By Gwen Adams, PhD

The West’s educational crisis may be unresolved, but there are signs of renewal in Catholic education. In this effort, the Habiger Institute for Catholic Leadership’s 2020 volume The Heart of Culture has given its readers hope that the Catholic educational tradition is both resilient and true. 

Gwen Adams’ Handbook to The Heart of Culture fortifies this hope with stories of renewal, spiritual reflections, and practical applications. In each of the three Handbook volumes, Adams examines an aspect of Catholic educational history with particular attention to the education of children and adolescents; offers an insightful reflection on a virtue critical to education; and supplies abundant resources in pedagogy and materials. Perfectly balancing the weight of the tradition across the three volumes, Adams offers to new and experienced teachers alike insights and skills for educating in truth.

Volume I traces Catholic educational history from its roots in Israel and Greek paideia, through the Incarnation and the early Church, to the establishment of monasticism. Following a reflection on sensory-emotional formation, wonder, and studiousness, the Workbook gives guidance for cultivating wonder, with practical plans and suggestions for physical education, nature study, reading aloud, and the Socratic method.

One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Gwen Adams, PhD, is an author, playwright, director, and teacher. With experience in parish, diocesan, school, and university settings, she has taught history and literature and directed plays in­cluding A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, Uncle Vanya, and Life Is a Dream. Dr. Adams is the author of By an Unexpected Way: Stories of the New Evangelization (Augustine Institute, 2019) and the founder of Bardstreet.com, offering theater and new plays.

Habiger Institute for Catholic Leadership, housed in the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), provides Catholic students with leadership formation in a more organic and collaborative model of Catholic leadership in the academy, in the Church, and in civil and professional life. 

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Paperback: 156pp.

ISBN: 978-1685954031

Volume I of The Handbook to The Heart of Culture series

The Heart of Culture available here