Renewing the Liberal Arts

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Oskar Gruenwald ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Real World ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Literary Imagination ◽  
Moral Sense ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
The Third ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

This essay explores the conceptual foundations of C. S. Lewis' pilgrimage to a Christian worldview and its implications for Christian scholarship in the Third Millennium. C. S. Lewis' essential Christian worldview has three distinct yet complementary strands: The Tao, Natural Law, or the moral sense; the ecumenical inspiration of Mere Christianity; and the quest for truth and authentic values in the real world. These three strands converge in Lewis' own pilgrimage and witness to the immediacy and relevance of religious experience. Curiously, the reality and truth of the Christian vision finds eloquent exposition in Lewis' lucid prose In the recounting of this consummate storyteller, the Christian worldview emerges as both real and transcendental or "numinous," whose truth is found in historical evidences and lived experience. It is for this reason that Lewis is aptly called an apostle to the sceptics. Lewis' literary imagination thus provides inspiration for a Christian humanist paideia as propaedeutic to renew both liberal arts education and the culture of liberalism.

Four decades of Universities of the Third Age: past, present, future

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARVIN FORMOSA
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
Older Learners ◽  
Third Age ◽  
Group Activities ◽  
The Third ◽  
Learning Instruction ◽  
Ethnic Biases

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the origins and development of Universities of the Third Age (U3As) whilst also forwarding suggestions for possible roles, opportunities and directions in the future. The U3A has been rightly described as both an idea and movement, as each centre has a local foundation and relatively unique features. Whilst some U3As are attached to traditional universities and colleges, others are sturdily autonomous and wholly dependent on the efforts of volunteers. One also finds a variety of ethos, ranging from the provision of a traditional type of liberal-arts education, to the organisation of interest-group activities conducted through peer learning, to showing solidarity with vulnerable sectors of the older population. Academic commentaries on the U3A movement have been both supportive and critical. Whilst U3As have been lauded for leading older learners to improved levels of physical, cognitive, social and psychological wellbeing, other reports emphasise how many centres incorporate strong gender, social class, ageist and ethnic biases. One hopes that in future years the U3A movement will continue to be relevant to incoming cohorts of older adults by embracing a broader vision of learning, improving the quality of learning, instruction and curricula, as well as a wider participation agenda that caters for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive challenges.

The Postmodern Challenge

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Oskar Gruenwald ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Moral Sense ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
City Of God ◽  
The Road ◽  
Good Works ◽  
Cultural Renewal ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
The City

The thesis of this essay is that the central postmodern challenge is to recover stable, objective normative standards that presuppose cultural renewal and liberal arts education building on the classical paideia of educating the whole person. Humans possess an innate moral sense that requires nurturing and developing to encompass both résumé and eulogy virtues as proposed by David Brooks’ The Road to Character. Wisdom-seeking traditions aim at self-mastery, but need tempering by neo-Kantian epistemological modesty to eschew utopias in their quest for transcendence, recalling the Augustinian conception of humanity’s fallen nature, the need for community, the aspiration for good works in the City of Man, and the soul’s yearning for redemption and salvation in the City of God. The essay concludes with the “Angel Initiative” as an example of practical wisdom that reflects Brooks’ humility code, the wisdom-seeking traditions’ emphasis on the Way, and Christianity’s promise as “a religion of second chances.”

Naturalism, Theism and Objective Knowledge

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
John Byl ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Mental Causation ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Objective Knowledge ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Combined Action

This essay proposes that various forms of relativism and naturalism are self-refuting. The rational defense of any worldview requires the prior acceptance of the existence of other rational minds, mental causation and free will, an objective language, and objective logical and rational standards, A worldview is self-refuting if its defense necessarily presumes entities that are explicitly denied by the worldview. In contrast, theism provides the epistemic and metaphysical basis to fully account for our diverse knowledge. Liberal arts education is in a crisis due to the fragmentation of knowledge and loss of purpose caused by the combined action of pragmatic deconstruction and scientific reductionism Only by regaining a full appreciation of the depth and comprehension of the Christian worldview can we recapture the cohesive unity in diversity of a genuine liberal arts education.

scholarly journals Speculating on the liberal arts: Exploring possible futures for humanities education

2021 ◽  
pp. 147402222110505
Author(s):  
Sean Steele
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Community Of Learners ◽  
Post Secondary Education ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
Scale Reading ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Humanities Education ◽  
Speculative Design

The article draws on concepts from speculative design to explore an alternative educational group existing outside the boundaries of an accredited university. Inspired by the imaginative approach of speculative design, I propose a small-scale reading and discussion group as a pathway to explore possible futures open to aspects of humanities education. The concept aims to reposition elements of the humanities from within the degree-granting Canadian university space to engage the wider public through a network meant to ideally foster an interconnected community of learners. This rhizomatic network would provide avenues for those without the means, access, or desire to pursue post-secondary education in the humanities to engage in questions that are relevant to their lived experience. I use an inquiry-based model of learning to explore probable, plausible, and preferable futures for liberal arts education as a way to challenge some current modes of thinking and provoke further discussion and research.

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