Education in a Catholic Perspective

John Sullivan, Stephen J. McKinney

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138271425
• eBook ISBN: 9781317145837
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A distance is opening up between Catholic education and the rich intellectual heritage of the Catholic Church. Education in a Catholic Perspective explores Catholic philosophical and theological foundations for both education per se and for Catholic education in particular. With contributions spanning the theological foundations of Catholic education, the interplay of theology and education, and discussions of the social and missional dimensions of education, this book will be of considerable interest to educators and students of Catholic education, to academics in the fields of applied theology and philosophy and to those with an interest in the foundations of education.

PART I
Introduction

Chapter 1
Education in a Catholic Perspective

Stephen J. McKinney

The Aims of This Book

This book has its origins in my sense that there is an increasing distance between Catholic education, in its many forms, and the rich intellectual heritage of the Catholic Church. Such distancing is not only unhealthy for the practice of Catholic education; it also undermines the capacity of Catholic educators, who should be deeply illuminated by this intellectual heritage, to offer a significant contribution to wider debates about the aims, purpose and functioning of education more generally in the contemporary world. This book seeks to draw out key elements from the Catholic intellectual tradition, showing the bearing of key aspects of its theology and philosophy on the human endeavor of education in general and on the practice of Catholic education in particular.

In this book, we propose that Catholic educators, in all of the contexts where they work, but in especially schools and universities, should re-engage with the richness and the diversity of the Catholic intellectual heritage. This will strengthen the self-perception and identity of Catholic education and position it more confidently in the wider educational forum. There are numerous theological and philosophical thinkers over the centuries who have had an explicit or implicit influence on education in general and on Catholic education in particular. Many of these are discussed in this book: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and John Henry Newman. Some more contemporary thinkers also feature in the book: Jacques Maritain, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lonergan, Friedrich Von Hügel, Hebert McCabe, Anthony Kenny, Gregory Kerr, Alasdair MacIntyre, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two thinkers who feature most prominently are Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Some contemporary thinkers in Catholic education can augment the above lists: John Sullivan (the co-editor of this book), Graham Rossiter, James Arthur, Gabriel Moran, Gerald Grace and Thomas Groome.

These lists could be broadened out to include seminal Christian thinkers who are outside the Catholic tradition and thinkers of other faiths who have been hugely influential on education: Martin Luther, Jan Amos Comenius, John Wesley, Gandhi and Martin Buber.1 Martin Luther, for example, advocated the establishment and expansion of school education for both boys and girls. He understood the potential impact and influence of an educated clergy and laity.2 The importance of these broader perspectives is rightfully acknowledged, though regrettably not within the scope of this present volume.

There are, of course, inherent dangers in our proposed internal recovery of the Catholic intellectual heritage, as different groups in the Catholic communities will try to champion thinkers, movements and even theological methods that suit their own understanding of Catholicism and of what constitutes authentic Catholic intellectual tradition. While this can be a creative tension it can also prove to be divisive if positions harden. Such a danger does not negate the importance of critical engagement with the tradition and personal and specialized interests, but it should warn us against introversion and intolerance that can become intensified into rivalry between theological camps and can descend into counter-productive polemic and even enmity.3 Even if others would wish to draw from additional or different elements within the tradition, and even if they interpret differently those we have identified as central, we hope that the critical retrieval carried out in the following chapters succeeds, recognizably and faithfully, in demonstrating two things: first, that there are aspects of the tradition that offer fertile resources for appreciating the purpose, nature, and functioning of Catholic education, so much so that lack of attention to them would weaken the integrity and coherence of such education; and second, that the thinkers and concepts examined here have the potential to illuminate, in various worthwhile ways, including through reinforcement, contrast and complementarity, the principles and priorities governing the work of educators in other traditions, secular and religious.

The necessary starting point for a critical reading of this book is the early twenty-first century. The contributors to this book engage with diverse academic disciplines and forms of contemporary culture, but these disciplines and cultures have been viewed through late twentieth-/early twenty-first-century lenses. All the contributors have come from a Catholic background and so have been heavily influenced by strands of Catholic philosophy and theology – they all are insiders to the faith tradition and they work in and for the academy as well as for the Church. They have lived and worked in the post-Vatican II world and engaged, as academics, pastors and as believers, with the complexity and contested nature of the council, having to take into account polarized interpretations of the council’s vision, underlying theological trajectory and its pastoral ramifications.4 Further, the contributors have all been involved in education in one or several of its many formal and informal manifestations, whether as teacher, lecturer or academic director, or as parent, catechist or pastor.

Overview of the Book

The book is divided into five sections: (1) the introduction to the book and to Catholic education (Chapters 1 and 2); (2) some of the theological foundations of Catholic education (Chapters 3 to 5); (3) the interface between theology and education (Chapters 6 to 9); (4) the ecclesial and social dimension or context for Catholic education (Chapters 10 to 12); and (5) some aspects of transforming the mission of Catholic education into practice (Chapters 13 and 14).

Introduction

Part I includes Chapter 1 which is an introduction to the topic of educating in a Catholic perspective and Chapter 2 which is an introduction to Catholic education. In Chapter 2, I provide a concise overview of the aims and purpose of education per se and the aims and purpose of Catholic education, albeit focused primarily on the formal rather than informal modes of Catholic education. Catholic education should not be perceived as being synonymous with Catholic school education because it is a broad concept, incorporating catechesis (for example, in parishes and via pilgrimages) and education in Catholic colleges and universities. I draw on the enormous contribution of the Catholic Church in the establishment of universities in the western world and the integral, though complex, role of Catholic schools in the introduction and establishment of mass compulsory schooling in the late nineteenth century. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the contemporary challenges faced by Catholic schools and Catholic universities and colleges.

Theological Foundations

Part II is focused on some of the theological foundations that underpin Catholic education. John Sullivan, in his chapter on Augustine, Blondel and Christian Education, provides a timely reminder that Christianity preaches and teaches a powerful, positive and radical message of the importance and centrality of love. He illustrates the importance of this for Catholic education in his elucidation of Augustine’s thinking on the relationship between education and love. Augustine reminds us that people are at the heart of education and that people are made for love and to be able to respond to God’s love. Love is about learning to love God, people and things in the right proportion. Augustine’s vision of education is simple and clear: it is largely about learning to love rightly. In this chapter, John Sullivan also aims to introduce Blondel’s thinking to a wider audience and explains that one aspect of Blondel’s approach to academic life was that he was very open to serious and respectful engagement with those outside the Church. Blondel was particularly sensitive to the concerns of those outside the Church and was attentive to the complaints about distortions and abuses by Christians. This is a Catholic academic openness, rooted in intellectual maturity, one that is able to engage constructively, both with those holding a diversity of views within the Church, and also with perspectives from outside the Church that might be suspicious and critical of her teaching.

In Chapter 4, Vivian Boland explains that Thomas Aquinas admired Jesus as the most excellent of teachers, not simply for his skillful methods and ingenuity, but because of his great love for his disciples. This great love places the person at the heart of learning. Vivian further states that Thomas Aquinas considered imagination essential to teaching. Thomas realized that the teacher cannot provide understanding for the students in the process of teaching, but, like the example of Jesus, he can stimulate the understanding of the student through images, stories and illustrations. This useful point draws us into important epistemological questions about the nature of knowledge and how it can be acquired, but, importantly, Thomas reinforces the centrality of the person and interpersonal relations in the learning and teaching process. This chapter also touches upon the openness of the Catholic academic world. Vivian Boland reminds us that Thomas Aquinas, in constructing his philosophical thinking, engaged in dialogue with the Arab and Jewish philosophical thinking that was influential in his age. Like other western thinkers, he was introduced to some of the works of Aristotle that had become available through contact with the Islamic world.

In her chapter on Revelation, Scripture and Theology, Clare Watkins begins by exploring the possibility of the concept of truth. The aim of Christian teaching and learning in the Catholic tradition is the pursuit of truth but, ultimately, a transcendent truth that appears to conflict with the secular age, contemporary subjectivism and preoccupation with social constructivism. The Catholic tradition conceives divine revela...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• PART I: INTRODUCTION
• PART II: THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
• PART III: THEOLOGY AND EDUCATION
• PART IV: THE ECCLESIAL AND SOCIAL DIMENSION
• PART V: MISSION INTO PRACTICE
• Bibliography
• Index