A new generation of teachers envisions a liberal arts education that is good for everyone.
Why would anyone study the liberal arts? It’s no secret that the liberal arts have fallen out of favor and are struggling to prove their relevance. The cost of college pushes students to majors and degrees with more obvious career outcomes.
A new cohort of educators isn’t taking this lying down. They realize they need to reimagine and rearticulate what a liberal arts education is for, and what it might look like in today’s world. In this book, they make an honest reckoning with the history and current state of the liberal arts.
You may have heard – or asked – some of these questions yourself:
- Aren’t the liberal arts a waste of time? How will reading old books and discussing abstract ideas help us feed the hungry, liberate the oppressed and reverse climate change? Actually, we first need to understand what we mean by truth, the good life, and justice.
- Aren’t the liberal arts racist? The “great books” are mostly by privileged dead white males. Despite these objections, for centuries the liberal arts have been a resource for those working for a better world. Here’s how we can benefit from ancient voices while expanding the conversation.
- Aren’t the liberal arts liberal? Aren’t humanities professors mostly progressive ideologues who indoctrinate students? In fact, the liberal arts are an age-old tradition of moral formation, teaching people to think for themselves and learn from other perspectives.
- Aren’t the liberal arts elitist? Hasn’t humanities education too often excluded poor people and minorities? While that has sometime been the case, these educators map out well-proven ways to include people of all social and educational backgrounds.
- Aren’t the liberal arts a bad career investment? I really just want to get a well-paying job and not end up as an overeducated barista. The numbers – and the people hiring – tell a different story.
In this book, educators mount a vigorous defense
of the humanist tradition, but also chart a path forward, building on their tradition’s strengths and addressing its failures. In each chapter, dispatches from innovators describe concrete ways this is being put into practice, showing that the liberal arts are not only viable today, but vital to our future.
***
Contributors include Emily Auerbach, Nathan Beacom, Jeffrey Bilbro, Joseph Clair, Margarita Mooney Clayton, Lydia Dugdale, Brad East, Don Eben, Becky L. Eggimann, Rachel Griffis, David Henreckson, Zena Hitz, David Hsu, L. Gregory Jones, Brandon Mc Coy, Peter Mommsen, Angel Adams Parham, Steve Prince, John Mark Reynolds, Erin Shaw, Anne Snyder, Sean Sword, Noah Toly, Jonathan Tran, and Jessica Hooten Wilson
Table of Content
Chapter 1: What are the Liberating Arts?
Practical Matters, the Editors
Amid the Ruins, by David Henreckson
Chapter 2: Aren’t the Liberal Arts a Waste of Time?
Practicing the Liberal Arts in Prison, by Sean Sword
The Possibility of Leisure, by Zena Hitz
On the Road with Marilynne Robinson, by David Henreckson
Chapter 3: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Elitist?
On The Odyssey Project, by Emily Auerbach
A History of Liberation, by Brandon Mc Coy
Considering The Catherine Project, by Zena Hitz
Chapter 4: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Liberal or Progressive?
Respecting Reality, by Anne Snyder
Imagining Love University, by Joseph Clair
Elite Education for the Rest of Us, by John Mark Reynolds
Chapter 5: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Racist?
Inside Nysana Classical Community, by Angel Adams Parham
An Expansive Collection, by Angel Adams Parham
How to Fight Over the Canon, by Johnathan Tran
Chapter 6: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Outdated?
On Traditioned Innovation, by L. Gregory Jones
The Liberating Potential of Knowing the Past, by Jeffrey Bilbro
Science as a Human Tradition, Becky L. Eggimann
Chapter 7: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Irrelevant?
The Art of Beauty by Steve Prince
Stories and Severed Selves, by Erin Shaw
Chapter 8: Aren’t the Liberal Arts Unprofitable?
Why Engineers Need the Liberal Arts, by David Hsu
Rejecting the False Dichotomy between Professional Training and Liberal Arts Formation, by Rachel Griffis
Why Liberal Arts Matter in Hiring, by Don Eben
Chapter 9: Aren’t the Liberal Arts a Luxury Good?
Remembering Albert Raboteau and Reflecting on Redemptive Suffering, by Margarita Mooney Clayton
Liberating the Least of These, by Brad East
Liberation from Lonely Suffering and Death, by Lydia Dugdale
Chapter 10: Who Are Liberating Artists?
Lyceums: Places to Think with Neighbors, by Nathan Beacom
Liberal Learning for All, by Jessica Hooten Wilson
Small Magazines as Educational Communities, by Peter Mommsen
About the author
David Henreckson is an assistant professor and Director of the Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning at Whitworth University. He is author of The Immortal Commonwealth, a recipient of the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award.
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