Franciscan Charism in Higher Education, The

Toward A Philosophy of Education In the Spirit of St.Bonaventure

Toward A Philosophy of Education In the Spirit of St. Bonaventure Zachary Hayes, O.F.M.* The purpose of this article is not to present a complete philosophy of education even in outline form, nor is it to present a philosophy in the sense of a vision that could be arrived at with no account of the issues of revelation and faith. What we have in mind is "philosophical" only in the broad sense of guiding ideas that can be gleaned from the work of St. Bonaventure. We speak of "the spirit of Bonaventure," since nowhere does he himself treat of this particular issue in a thematic manner and as a specific concern as i t is known to us today. However, his manner of dealing with the issues of intellect and affectivity, science and faith may provide fruitful insights for some of the problems that confront the work of educators today. Introduction: The Problem of Education in Today's World * This paper was originally published in Proceedings of the Seventh Centenary Celebration of the Death of St. Bonaventure published by the Franciscan Institute, 1975. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author. As is the case with most of our social institutions, educational institutions are suffering an identity-crisis. What, precisely, are they? What is their function? What is their goal? How shall they best realize that goal? This is true not only of educational institutions at large, but of Catholic institutions as well. What is a Catholic school--at whatever level? What is its purpose? How shall it fulfill that purpose? What difference is there between an educational institution sponsored by a religious group and one that is purely secular in orientation? What is the place of religion and theology in education? Our intention is not to provide answers to such questions, but rather to suggest a possible context in which we might arrive at such answers. We do not intend to give a complete description of what constitutes education, but will rather be content with a functional description. In the broad sense, from a functional perspective, education is an aspect of the process of socialization and acculturation through which people find their place in the world. It is a human process which corresponds to the peculiar mode of man's presence in the world. While animals relate to the world in an instinctual manner and find themselves in a stable world, man's relation to the world is far less instinctual, and his world is far less stable. So it is that in his efforts to stabilize his relation to the world, he creates a world—or worlds—of human meaning and value. In a broad sense, we may call such a world a culture; i.e. a set of meanings created by human persons and stabilized by various social, political, educational and legal structures. Into such a world the individual person is born, and the task emerges of relating the individual to the culture. For if a culture is to survive, it must be able to embrace new generations of people and if the individual is not to become a total outcast, he must be able to personalize at least the fundamental values and meanings of some culture. The interaction between a given culture and the new individual is called, on the one side, socialization; and on the other, personalization. It is the process whereby the given "human world" presents itself and is accepted, changed, or perhaps rejected by the individual. Such a process may be called education in the broadest sense; and it takes place at various levels: in the home, in interaction with others outside the home, in schools at all levels, in the less formal introduction to social mores, and social roles, etc. We understand education to be a process of interaction between the individual and a "world," which serves the purpose of bringing the individual to an adequate understanding of himself and his world. This gives rise to two fundamental questions that are crucial to any educational program: 1) What is a man? and, 2) What sort of world does man inhabit? And the answer to these enters into the answer to a third question: 3) What is the aim of scientific culture? 1) What is a Man? Contemporary answers to this question cover a wide range of viewpoints from various forms of twentieth century humanisms to the...