Description
Book SynopsisA 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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 McCoy, Peter Mommsen, Angel Adams Parham, Steve Prince, John Mark Reynolds, Erin Shaw, Anne Snyder, Sean Sword, Noah Toly, Jonathan Tran, and Jessica Hooten Wilson
Trade ReviewIn this series of lively, absorbing, and accessible essays, the contributors invoke and dismantle all the chief objections to the study of the liberal arts. The result is a clarion call for an education that enables human and societal flourishing. Everyone concerned about the fate of learning today must read this book.
—Eric Adler, author, The Battle of the Classics In our era of massive social and technological upheaval, this book offers a robust examination of and an expansive vision for the liberal arts. As a scientist who believes that education should shape us for lives of reflection and action, I found the essays riveting, challenging, and inspiring. I picked it up and could not put it down. —
Francis Su, author, Mathematics for Human Flourishing At their best, the humanities are about discerning what kinds of lives we should be living. But humanities education is in crisis today, leaving many without resources to answer this most important question of our lives. The authors of this volume are able contenders for the noble cause of saving and improving the humanities. Read and be inspired!
—Miroslav Volf, co-author, Life Worth Living The Liberating Arts is a transformative work. Opening with an acknowledgment of the sundry forces arrayed against liberal arts education today, this diverse collection of voices cultivates an expansive imagination for how the liberal arts can mend what is broken and orient us individually and collectively to what is good, true, and beautiful. —Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author, Jesus and John Wayne
A welcome addition to the long tradition of advocacy for the liberal arts. It brings together argument and delight, uniting the format of apologetics with the spirit of celebration. …An appropriate gift not only for those who are already “in the fold” of the liberal arts community but also for friendly skeptics and potential converts.
—Current MagazineThis collection suggests that the liberal arts provide an education that meets the highest aspirations of the human person, an education aimed at human flourishing. It is difficult to put a price on that. What we need are administrators who are willing to offer the opportunity to aim higher.
—The Wall Street JournalThese writers offer an expanisve vision for the arts, rooted in companionship and gratitude for good gifts that are still — despite all of the evident losses — with us and continuing to impart life. The book manages to be both a no-nonsense manifesto and a convivial exchange of great ideas.
—ClassicalEd ReviewTable of ContentsChapter 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 McCoy
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
