Mario O. D'Souza
A Catholic Philosophy of Education: The Church and Two Philosophers
Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016
Exploring a Philsoophy of education in the modern world.
In today's pluralist and multicultral society, questions about how to teach religiuously and ethically diverse students in Cathtolic schools abound. A Catholic Philosophy of Education adresses these challenges by examining the documents from the Congregation for Catholic Education alongside the writings of Jacques Maritain and Bernard Lonergan.
Mario D'Souza proposes a contemporary formulation for a Catholic philosophy of education in which the ideals of Catholicism form the basis for the mission of the Catholic school. Drawing on the Church's educational documents, and informed by Maritain and Lonergan, D'Souza explains how the unifying anthropology of Catholic education enables Catholic schools to serve amidst diversityy by avoiding the extremes of religious exclusivism and fundamentalism, on the one hand, and relativism and individualism, on the other. He explores the aims of Catholic schools in realtion to knowledge and learning, the student, the teacher, and society, culture, and the common good, and their relationship to goodness, discipline, and knowledge. He argues that students must be educated for personal and communal freedom and authenticity, and to strive for the common good, suggesting how a Catholic philosophy of education can provide the framework for such personal and communal transformation
Essential reading for new and experienced Catholic educators. A Catholic Philsoophy of Education demonstrates that Maritain and Lonergan have much to offer in service of an education that is liberating, instuctive, illuminating, and integrative.
"This is a wise, constructive, pertinent book of positive help to readers in bringing out clearly the nature, constitutive elements, significance and implications of a Catholic philosophy of education." -John Sullivan, Liverpool Hope University
Mario O. D'Souza is a member of the Congregation of St. Basil and Basilian Fathers Chair in religion and Education in the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Michael's College
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