The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies: A Personal History
IACS Founder and President Emeritus Fr. James L. Heft, SM
Foreword by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy
New book available from Wipf & Stock in 2025
Appendices
A Prospectus: Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies
B Commission on Catholic Scholarship
C Board of Trustees and Academic Advisory Council
D The Need and The Benefits
E John T. Noonan Jr., America Article
F Correspondence with Archbishop Pilarczyk Re: Cardinal Ratzinger
G IACS Book Offerings
H Generations in Dialogue Program
I Endowed Fellowships
J Elevator Speech
K World Religions: Finding Common Ground Program
L Youth, the Catholic Church, and Our Future
M 2017 IACS Board of Trustees
N 2023 IACS Board of Trustees
The full appendices are available in color at: https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/iacshistoryappendices/
The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies: A Personal History
“Intellectual and institution histories benefit from both broad overviews and detailed studies. Jim Heft’s engaging narrative of his struggles and successes in developing the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies offers readers the kind of local history that adds texture to our broader understanding of the intellectual sweep of American Catholicism and the complex diversity of American higher education”
— Mark W. Roche, Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of German Language and Literature and Concurrent Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
“The world’s ideas matter greatly, and an institute that attempts to consider the world’s most pressing questions in the context of our highest ideals and beliefs is a true gift. Heft and his early collaborators have done exactly that in creating the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC. IACS was the result of sheer will, resistance to those who pushed back, and the success that comes from bringing some of the world’s finest minds to bear on questions that matter.”
— Dennis Holtschneider, CM, president emeritus, Association of Catholic College and Universities and former IACS trustee
“The ‘personal history’ of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California is an absorbing, frank account of an important — and ongoing — contribution to US Catholic intellectual life.”
— Una Cadegan, professor of history, University of Dayton