative epilogue.” —The Journal of American History