Abstract

This thesis exam ines the work o f three philosophers - Jacques M aritain, Bernard Lonergan and Terence H. M cLaughlin - with a view to recovering from their educational w ritings important insights and approaches pertinent to the task o f giving new articulation to Catholic philosophy o f education today. Having noted the virtual disappearance o f the Thom ist-A ristotelian tradition in Catholic educational discourse over the past half-century, the thesis seeks to identify in these authors elements that suggest new perspectives on the Catholic educational tradition in a postm odern age. The thesis selects aspects of the work o f these thinkers that m erit critical appraisal in any attempt to give a systematic and detailed expression to the Catholic tradition o f educational thought today, namely: M aritain’s integral Christian humanism, Lonergan’s transcendental method, and M cLauglin’s notion and practice o f pedagogic phronesis. This study concludes with a reflection on how selected aspects o f the work o f these scholars m ight complement and strengthen the Congregation for Catholic Education’s discourse in term s o f the provision of a philosophic basis and fram ew ork o f analysis.