This title presents works of Christopher Dawson. ""The Crisis of Western Education"", originally published in 1961, served as a capstone of Christopher Dawson's thought on the Western educational system. Long out of print, the book has now been updated with a new introduction by Glenn W. Olsen and is included in the ongoing ""Works of Christopher Dawson"" series. In all of his writings, Dawson masterfully brings various disciplinary perspectives and historical sources into a complex unity of expression and applies them to concrete conditions of modern society. Dawson argued that Western culture had become increasingly defined by a set of economic and political preoccupations ultimately hostile to its larger spiritual end. Inevitably, its educational systems also became increasingly technological and pragmatic, undermining the long standing emphasis on liberal learning and spiritual reflection which were hallmarks of the Christian humanism that created it. In this important work on the Western educational system, Dawson traces the history of these developments and argues that Western civilization can only be saved by redirecting its entire educational system from its increasing vocationalism and specialization. He insists that the Christian college must be the cornerstone of such an educational reform. However, he argued that this redirection would require a much more organic and comprehensive study of the living Christian tradition than had been attempted in the past. Dawson had reservations about educational initiatives that had been developed in response to this crisis of education. Among them, he expressed doubts about newly emerging great books programs fearing that they would reduce the great tradition of a living culture to a set of central texts or great ideas. In contrast, he insisted that a Christian education had to be concerned with 'how spiritual forces are transmitted and how they change culture, often in unexpected ways'. This would require an understanding of the living and vital character of culture. As Dawson saw it, 'culture is essentially a network of relations, and it is only by studying a number of personalities that you can trace this network'. Dawson offers a diagnosis of modern education and proposes the retrieval of an organic and living culture which alone has the power to renew Western culture.

Especially concerned with the public nature of religion, Glenn W. Olsen sets forth an exhaustively researched and persuasive account of how religion has been reshaped in the modern period. Though ancient and medieval western writers used various metaphors to express the idea that humans are aligned to the universe, they also believed that humans are oriented toward something ""above"" or transcending themselves. In recent centuries, however, the sense that humans, while living in nature and history, are oriented to transcendence has seemingly diminished. For many, God or the gods have all but disappeared from secular life. In this important and timely book, Olsen demonstrates with powerful insight that there are alternatives, and that religion can and should play a role in restoring a cultural openness to transcendence. He considers such questions as how we should understand God's presence in the universe, what form religion should take in the public square, what role liturgy plays in orienting us toward God in the universe, and what it means for religion to be in but not of the world. Olsen examines proposals for recovering an adequate sense of transcendence for the future. These range from an appreciation of certain forms of contemporary art and music specifically concerned with transcendence, through discussion of the forms of Christian life and worship most likely to prosper in and shape the modern world. He proposes a contemporary way of expressing the ideas that God is to be found in all things and that all is to be done to the Glory of God. Glenn W. Olsen is professor of medieval history at the University of Utah, with a Ph.D. in the history of the Middle Ages. He is a frequent contributor to journals such as Communio, Logos, and Faith and Reason, and is the author of the book Christian Marriage: A Historical Study.