When the government originally said that parents would not have an 'opt out' option for their children with reference to the RSHE curriculum, I wanted to put together a clear and simple presentation of Catholic anthropology. A genuine vision of who the human person is, is the necessary foundation for everything that happens and is taught in a Catholic context, and it is the very thing that is lacking, in practice, at this time.
So, in March, at the start of lock-down, I began writing a series of texts which sought to delineate the basic truth about the human person. I am very grateful to Christine Ward who helped me with the starting point of this project. After I had written a number of texts it became clear to me that I wanted to write a presentation of what it means to live in Christ Jesus - all underpinned by this genuine vision of the human person.
To date I have written fifteen texts, each one is around two pages of texts, interspersed with carefully chosen photos, and each one finishing with a question designed to further engage the reader. I converted each text into a PDF and have emailed these to a whole raft of recipients.
These are the titles of the texts:
1. What is a human being?
2. How can we really understand who we are?
3. Human nature and Christ Jesus.
4. Human nature in the hands of Jesus Christ.
5. Approaching the education of our children.
6. Discerning the value of culture.
7. Discerning the value of human nature.
8. The spiritual life.
9. The Life of the Church.
10. Human beings and virtue.
11. The formation of the will.
12. The moral life.
13. The Christian life and science.
14. The Christian life and the internet.
15. The Christian life and philosophy.
I am glad to have developed this form of presentation of the faith during lock-down. I have enjoyed writing them, and I hope that someone finds some value in them. Currently, I am writing the sixteenth text - which really should be no. 1.
I now intend to develop the series more, but will hold subsequent titles in abeyance for the time being, and then look to make them more widely available.
