Becoming Beholders

Karen E. Eifler is director of Collegium, the national colloquy of faith and intellectual life, and professor emerita of education at the University of Portland. She co-edited this book's companion volume, Becoming Beholders: Cultivating Sacramental Imagination and Actions in College Classrooms.Thomas M. Landy, is Director of the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross and is currently engaged in an initiative at the McFarland Center to study Catholic life and practice around the globe. He is the editor and a contributor for the book, As Leaven for the World: Catholic Reflections on Faith, Vocation, and the Intellectual Life (Sheed and Ward, 2001). Landy is the 2009 recipient of the John Henry Newman Medal, which honors exemplars of Jesuit Catholic education, from Loyola College in Maryland.

The editors write of the need for spaces where learning has meaning and purpose. Teachers don't create those kinds of spaces with their knowledge of the content or a sophisticated repertoire of pedagogical techniques. They do so with an imagination that sees what and how they teach in a life-enveloping context. That's what these essays showcase. You see how teaching looks when it's infused with a bit of divine perspective.Maryellen Weimer, Professor Emeritus of Teaching and Learning, Penn State University

• ContentsPreface    ixKaren E. Eifler and Thomas M. LandyPart 1:The Sacramental Imagination as a Theological PerspectiveFinding God in All Things: A Sacramental Worldview and Its Effects    3Michael J. HimesDetectives of Grace in the Adventures of Scholarship    18James Corkery, SJPart 2:A Long, Loving Look at the RealPractice Makes Reception: The Role of Contemplative Ritual in Approaching Art    41Joanna E. ZieglerRadical Transcendence: Teaching Environmental Literature at a Catholic University    56Kimberly P. BowersYou Are Here: Engagement, Spirituality, and Slow Teaching    70Anita HouckPauses    86Peter Alonzi Part 3:Word and SacramentRhetorics of Silence: A Pedagogy of Contemplation, Empathy, and Action    103Melissa A. GoldthwaiteStumbling toward Grace: Meditations on Communion and Community in the Writing Classroom    118Ann E. GreenLooking into the Bible    129Michael Patella, OSBPart 4:In Places of Struggle and ChallengeCatholic Social Teaching, Community-Based Learning, and the Sacramental Imagination    145Susan Crawford SullivanSolidarity through “Poverty and Politics”    160William Purcell and Rev. William Lies, CSCExorcizing Taboos: Teaching End-of-Life Communication    176Michael P. PaganoWho Decides? Encountering Karma and Catastrophe in the Catholic Liberal Arts    191Michael BathgateBeholding the Eschaton: Transforming Self and World through the Study of World History    205Eric Cunningham Part 5:Appreciating Where We Stand and What Others SeeShiver of Wonder: A Dialogue about Chemistry with Sister Angela Hoffman, OSB    225Karen E. Eifler“Finding the Unfamiliar in Familiar Places”: The Regis Community-Based Spanish/English Exchange Project; Journeys in Place    232Obdulia Castro and Elizabeth GrassiDialogues of Discernment: Science for Social Justice    257Audrey A. FriedmanCultivating Empathy and Mindfulness: Religious Praxis    275Angela Kim HarkinsThis I Believe: Linking the Mathematical Axiomatic Method with Personal Belief Systems    289Stephanie Anne SalomoneMutual Benefice: Helping Students Find God in a Research Methods Course    305Jonathan M. BowmanAbout the Authors    314