19.09.2013
New Book Takes the Fear Out of Asking the Questions About Denominational Education – Archbishop Says
The complex debate about school patronage and denominational education is the subject of a new book by Jesuit priest and educationalist, David Tuohy. Denominational Education and Politics – Ireland in a European Context was launched yesterday evening (Wednesday September 18) by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson.
The book looks at the issues surrounding Church patronage of schools and examines the political approach to reframing the present system. David Tuohy looks at the separation of Church and State in the political context of Europe, before returning to Ireland to explore the debate in more detail. Taking practical solutions from Europe, along with theoretical concepts of political philosophy, he applies them to the Irish debate and in doing so, lays out the framework in which current challenges to education are positioned.
Launching the book, Archbishop Jackson acknowledged that David Tuohy’s central subject is that of Catholic education. However, he added: “He addresses this, nonetheless, in ways which allow any faith community to lift itself above the brick wall of self–pity and to ask critical questions of itself regarding credibility and viability. Faith communities need to do this, whether they actually want to or not.”
The Archbishop said that this approach opened the pathway to ask questions of the secular society which is the “paymaster of the educational system” but which is also the lens through which, right across Europe, the contribution of education to the shaping and sustaining of society is clarified and distorted.
He pointed out that “anyone who flicks through a newspaper in Ireland today can see that the theological battles, in a country caught painfully by our own history between the sacred and the secular, are fought out in the trench warfare of education and healthcare. Somehow, our theological nerve is not strong enough for us to celebrate God. Somehow, our suspicion of secularization is that, at the end of the day, it is value–void. Many of us have not even begun to wonder what those of other World Faiths have to give us as we seek to shape Irish humanity for tomorrow. Many of us fear that if we allow ourselves as a nation to shape our own ethical future, in fact we simply have not got the energy, the conceptuality, the compassion or the altruism to avoid the re–colonization of the future by the past, to which Irish life has always allowed itself to be subjected and re–subjected”.
Dr Jackson suggested that at the heart of the book was a plea for debate and commitment on the part of churches and government to engagement without lazy carictures and without axes to grind. He said education was not solely about public policy or parental choice but also about pupils and teachers. He said it must contribute to the happiness of communities and people.
“David Tuohy boldly places back on the agenda service and sacrifice as key elements in understanding education. Both are intrinsic to St Augustine’s understanding of happiness and to Christian graciousness. Both are worked out on the Cross. Ireland is angry about what we did to ourselves when we had money. We are now antagonistic to those who are working with much less money to construct a sustainable public policy. But we remain angry with those who hold power, whether it be political or religious. And yet both of these need to meet and to converse if education – pupils and teachers in the one school – is to flourish rather than flounder and be dispirited,” he stated.
The Archbishop concluded by saying that David Tuohy’s book was a call to maturity of understanding and dialogue. “It is, furthermore, a confident assertion that religion and theology request a hearing not because they assume their place as the wallpaper of our drawing room but because they are part of who we are as citizens with the freedom to contribute to the common good – with conviction and with altruism. Its wide remit across contemporary Europe shows us that we are not alone in addressing or deflecting these issues. We owe David a tremendous debt of gratitude in taking the fear out of asking the questions. We now need to honour him and do the work,” he said.
To read Archbishop Jackson’s full speech click here.