In the 1970s, students in the University of Kansas’s Integrated Humanities Program were converting to Catholicism at such conspicuous rates that local media accused professors of proselytizing. Though an investigation found no evidence for the charge, the school’s Great Books program ultimately folded—but not before several students, among them James Conley, future bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska; Paul Coakley, future archbishop of the Archdioceses of Oklahoma City; and Dom Philip Andreson, future abbot of Clear Creek Abbey, became Catholics.
This story gestures to an argument that Joseph Clair’s essay makes in a new collection about classical education, The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education. Truth in the Christian understanding, Clair suggests, is not just a concept but a person—that of Christ—and pursuing the truth means meeting Christ, whether teachers intend to facilitate such a meeting or not.
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