When Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK in 2010, he taught that “the task of a teacher is not simply to impart information or to provide training in skills intended to deliver some economic benefit to society; education is not and must never be considered as purely utilitarian. It is about forming the human person, equipping him or her to live life to the full—in short it is about imparting wisdom.”
In these short essays, I want to take up the challenge Pope Benedict gave. With help from many others along the way, I shall be searching for wisdom and sharing what I find.
I have written about parents, children and education in two of my books - Out of the Classroom and Into the World & Did Jesus Go To School? - but I am also a novelist and doctoral student, so expect essays on everything from children’s literature to nature journalling to whatever I stumble across while writing my PhD .
I may be an author and teacher, but most of what I have learned I have discovered as a home educating dad. There are lots of excellent blogs and books by home educating mums, but what about the dads? What is our role? What can we teach our children? What can we learn from our children? What can we learn with our children? In Searching for Wisdom, I try to answer these and many other questions. I very much hope that you will join me in my search.
To find out more about my interests, please cast your eye over this summary of my various books, articles and research:
My books
Out of the Classroom and Into the World: how to transform Catholic education (Angelico, 2018)
50 Books for Life: a concise guide to Catholic literature (Angelico, 2019)
Did Jesus Go to School? and other questions about parents, children and education (Redemptorist, 2019)
Between Darkness and Light - a novel about the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I - (Eyrie, 2019)
The Race - a children’s novel about Eric “Chariots of Fire” Liddell - (Cranachan, 2021)
Popes, Emperors and Elephants: the first thousand years of Christian culture (Angelico, 2021)
A Little Book of British Saints (Isaiah Books, 2022)
Meg and the Great British History Mystery (Isaiah Books, 2023)
Other writings
UnHerd, Humanum Review, First Things, Catholic World Report, the Telegraph, the Catholic Herald
My PhD
Liturgy and Literature in a Secular Age (University of Nottingham) - in which I consider the fiction of Evelyn Waugh, J. R. R. Tolkien, George Mackay Brown, Jérôme Ferrari, Eugene Vodolazkin (and others) in the light of the theology of St Augustine of Hippo, St Irenaeus, St Bede the Venerable, Alexander Schmemann, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Catherine Pickstock.
My website
