Skole and Historia: A Role for the Study of History in a Catholic School of Leisure

Abstract

Josef Pieper hoped to persuade his contemporaries to rebuild European society into a civilization of leisure. Catholic schools can make themselves into schools of leisure, and the approach they take to the study of history can facilitate this. In this essay, after looking to Pieper’s “Leisure, the Basis of Culture” for educational principles that would guide a school of leisure, I explore the educational plan of one Catholic school that has embodied them. The study of history fills the primary integrating and formative role in this school, so I look to The Religious Dimension of Education and contemporary Catholic teachers of history to see how the study of history can be formative while remaining true to the principles of its discipline. Finally, I suggest that studying history from a Catholic perspective performs an important service for the Church as a whole.

Keywords

• history
• formation
• schools
• Catholic