4 Theistic Realism and Education

I. Theistic Realism
A. Theistic Realism, or Thomism represents the fusion of ideas of Greek rationality, represented
by Aristotle, and Christian theology.
B. It asserts the belief of an omnipotent, omniscient, and personal Deity Who created the world
and its creature, including human beings, and keeps them in existence.
C. Theistic Realism has sought to reconcile faith and reason, or religion and science, in a
comprehensive analysis.
D. It was formulated as a philosophy in the Middle Ages. Ever since the thirteenth century, it
has been a major world view that has shaped Western thought.

II. Thomas Aquinas: Founder of Realistic Realism

A. Scholastic philosophy and education reached its high point in the writings of Saint Thomas
Aquinas, a Dominican theologian. Born into an Italian noble family, Aquinas enrolled at the
age of five in the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, where he received his basic
education.
B. In 1256, he became a professor of theology. From 1269 until 1272, he wrote Summa
Theologiae, his most important philosophical work, which sought to create a synthesis of
Aristotelian philosophy and Christian doctrine.
C. Aquinas was both a theologian and a philosopher. Using both faith and reason, he sought to
answer questions dealing with the Christian conception of God, the nature of the universe,
and the relationship between God and humans.
D. While accepting the good life as the human beings purpose on earth, Aquinas argued that
there was an even higher purpose- the Beatific Vision, or the experience of being in the
presence of God.
E. Thomas Aquinas saw teaching as vocation, a calling to serve humanity. Because of a desire to
serve others, the good teacher should be motivated by a love of truth, a love of persons, and
a love of God.

III. Thomistic Educational Philosophy

A. For Thomists, education is the complete formation of a person, is a lifelong process the
involves many persons and agencies, such as the family, the church, and the community.
B. Schooling or formal education, is the responsibility of prepared teachers who are deliberately
responsible for instructing children and youth in the school, which is a specialized institution.
C. The following statement by Pope Pius XI. On the Christian Education of Youth, clearly
expresses Thomistic educational principles:
Since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he
must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there
can be no true education which is not wholly directed to mans last end Christian education takes in
the whole aggregate of human life, physical and spiritual, intellectual and moral, individual, domestic
and social.

IV. Educational Implications of Theistic Realism

A. Thomisms Philosophical and Theological Bases
According to McClusky. The theological bases of Catholic education are the following:
1. God gave human beings a super nature that enables them to experience divine life;
2. Through sin, humankind fell from grace;
3. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, redeemed human beings and restored them to Gods grace
and to the promised supernatural life;

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 4. Christ, the perfect human being, is a moral exemplar for Christians who seek to live the
Christ-like life; and
5. The supernatural order, complimentary to the natural order, in no way diminishes the
value of reason and nature. It does not diminish the natural rights of the individual, the
home and the society.

B. Thomism and Knowledge

1. Thomistic epistemology follows basic Aristotelian patterns. Our mind gives us the power
to conceptualize from this sensory experience by abstracting and sorting the
characteristics or qualities present in objects.
2. Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that humans act most humanely when reasoning.
However, Aquinas qualified his agreement; while reason is the human beings highest
and most satisfying earthly power; it is nevertheless an incomplete and imperfect
happiness. Perfect happiness comes after the death of the body of when, through the gift
of divine elevation, the human being experiences an immediate cognitive and affective
union with God.
3. As true with Realism generally, formal schoolings greatest effort is to transmit subject-
matter disciplines. For Thomists a subject-matter discipline is called scientia, which
means that it is a body of funded, accumulated, demonstrated, and organized
knowledge.
4. For Thomists, such subject matters are organized on the basis of major premises that are
self-evident, derived from experimentation, or derived from a higher science. These
bodies of knowledge are transmitted by teachers, who are experts in the disciplines
which they teach to students, who are expected to use their intellectual powers in
understanding, mastering, and applying the principles that are contained in the subject
matter.
5. The interpenetration of Realism and Theism in Thomistic philosophy has pronounced
educational implications. Following dualistic principles, education has twofold but
complementary aim based on the human beings nature. Education should:
a. provide the knowledge, exercise, and activities that cultivate human spirituality; and
b. provide the knowledge, exercise, and activities that cultivate human reason.

C. Moral Education
1. Thomistic education, especially in the Roman Catholic school, is deliberately committed
to supernatural values. In its goal of forming Christian-like individuals, it encompasses
religious and theological studies.
2. Aquinas was careful to point out, however, that knowledge does not necessarily lead to
morality. Although a person may know the principles of religion and may know about
religious observance, knowledge cannot be equated with goodness.
3. In the Thomistic context, moral education is a process of habituating the learner to a
climate of virtue. Such an environment should contain models of value that are worthy of
imitation.

V. Curricular Implications of the Thomistic Conception of Human Nature

1. The Thomistic conception of human nature, or spirit-in the-world provides a curriculum
rationale in which the principle of the hierarchy of generality operates. Because the persons
soul is immortal and destined for the perfect happiness of the Beatific Vision of God, subjects
leading to spiritual growth and formation such as theology and scriptural and religious
studies receive curricular emphasis.
2. Because the person as a rational being is a free agent, knowledge and exercises that cultivate
reason, such as philosophy and logic, are emphasized so that each person will be prepared to
exercise freedom of choice.
3. And because humans live in a natural and a social environment, knowledge and skills that
sustain economic well-being should be included in the curriculum.
4. Living in a society, people need knowledge of legal, political, and economic systems that
contribute to personal and social-well being. Because we are social and communal beings,
the language and literary skills that contribute to communication and community are also a
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 major foundation of formal education. The skills of reading, speaking, and writing are
important part of every persons basic education.

VI. The Thomistic Teacher- Learner Relationship

A. The teacher
1. The teacher is a mature person who possesses a disciplined body of knowledge or skill
and through deliberate instruction seeks to impart this to a learner.
2. The teachers language is a stimulus that serves to motivate and to explain so that the
students can exercise their intellects.
3. The teacher should be a skilled communicator. To communicate effectively, the teacher
has to select the correct words, use the proper speaking style, and cite appropriate
examples, illustrations, and analogies. He or should be careful that instruction does not
degenerate into a mere verbalism or preachment in which words used are meaningless to
the learners experience.
4. Teachers should share the responsibility for establishing a community of faith within the
context of the local Church and the universal Church. They should consciously and
actively integrate Christian faith with human experience.
5. In the Thomistic conception of teacher, the art of teaching integrates the contemplative
and the active life. As a contemplative, the teacher must spend time in researching and in
planning instruction. Teachers are to know the subject thoroughly, be it theology,
mathematics, or science. The teacher also is an active person who is involved with
students and who communicates knowledge to them.
6. In addition to their intellectual role, teachers have an important moral role. They are to
serve as exemplars or models that are worthy of imitation by students.
7. In the past, teachers in Catholic schools were usually members of religious communities
of priest, brothers or sisters. They followed the guidelines, the mode of religious
formation, developed by particular religious leader, usually the founder of their
community.
a. The members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, followed the life and teaching style
prescribed by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556);
b. The Dominicans followed the teachings of Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221)
c. The Franciscans followed Francis of Assisi (1182- 1226)
d. The Christian Brothers followed that of Jean Baptiste de La Salle (1651- 1719)
e. Today, the majority of teachers in Catholic schools are lay persons who are not
members of religious communities. However, they are expected to be role models
who possess a religious outlook and who are committed to teaching as a vocation.

B. The learner
1. The student must be an active participant in the teacher-learning relationship, for he or
she possesses the potentiality for intellectually grasping and appropriating knowledge.
2. A student is exposed to disciplina, or deliberate instruction such as when a teacher
teaches some knowledge or imparts some skill to the learner.

Reference:
Gutek, Gerald L. Philosophical and Ideological Perspectives on Education. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.

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