Examining the Foundation: Psychology Handbook for a Windy World

Psychology Handbook for a Windy World

by Mary O'Keefe Daly

Mary Daly cared deeply about young people. She wrote many books of science from a Catholic perspective. A few years before her untimely death, she finished this psychology textbook, a book she wrote because she wanted to give high school students interested in psychology a firm grounding in the philosophy of psychological studies (or lack thereof).

First Son originally thought he might study psychology in college, so I chose this book for him for a high school half-credit in psych, thinking it would be a good foundation. It was not quite what I expected; there is little of the traditional introductory psych material. Instead, it focuses on how a psychologist thinks about the world, and how that thought-process has diverged from what we might consider a Catholic view of creation and humanity. Armed with this knowledge, a student can better discern what a psychology study actually tells us about people and how we think, while recognizing when they draw incomplete or inaccurate conclusions in philosophical and theological realms.

I did think it was sometimes a little difficult to follow. The author seemed to have so very much to share that it almost tumbled out onto the page.

I still think it's an excellent book for a Catholic high school student interested in psychology. If I were to use it again, I would like to pair it with a text that covers some more conventional introductory material. I haven't gone looking for anything in particular, though, since so far I don't have another high school student interested in psychology. (First Daughter is now in tenth grade and is loading her schedule with history, civics, and government.)

Mary Daly passed away in 2021, and she will be greatly missed in the world of Catholic education. Mater Amabilis recommends quite a few of her books. We are deeply indebted to her children, some of whom have chosen to maintain her business and continue to sell her books.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. None of the links are affiliate links. I purchased my own copy of this book.

A Catholic Perspective of the Creation Debate: Creator and Creation

Creator and Creation

by Mary O. Daly

I decided to modify the biology plan of First Son for First Daughter. Creator and Creation had been recommended many times, so I decided I'd finally just buy it for our biology course. Mary Daly was a scientist from a family of scientists who was passionate about allowing students to see the Lord at work in the natural world. Her books provide a solid foundation for Catholic students of science who, when they enter the university or academic world, will encounter resistance to the idea that you can be a faithful Catholic and an intelligent scientist.

In Creator and Creation, Daly begins with a clear explanation of terms like "creationism." She explores what the Church does and does not say about Creation and evolution. Early in the book, she quotes the Catechism:

Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason...methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. (Catechism #159, labeled as #296, perhaps from an earlier edition)

Later she says:

The creationist says that he knows what he knows because he reads the Bible. The Catholic says we know what we know because men are children of the Creator with minds in His image, and we can, therefore, learn about our Father by studying both the Bible and creation, always working in unison with the stabilizing covenant community, the Church. We are certain that revelation and natural understanding do not conflict. (p. 90)

The book essentially rejects the fundamentalist idea of Creationism (a young earth), but it is more flexible in its treatment of evolution.

But there are many flaws with the concept of evolution as a system to explain the universe and the world, including the development of life on Earth. These are not flaws in the concept of evolution, which is powerful and fascinating; they are evidence against the sufficiency of evolution as a total cosmology. (p. 94) 

Daly provides a philosophical framework for considering the Catholic faith and the scientific ideas embedded in and surrounding Creation and evolution. It can help students carefully consider new ideas as they are reading science textbooks or articles or while listening to a lecture.

The universe is far more vast than medieval cosmology had numbers to express. The Earth is a tiny planet circling an insignificant star at the edge of a commonplace galaxy which spins within the wide universe as a mote of dust might drift along the edge of a soap bubble in a child's bath. If our value be measured in physical terms, it is too slight to notice.

Of course, faith tell us to measure it in spiritual terms. (pp. 101-102)

We learn that our planet is surprisingly perfect to foster life, particularly our life. 

All the things which seemed to leave us on the insignificant margins of the cosmos, actually belonged to the perfect fitting of our universe home.   (p. 102)

The book does suffer some stylistic and editorial flaws, which is common among those that are self-published. There are some scientific theories discussed which may, in time, be thoroughly disproven, but Daly's points are not dependent on any particular theories. She consistently insists we must follow where our rational minds and the created world lead us, secure in our faith of a good God who loves us. 

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I believe new copies of Creator and Creation are only available through the Hedge School website, but there are used copies available in the usual places.

Philosophy of Government: A Socratic Introduction to Plato's Republic

A Socratic Introduction to Plato's Republic

by Peter Kreeft

I selected this book based on Mater Amabilis™ recommendations in the beta high school plans for Government. Kansas Dad skimmed it and thought it was a fine book on the Republic.

First of all, though the dust cover for this book looks a little odd to me, not as well-designed as one might hope, the book itself is bound well and with good quality paper.

The formatting is awkward, though. Translations from The Republic are in bold, which is fine, but there's no indication in the text of who the speakers are. Because the dialog alternates between Socrates and other speakers and between different points of view (even from the same speaker), the formatting does not allow a reader to clearly understand who is speaking and how what they're saying relates to the rest of the text. I feel like a clearer formatting would do much to clarify a difficult text for a reader new to philosophical thinking.

In at least two places, I found the wording so confusing I could only conclude some text was accidentally left out. In one particularly egregious place, the missing word "not" flipped the entire meaning of the sentence. I'm glad I read ahead and had a philosopher-theologian at hand (Kansas Dad) to confirm my suspicions and help me adjust the text before First Son read it.

Peter Kreeft's style often does not appeal to me. Many of his metaphors and examples make me feel like I want to roll my eyes. For example, he explains one of the ideas using two cavemen, Og and Glog. The whole story seemed ridiculous, maybe even childish, but First Son (in tenth grade) enjoyed it and found it helpful.

If you like Peter Kreeft's style and are interested in Plato and Socrates, you may find this book helpful. I'd recommend you try to find a revised edition of it, if they ever release one. I had already decided my younger children wouldn't read it in high school even before the new Mater Amabilis™ high school plans were posted this past summer. First Son is working through a truncated version of the new Government plans, in order to finish in two years instead of three or four, and they are much better.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book new.

Lead Us Out: The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction

by Matthew B. Crawford

Dr. Crawford is the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, a book well worth your time. Kansas Dad picked The World Beyond Your Head for one of his classes last year. He encouraged me to read it, knowing I would find in it an essential argument for the kind of life we are trying to provide for our children.

This book will require a higher level of concentration than many popular philosophical books. The author claims it was written at a level understandable by anyone with a high school education, which while probably true, would require that person be quite interested and willing to focus. My husband assigned this to one of his recent honors classes and, as far as he could tell, none of the college students made it through the book. That's a shame because it's worth the effort.

Dr. Crawford begins with attention and the myriad ways our society and culture purposefully and insidiously weaken our ability to focus and think.

As atomized individuals called to create meaning for ourselves, we find ourselves the recipients of all manner of solicitude and guidance. We are offered forms of unfreedom that come slyly wrapped in autonomy talk: NO LIMITS!, as the credit card offer says. YOU'RE IN CHARGE. [...]

The image of human excellence I would like to offer as a counterweight to freedom thus understood is that of a powerful independent mind working at full song. Such independence is won through disciplined attention, in the kind of action that joins us to the world. And--this is important--it is precisely those constraining circumstances that provide the discipline. 

His critiques of modern culture are brutal and startling.

Few institutions or sites of moral authority were left untouched by the left's critiques. Parents, teachers, priests, elected officials--there was little that seemed defensible. Looking around in stunned silence, left and right eventually discovered common ground: a neoliberal consensus in which we have agreed to let the market quietly work its solvent action on all impediments to the natural chooser within.

Essentially, corporations and marketers shape everything in our culture. The government is not permitted to write laws "limiting" the choices of consumers. We are led to believe we have complete freedom, but in reality, the corporate world employs every psychological and legal tactic to shape our every decision, creating the perception of wants only they can fulfill.

The creeping saturation of life by hyperpalatable stimuli remains beneath the threshold of concern if we repeat often enough the mantra that "government interference" is bad for "the economy."

His writing on gambling, especially the manipulations of slot machines, is even more distressing than the story in The Power of Habit.

If we have no robust and demanding picture of what a good life would look like, then we are unable to articulate any detailed criticism of the particular sort of falling away from a good life that something like machine gambling represents.

The games marketed to children on various devices employ the same tactics as slot gaming. Providing a "picture of what a good life would look like" is an indispensable aspect of our homeschool.

Like many others, Dr. Crawford tries to seek the benefits of a life of faith without actual faith in God. We can hope this sort of questioning might lead some to truly encounter Christ.

In the epilogue, he writes:

The problem we began with a few hundred pages ago was that of distraction, which is usually discussed as a problem of technology. I suggested we view the problem as more fundamentally one of political economy: in a culture saturated with technologies for appropriating our attention, our interior mental lives are laid bare as a resource to be harvested by others. Viewing it this way shifts our gaze from the technology itself to the intention that guides its design and its dissemination into every area of life.

By the end of the book, he's exploring ways to counter this cultural tendency, not just by turning off a phone but by interacting directly and meaningfully with the physical world and the people who live in it. As we develop skills manipulating the physical world, we enrich our lives and our relationships.

I would love to assign this book to my high school students, but it would probably not interest them enough to draw our the required focus. I recommend it highly to just about everyone.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post, which is entirely my own opinion. Kansas Dad bought this book for his class. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Becoming More Fully Human: Beauty for Truth's Sake

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education

by Stratford Caldecott

This book was my meaty read for summer 2018. I didn't finish it before becoming swamped by high school planning, so it carried over into 2019. For many years, we have struggled in our homeschool to avoid viewing math as drudgery. I think we are fairly good at creating an environment in which math is often fun with Life of Fred books as our math texts and plenty of math games from books and our shelves.

Yet this environment is only partially meeting my goal. I have always thought the children should also learn to find the beauty and truth in mathematics, that it should somehow connect them to the natural world,  even though this beauty is something I only vaguely understand myself.

I hoped this book would show me how to reveal the beauty and truth of mathematics to my children in our homeschool.

The Forward is by Ken Myers (of Mars Hill Audio Journal):

Since the Logos is love, and since all things are created through him and for him and are held together in him, we should expect the logic, the rationality, the intelligibility of the world to usher in the delight that beauty bestows. 

A substantial part of the book focused on arguments explaining why the study of science and mathematics is enhanced and fulfilled through explicit relationships to the humanities and liberal arts. Among the many voices Caldecott gathers together in his reasoning are those of James S. Taylor in Poetic Knowledge, Bl. John Henry Newman in The Idea of a University, and Josef Pieper in Leisure the Basis of Culture. That last one is on my wish list.

An integrated curriculum must teach subjects, and it must teach the right subjects, but it should do so by incorporating each subject, even mathematics and the hard sciences, within the history of ideas, which is the history of our culture. Every subject has a history, a drama, and by imaginatively engaging with these stories we become part of the tradition.

Most of these ideas are not new to me and frankly, I was convinced of this much before I started the book, but Caldecott drew connections throughout history from ancient Greece to modern times that I found helpful. His prose is as elegant as you might hope based on the gorgeous cover of this book.

The purpose of an education is not merely to communicate information, let alone current scientific opinion, nor to train future workers and managers. It is to teach the ability to think, discriminate, speak, and write, and, along with this, the ability to perceive the inner, connecting principles, the intrinsic relations, the logoi, of creation, which the ancient Christian Pythagorean tradition (right through the medieval period) understood in terms of number and cosmic harmony.

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason's philosophy means this relationship of ideas is already integral to our curriculum. We are reading history and science and geography together, allowing the story of humanity to be woven by the student from these different threads. Or rather, allowing the opportunity for these relationships to be developed; each student does his or her own hard work.

Moreover, though we have every intention of our children going to college or trade school and learning how to earn a salary so they can care for a family, either in a domestic church or in the Church, our educational goals are focused on providing the wonder and wisdom for our children to become the people God wants them to be. A job is only a small part of their lives.

The principle remains the same: knowledge is its own end--"worth possessing for what it is, and not merely for what it does." It is not to be valued for the power it gives us over nature, or even for the moral improvement it may bring about in us (even if these things may flow from it). It is to be valued for its beauty. "There is a physical beauty and a moral: there is a beauty of person, there is a beauty of our moral being, which is natural virtue; and in like manner there is a beauty, there is a perfection, of the intellect."

The quotes are Newman's from The Idea of a University.

After these basic arguments, Caldecott begins exploring numbers, shapes, and supernatural relationships. For example, he examines the "irrational beauty" of the golden ratio, phi, and the Fibonacci sequence. Supernatural relationships, like that between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can be represented geometrically, revealing a greater depth to the relationship.

Then [pi] could be read as describing the relationship between the Persons, a relationship that is infinitely fruitful and never ending. Thus the endlessly flowing numbers of [pi] suggest the super-abundance of God's mercy, the infinite quality of his love, and the unlimited space opened up within the Trinity for the act of creation.

These explorations were exactly the kind of material I sought. Much of it is understandable without knowing too much higher level math, but the combination of mathematics and philosophy and theology made many of the discourses difficult to follow. Thales (before Pythagoras) showed how

the perpendicular line drawn from a right angle touching the circumference back to the hypotenuse will always equal the mean proportional between the segments into which it divides the diameter[.]

There's a diagram in the book for this one (and many others) that helps a little, but I still often found myself reading sections a second or third time to try to understand exactly what Caldecott meant. I'm certain I could glean even more from the book if I read it again.

In the end, though, the important idea is that these sorts of explorations reveal an inherent perfection of the universe which point us always to the Creator and his relationship with Creation.

Speculations like those I have mentioned in this chapter will appear forced to many. Yet we must return to the central idea that God's archetypal forms or Ideas are inevitably found within nature at every level, reflected with greater or lesser degrees of accuracy. That is not pantheism but Christian Platonism, perfectly compatible with the insights of theology and revelations of scripture.

Discussions of frequency, harmonics, and Chladni patterns allows Caldecott to connect a celestial harmony with liturgy, worship, and prayer. He quotes C. S. Lewis (Planet Narnia: The Seven Harmonies in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Micheal Ward).

[Celestial harmony] is the only sound which has never for one split second ceased in any part of the universe; with this positive we have no negative to contrast. Presumably if (per impossibile) it ever did stop, then with terror and dismay, with a dislocation of our whole auditory life, we should feel that the bottom had dropped out of our lives. But it never does. The music which is too familiar to be heard enfolds us day and night and in all ages.

All of these subjects must come together in our education. According to Caldecott, integrating science with poetry, art, music, and the humanities allows students, all of us, to understand the universe in a more complete way, one which will at the same time, allow for greater understanding in scientific and mathematical disciplines.

Music, architecture, astronomy, and physics--the physical arts and their applications--demonstrate the fundamental intuition behind the Liberal Arts tradition of education, which is that the world is an ordered whole, a "cosmos," whose beauty becomes more apparent the more carefully and deeply we study it. By preparing ourselves in this way to contemplate the higher mysteries of philosophy and theology, we become more alive, more fully human.

After reading this book, I have a greater appreciation myself for the beauty of mathematical thought and how the underlying principles of mathematics can reveal universal truths. It is not, however, a book I can simply read to my children or even realistically assign to a high school student. While it's been many years since I was in a college classroom, I have a far greater knowledge base than most high schoolers, and certainly a greater intrinsic interest, and I often struggled while reading the book.

So what I need know is for someone to take the next step. Use Caldecott's philosophy to write a mathematics curriculum or supplement or something I can share with my children.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post; all opinions are my own. I purchased this book at a local bookstore. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. 

Book Review: The Idea of a University

The Idea of A University by Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

I spent months slowly reading this book. It was a pleasure to read, with plenty of small quips and carefully explained and defended ideas. It's the kind of book that rewards the careful reader and deserves a measured approach. I usually read only one or two sections at a time, sometimes only three pages.

As I read this book, I thought carefully about the kind of university education I want my children to have, and therefore the kind of education we should provide, the kind of environment we should create, to foster the love of learning and of the faith we desire for our children.

I'm not sure this post qualifies as a review as much as simply a statement that I finally finished the book. You can browse my quote tag for excerpts I wanted to share, but this post has my favorite.

October 2013 Book Reports

The Scourge of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler is the third and final book in the Legends of Muirwood series for young adults. I enjoyed them quite a lot, just as something to read for fun. (Kindle edition borrowed for free from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library)

Half Upon a Time by James Riley is the first book in a trilogy for middle grade readers set in an enchanted land easily recognizable to fairy tale readers and yet full of surprises. I also read Twice Upon a Time, the second book, and Once Upon the End, the final book of the trilogy, this month. They were really enjoyable. I'll share them with First Son next summer. (library copy)

Father Damien and the Bells by Arthur and Elizabeth Sheehan is the story of St. Damien of Molokai, who left Europe to serve the mission field of Hawai'i and then dedicated his life to the leper colony. His life is a great example to us and highly recommended. First Son will be reading this book as one of his saint biographies in fourth grade, probably in the next few weeks. (copy purchased from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a classic I've always avoided because every film version I saw bothered me; it just didn't make sense. Honestly, the book doesn't make much sense, either, but it's delightful in a way the movies never were. I immediately added it to our read-aloud list for this year and hope we have time to read it soon. Now I need to read the sequel. (library copy; there are plenty of beautifully illustrated versions available)

Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian (library copy)

The Queen and the Cross by Cornelia Mary Bilinksy (a review for The Catholic Company)

The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos is a heady book of a young priest at his first parish. I enjoyed parts of it but am pretty sure I missed some of its depth. (Kansas Dad's copy)

Books in Progress (and date started)

• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (August 2013)
• Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (September 2013)
• How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (October 2013)
• Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Liseux, third edition (October 2013)
• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry (October 2013)

Book Review: Poetic Knowledge

Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education by James S. Taylor

I think I first learned about this book on Brandy's blog about five years ago, but Kansas Dad has been encouraging me to read it for at least a year. Until recently, I knew I didn't have the mental energy to tackle a book like this. During the day there were too many kids and crises and after they went to bed I couldn't think coherently about anything. Then, when I finally did begin to read it, I got horribly bogged down in the second chapter, which is a lot of philosophy. A lot of philosophy. I married a philosopher turned theologian, but I am a microbiologist by training, so I was a bit overwhelmed.

I am every so thankful I persevered through that second chapter, because it was all fascinating after that!

If you haven't read the book, you're probably wondering, "What is poetic knowledge?" (If not, you might want to skip this whole post.)

First of all, poetic knowledge is not necessarily a knowledge of poetry but rather a poetic (a sensory-emotional) experience of reality…Poetic experience indicates an encounter with reality that is nonanalytical, something that is perceived as beautiful, awful (awefull), spontaneous, mysterious. It is true that poetic experience has that same surprise of metaphor found in poetry, but also found in common experience, when the mind, through the senses and emotions, sees in delight, or even in terror, the significance of what is really there. (pp. 5-6)

Poetic knowledge, then, is not something that can be experienced through a book or through a lecture. It is an experience in which a person sees, hears, touches or feels something. I was still thinking about Poetic Knowledge as I was reading Schoolhouse in the Parlor aloud to the children and was struck by this passage in which Bonnie and Debby have been awakened in the middle of the night by their father who takes them outside to see the aurora borealis:

Time and again, over and over, over and over, the vast sky was filled with the rolling and folding of the yellow-green curtains of light, tipped with fieriest red fire, as if a mighty wind were blowing. And below, on the still, snowbound earth stood the Fairchilds, wrapped in blankets, watching, watching. (p. 61)

No one was telling the children what the phenomenon was called, what caused it, how long it had been studied, what the technical terms would be...They were all simply experiencing it, together. For the expert, or the person studying to become a specialist, there's plenty of time to learn all the technicalities, but this first moment is one in which to wonder, to cultivate the curiosity and desire to learn more.

I thought it was interesting when Mr. Taylor spoke of wonder and fear because the first response of both Bonnie and Debby is one of profound fear. One of them even wonders if the world is ending. (She is quickly soothed by her parents.)

Aristotle...recognizes that there is a poetic impulse to know in all men, an experience he calls “wonder,” that initiates all learning…First of all, wonder is an emotion of fear, a fear produced by the consciousness of ignorance, which, because it is man’s natural desire (good) to know, such ignorance is perceived as a kind of abrupt intrusion on the normal state of things, that is, as a kind of evil. Something is seen, heard, felt, and we do not know what it is, or why it is now present to us….the traditional idea of wonder expressed by Aristotle operates within the ordinary, simply “things as they are.” (pp. 24-25; from the infamous second chapter)

I haven't read much philosophy, but I have heard quite a lot about wonder in my course for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. In The Religious Potential of the Child, of which I have only read bits and pieces, Sofia Cavalletti said:

The nature of wonder is not a force that pushes us passively from behind; it is situated ahead of us and attracts us with irresistible force toward the object of our astonishment; it makes us advance toward it, filled with enchantment. (p. 138)

If I understand any of this correctly, Mr. Taylor and Ms. Cavalletti are both speaking of those moments in our life when we feel our hearts rise within us, when our stomachs drop, when we are startled out of our complacency by amazement and awe. For Bonnie and Debby, it was while shivering in the cold, watching ripples of light in the sky. It could just as easily be stroking the cheek of a newborn child, painting with finger paints, watching a summer thunderstorm, gazing at sunlight reflected on water, seeing a sublime work of art, digging in the dirt, building bridges with sticks and stones across a stream, or stomping in rain puddles.

Poetic experience leading to poetic knowledge is concerned “with bringing men into engagement with what is true. What is important is engagement with reality, not simply the discerning of reality." (p. 73, Mr. Taylor is quoting Andrew Louth from Discerning the Mystery.)

For me as a homeschooling mother, this quote means that we must allow our children to interact with real things. We cannot merely sit inside and read about everything (as much as I might prefer that, and certainly even though it would be easier). We must go outside to learn about nature. We must gaze at the sky to learn about astronomy. We must build with sticks and stones and dirt and sand to learn about engineering. Even more, we must begin with the real things. We must begin with looking at a real tree before children can possibly begin to learn what the parts of a tree are, what the purpose of a tree is, how a tree interacts with its environment, and how a tree is important to our environment. This is not because they could not learn the words to explain those other things, but because they would not be able to place that knowledge in a context with the real world.

Applying this to more traditional education (all those age-segregated classrooms), children should begin studying ecology and biology by going outside and experiencing nature. I think most teachers would welcome that sort of education, but it gets complicated when there are principals and consent forms and bells ringing for the next class and (yes, I'm going to say it) end-of-the-year standardized tests that will be asking only for the vocabulary and not whether children really know what a tree is.

I don't think Mr. Taylor is right about everything. For example, he seems to encourage teaching a child to read merely by reading to him or her. Eventually, the child will learn simply by imitating. I am obviously supportive of reading aloud to children from a variety of books in nearly every kind of situation (skimming through the blog for about five minutes will tell you that much), and I believe choosing the right kind of books is essential to encouraging a love of reading, but I think it's naive to think every child could learn to read with nothing else, let alone learn to read well.

Overall, though, I loved this book. When visiting Boston earlier this year, I discussed home education and public education with two dear friends. I remember talking about the non-profit organization for which I worked, a non-profit that supports career academies in public high schools. This is a good organization working to make the lives of students better, to guide them toward good jobs and maybe even college. I knew that and believed they did good work but I also knew I would not want that education for my own children. I wanted something more, something that, perhaps, is outrageously complicated and practically impossible on the grand scale of public education in our country. The education described in this book is the kind of education I want for them all -- one in which the person of the child is honored and taught to become whoever they are meant to be, without regard for future earnings or the names of the parts of a flower -- and the defense of this kind of education (in the book) is much better than anything I could articulate myself at the time.

Philosophy and Life

Another Sort of Learning: Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found by James V. Schall

I hadn't planned on reviewing this book for a couple of reasons. 1) It's philosphy and politics, areas in which I feel myself inadequate. 2) To do it justice, I'd really have to write a review of each of the essays and 21 seemed like quite a large number. But I decided to mention it at least briefly because it was really a wonderful thought-provoking book. Here, James Schall is encouraging us to delve deeply into what is (his words). Why are we alive? What can we know about life and living that will make our life more meaningful? They seem like overwhelming questions, and often they are, but spending some time contemplating them can deepen our appreciation for our world and the one to come.

Perhaps most importantly, Professor Schall piques our interest in various topics and then points us to some books he has found most engaging. If you've ever wanted to delve into the worlds of Plato or St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas, you'll find many a resource in these pages. Personally, one of the ways I measure the value of a book is by the number of other books to which it leads me. By that measure, this book is one of the best.

Now, because I am perpetually tired (and therefore unlikely to be less tired tomorrow or in the near future when I might return to this post) and because it is late, I leave you with a few unqualified quotes. You'll have to check the book out yourself if they interest you.

Indeed, the most dangerous theories about today are undoubtedly those that see in the state, that is, in the collection of human beings, however defined, the ultimate end to which all else should be directed. This collectivity, however defined, is largely what substitutes for God in our world. Such a polity or collectivity will not merely decide who can belong to it, but will even decide what a human being is. Those who do not fit our political definitions will be excluded or eliminated. (page 202, On Devotion)

Let me conclude very simply. If the lessons of the world that we learn by living our lives suggest that this world is not enough, that some radical disorder exists in our society as well as in our hearts, we need something akin to prayer and fasting, no matter what our public or professional or academic status might be. I do not mean this to be a pious exhortation; even less do I wish to suggest that our job or duty or service is what opennes to the Lord is all about. This latter notion that religion is political action is probably the most subtle of the modern tempations, made no less so by the fact that what we do is indeed valuable, as well as by the fact that so many religious people in particular seem to succumb to it. (page 214, On Prayer and Fasting for Bureaucrats)

Interesting fact: My husband had to request this book through interlibrary loan, but by the time I was ready to read it, our library had purchased a copy. Maybe they thought once Kansas Dad requested it, everyone would feel the need to read it.