Saturday, August 22, 2015

Article in America

The Jesuit magazine America has gone live with their fall education issue, which includes my article on the goals of a Catholic education with regard to the use of technology. It's an article that emerged from my series of posts, earlier this year, on the topic (here, here, and here). Thanks to them for publishing it, and I hope it will generate conversations about how to approach the issue, about how Catholic schools can stand out.

The article does stake out some first principles in terms of using tech in a Catholic school, but I did not really get into practical steps or lay out how exactly, while not ignoring the benefits of personal technology, Catholic classrooms can keep personal relationships at the center of their activities. Understandably, this will differ from grade to grade and school to school... I would love to hear some suggestions and experiences from everyone out there.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Marilynne Robinson's Religious Imagination, Part 2: Home


At the end of my post on Gilead, I wondered if Marilynne Robinson, in focusing on the human aspects of divine love in her fiction—tenderness, compassion, etc.—somehow diminishes grace by equating it with human emotion or feeling. The second book in her trilogy, Home, told from the perspective of Glory, the daughter of Rev. Boughton and sister of the prodigal son Jack, draws us closer to an answer.