Going out, Not Knowing Whither

New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., Oxford, Wien. Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education. Vol. 92 General Editors: Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe Reading the history of education and curriculum thought through the crisis of modernity marked by the 'death of God', the 'disenchantment of the world', and the disintegration of the human subject, the author describes our current spiritual situation and its problems. Central is an examination of the contemporary critique of reason, its growing indictment as the source of present woes, particularly given that the heart of the West has been its relentless pursuit of reason and an unwavering faith in it as humanity's hope for achieving the good, the true, and the beautiful. The inquiry is made toward an understanding of the project of education, as the guardian of reason and the avenue through which human faith in reason is expressed, and the crisis in which this project, too, has culminated. The possibility is set forth of redeeming reason and reclaiming education as the upward journey of the soul in search of the good, the true, and the beautiful. 'Molly Quinn locates her work within the Judaic-Christian tradition, but her destination is not the Church but the world. It is, as she notes, the 'despiritualization of the world' that preoccupies her, the secularization of consciousness, a 'crisis' in which many seem to have lost their souls. 'Religion', Quinn asserts, 'is the substance of culture', and only that knowledge that is redemptive has 'light'. This important and provocative book is remarkable in its scope and in the beauty of its prose'. (William F. Pinar, St. Bernard Parish Alumni EndowedProfessor, Louisiana State University)