How many is a handful?

Commenter Da Zing, in a previous post comment asks:

How much is “less than a handful” precisely?

Preamble: I draw the same analogy for more obscure fields. I don’t think the world is awash with philologists who specialize in Old Norse or Anglo Saxon (think about the prospects in a generation of there being no one to teach future students about the beginnings of the English language). I also don’t think that Semitic philologists or classically trained historical philologists like Kristeller are being produced in the numbers needed. Read the text of Kristeller’s address. Can you imagine a North American student being exposed to that kind of classical cirriculum? Even in Alberta’s best schools?

I’ll worm my way out of this one by simply referring to an interesting blog post at First Things awhile back. Russ Hittinger mused out loud — to the extent that an email exchange is musing out loud — about the state of North American Catholic thought, first in philosophy and then, in turn, Theology and Religious studies:

Once upon a time, in a field like philosophy, the Catholic B-team was immense. Every major Jesuit university had three or four just among the clerics, not to mention the lay faculty. I myself would not have qualified for the Catholic B-team of 1965. Today, for purposes of the A-team in the field of philosophy, it would be merely Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre, with the possible additions of Robert Sokolowski and Jean-Luc Marion. Interestingly, only one is an American by birth, none are Americans by training, and all but Marion are close to retirement. I don’t suspect that we will fare much better in Theology or Religious Studies, though there will be a decent-enough B-team.

I wouldn’t prattle on in this vein, except for the fact that your estimation of the “thought” part of the equation doesn’t square with my experience. Haven’t you noticed that whenever we go to public events where academics are supposed to lend some weight to the occasion, it is always the same people? When I lecture overseas, European Catholics will always say how lucky we are to have so many serious thinkers. They are right at one level. But, then, when you look around, you can’t help but notice that it is always the same six or so people. And, if the truth be known, what they really have in mind are not academics, but non-academics who have done so well in influencing the great cultural and moral debates in the public square. That’s what they lack in Europe.