About this Project
This project arose from my participation in the Praxis Program of the Advanced Seminar on Mission Seton Hall University. We focus on the work of the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan (especially his Generalized Empirical Method and Functional Specialties). One of our major themes has been the Catholic philosophy of education. As our readings and discussion progressed, I became increasingly aware that I had virtually no background in Catholic education or Catholic philosophy (my education and subsequent academic career prior to Seton Hall were almost entirely secular) and I wanted to remedy that. Then it occurred to me that many of our faculty are in a similar situation, and I thought my efforts to educate myself could benefit them as well. So when I applied for a (long overdue) sabbatical, my application centered on creating an annotated bibliography of key readings in Catholic education, connecting the disciplines, and connecting the disciplines to the Core.
Of course this was hopelessly ambitious for a one-semester sabbatical, but I gave myself an “escape hatch” by characterizing my efforts as a “living document” to which others could contribute. So, this blog is my attempt to bring my work to a larger audience.
A few caveats are in order. First, I am not a theologian or philosopher, and have no training in those disciplines. My choices and “annotations” are not designed for experts, but rather for naïve inquirers like myself, who want to learn the basics without a making a life-long study of the subjects. Second, the books I include represent only a very small sample of those that have been published. The rationale for my choices was, I confess, simple and rather idiosyncratic. I started with browsing what we had in our library (a quite extensive collection) and selected books that I found stimulating, readable and relatively short. From there I found additional titles that were frequently referenced, and some that were recommended by others. But, there are no doubt many important omissions, which I hope others will remedy. I see this as a work in progress. Third, this project was initially designed with my Praxis colleagues in mind (hence the references to Lonergan and other authors that we have read together), but I subsequently decided to make it open to anyone who is interested in the topic. I invite your comments, suggestions, edits or thoughts, especially on the questions that I pose.
I hope that this will inspire dialog on current challenges in higher education and particularly Catholic higher education. We are educating tomorrow’s leaders, and this is Important Stuff, because we cannot succeed in this unless we educate ourselves.
Finally, I give thanks and prayers to our Seton Hall Praxis community, especially our organizers Linda Garofalo and Danute Nourse, our mentor Msg. Richard Liddy, our visiting Toth-Lonergan scholar Mark Miller, my long-time collaborator Marian Glenn, and the many other colleagues who have supported me in this endeavor.
Dr. Lisa Rose-Wiles
Associate Professor, Science Librarian & GEM fellow
Seton Hall University
400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ, 07079
https://works.bepress.com/lisa_rose_wiles/