Abstract
If Catholic educators are to equip students to engage with contemporary culture in a way that is credible and winsome, they need first, to be able to draw upon the living tradition of their faith appreciatively, critically and creatively, and second, to articulate a renewed form of Christian humanism. This paper addresses the second of these prerequisites by taking two steps towards the development of a Christian humanism for our times. First, I propose a rationale for the task of rethinking the case for Christian humanism as a resource for both cultural engagement and for educational practice. Second, I consider three potential sources and guides for becoming confident and competent in communicating this renewal of Christian humanism: Jacques Maritain, Romano Guardini and Pope Francis.
Highlights
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DIn this paper I propose that, in order for the relevance of Christian faith to be made manifest to our culture, what is needed is a renewed form of Christian humanism, drawn upon and fostered in Catholic education in whatever forum and context it takes place, and permeating the spirit of the Church’s engagement with the world
I locate Christian humanism against the backdrop of the different ways that Christians have related to culture, the factors that influence the stance they adopt, the misguided turnings made by some Christians and the limitations of secular humanism
Summary
Culture is the matrix in which mindsets are formed, and we can be influenced by it in ways that we are unaware of, because its leading perceptions, assumptions, and priorities are taken for granted as both obvious and invisible (just as, for most of us, is the case with oxygen and language, and as water is for fish). The fourth inadequate approach would be to seek to maintain Christian life as a parallel existence, on twin tracks; that is, preserving the practice of Christian faith and membership of the faith community, yet for most practical purposes, for example, with regard to work and the economy, education and leisure, the environment and health, personal relationships and politics, being so fully assimilated into and at home with the culture and its prevailing assumptions that much of life is lived as if God and the Gospel made no difference to their worldview and how this governs their reading of and response to the world. In so strongly emphasising the importance of autonomy, they can be inattentive to such features of human life as vulnerability, limitation, finitude and dependence In their advocacy of rationality, they can be neglectful of the paradoxical and they can be suspicious of claims to truth that rely on non-intellectual approaches to knowledge. In their various attempts at cultural engagement, they have had to deal with ever changing reference groups that supply employment, grant plausibility, support and authorisation and standards of evaluation
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