Reclaiming the joy of wonder
There are some weeks, like the one that just ended, where the end of the week looms. And still, I’ve no idea what to write about. But when I spied another lecture from the Institute of Catholic Culture:. Let them be reborn in wonder. my interest peaked, due to the salvific effects of my Dominican undergraduate education in liberal arts.
Yes, salvific. By my early twenties, my unexpected loss of faith weighed heavily on my soul. The meaninglessness of life felt overwhelming, until I met some of the great minds of the past-and present, at Dominican College. And began to see light.
The Joy and Wonder of Catholic Education, is written by Bishop James Conley. He begins his essay with second century Saint Iranerus. “The glory of God is man fully alive.” That simple statement reveals the purpose of human intellect, will and memory
Later in the piece, Bishop Conley writes
“When I discovered truth, goodness, and beauty in the great books, described by Matthew Arnold as “the best which has been thought and said,” wonder took hold within me. This was not a happy accident. The three KU professors who founded the Integrated Humanities Program firmly believed that a true education should engender “a birth of the human spirit, an entry into a new world that excites interest because it is seen in the light of wonder” (Dennis Quinn, “Essay on the Muses as Pedagogues of the Liberal Arts”). “Wonder is the beginning of knowledge,” said Professor John Senior (another co-founder), “the reverent fear that beauty strikes within us.” The idea was so central that they chose the Latin phrase Nascantur in Admiratione (“Let Them Be Born in Wonder”) as the program’s motto. As I was reborn in wonder my heart began to sing for joy. St. Augustine wrote, only the lover sings, and ultimately, I discovered love Himself through the joy and wonder suffused throughout my liberal arts program.”
Enthusiasm: enthūsiasmus is the Greek origin of the word, “posession by a god, having a god within.” The image of the child seen at the top of the page visually defines the word. The god within can be rekindled in our hearts and minds through good education–regardless of our age.
We are made for wonder, which is a wonder that breathes life into the soul and gives our lives meaning and purpose beyond the mere functional. What a gift it would be if our schools could give to our students that wonder through which God enters the heart and gives it new life.
A Passionate Advocate for Quality Education
Education means what exactly?
The etymology of the word is Latin: educere. Bishop Conley writes “its purpose is to lead us our of ignorance, to something greater. “Education is the process of shaping us to fulfill the purpose of our lives; to know the happiness that comes from living in accord with our dignity and our nature. Education is the work of drawing out, developing, and learning to use our intellects, our memories, our wills, and our imaginations, to the fullness of their potential.”
Bishop Conley is describing the process of reclaiming the joy of wonder, the enthusiasm, delight of learning, mastering. And is critical for each of us, whether we’re eight or eighty. In the mid-nineties, Charles Handy, a British organizational theorist wrote The Age of Paradox. In it, Handy predicted that 21st century work would change place from office to home, and that many of the new careers would be entrepreneurial. Moreover, the concept of retirement would change: The average Westerner would change careers an average of three or four times during his or her working life; for many, the concept of retirement would be obsolete due to the choice to work far past the average age of retirement at 65.
I recall many laughter-filled conversations with my thirty or forty-something colleagues as I explained that retirement was dangerous: The consequential boredom. The reality of having too much time one one’s hands. We see far too many young, and old Americanshaunted by depression. Could forgetting how to use our intellects, wills and imaginations be a primary cause of all that depression?
St. Benedict
takes boredom so seriously that he writes this: Idleness is the enemy of the soul. It is the first sentence of Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor in the Rule of Benedict. Note his choice of article. Back in the fifth century, the saint knew called the problem of too much time on our hands not one of many but the , singular, enemy of our souls.
“Education isn’t what some people declare it to be, namely, putting knowledge
into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes… But…the power to learn is
present in everyone’s soul and the instrument with which each learns is like an eye
that cannot be turned around from darkness to light without turning the whole
body. This instrument cannot be turned around from that which is coming into
being without turning the whole soul until it is able to study that which is and the
brightest thing that is, namely, the one we call the good… Then education is the
craft concerned with doing this very thing, this turning around, and with how the
soul can most easily and effectively be made to do it. It isn’t the craft of putting
sight into the soul. Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn’t
turned the right way or looking where it ought to look and it tries to redirect it
appropriately.” Republic VII 518b-d
