It is not, however, simply as a possible source of guidance rksloans.com/payday-loans-wa for a renewed spiritual reading that this University memory is of importance for the Church

It plays a part in the process by which we are properly disillusioned, in which our self-understanding and understanding of the world are brought up against that which is beyond them and broken open for the sake of new, truer growth. Beyond the specific subject matter to which the University might alert the Church–the awkwardness of the Scriptures, the richness of the tradition–a partnership with the University might assist in the renewal of the contemplative stance that those realities require of the Church.

Yet I cannot finish on this note without noting a gift that might be offered in return. The Church is not wholly instrumentalized; it has not wholly forgotten contemplation and has certainly not forgotten the need for, and challenges of, spiritual formation. And although I am adamant that good academic work is and must be spiritually formational, that does not mean that Universities are institutions which have much practice in understanding the context of care needed to foster such formation, or in facing the personal and communal challenges which it brings in its wake. Faced with their own temptations to instrumentalization, the Universities–if they in turn are to be the help to the Church which I have suggested they might be–need all the help they can get if they are to foster the kinds of spiritual formation of students and staff that good academic work requires.Continue reading→