Authentic Holistic Education, Wellbeing, and the Future of Catholic Schools in a Changing World

This book addresses the effects of the changed and changing contexts of Catholic Education in the contemporary world. These include the social, educational, and ecclesial contexts. Meaning structures, shaped by these past contexts, have broken down, and the greatest, but often unarticulated context is the anthropological context. The understanding of humanity and the meaning of human existence today is beset by a marked lack of clarity and consistent direction. Catholic Education today exists within contextual fields which are almost unrecognizable from those which existed at the close of the Second World War. Each succeeding decade since has wrought stark and dynamic change socially, educationally, and religiously. As such, Catholic Education today looks for a direction forward and a sense of purpose into the future. This book proposes that the major purpose of contemporary Catholic Education is to provide an educational context that nurtures the true holistic growth of students within its care. The focus upon Christian Humanism in contemporary Papal and Magisterial teaching sets the ground for this developing understanding.