Edited by Michael A Hayes and Liam Gearon

Gracewing pound;20

This book gives us the perspectives of educationists, policy makers and teacher trainers. But the contributors speak directly and honestly, and many make their points from personal experience.

The largest section of contemporary Catholic education is found within the primary schools in England and Wales; beyond these are Catholic secondary schools. Supplying some of the teachers for the schools are the Catholic institutions of higher education, some or all of which have now been incorporated by various legal arrangements with secular universities; then there are chaplains who may operate in schools or universities.

We gain an up-to-date overview of Catholic education in England and Wales from Gerald Grace. Similar chapters deal with Scotland (James Conroy) and Northern Ireland (Aidan Donaldson). The issues are often historically rooted and demonstrate tensions between academic excellence and attempts to ensure that traditional Christian concerns are met.

The issues in schools revolve around management, worship, teaching, curriculum and governance. We read of the “Christian ministry” of the teacher and the “apostolic purpose” of schools (Michael Holman). Worship is central: it may be liturgical but requires planning, staff and imagination (Peter Humfrey). Leadership and management are well distinguished by John Sullivan.

An informative and technical chapter on governance follows: this deals, among others, with the contentious issue of admissions policies (Christopher Storr). The semi-teaching, semi-pastoral role of chaplaincy (Michael Hayes) is next.

Spirituality and reflectiveness complement and soften or enrich the traditional and doctrinal basis for Catholic education (Muriel Robinson). Spirituality as a form of “relational consciousness” intended to allow the teachers and pupils to gain an interconnectedness of everything while working against a materialistic culture that devalues or ignores moral values (David Hay).

Interfaith perspectives are traced back to the openness of Vatican 2, though the admission that there are more questions than answers at the boundary between Catholic Christianity and other faiths leaves everything in the air (Michael Cooke). Liam Gearon shows how Cardinal Newman’s celebrated Victorian idea of university has been partially realised within the institutional forms and practices of Catholic higher education in contemporary Britain.

For those wanting to know what’s happening in the UK within the Catholic sector, this is an excellent book.

William Kay

William Kay is senior lecturer in religious and theology education at King’s College London