By David Harrison
The importance of integral human development and the role of a modern Catholic university were among the topics discussed at a public lecture at the University of Notre Dame Australia on Wednesday, October 26.
The well-attended lecture by Professor Father Eamonn Conway was entitled “All things are connected for the glory of God”.
Fr Conway recently joined UNDA after an illustrious global career as its inaugural Chair of Integral Human Development.
The establishment of this position is an outcome of the University’s new Strategic Plan, which identifies Integral Human Development as one of its five key pillars.
It is also an important indication of the unique contribution the University makes to the higher education landscape across Australia.
Fr Conway provided a rich and stimulating address exploring how faith and integral human development intersect and their importance in creating intellectually and spiritually developed people who live their lives authentically.
“When we realise that what lies at the heart of reality is loving relationality, then we realise that the concept of integral human development is unavoidable for Christians, and this in two ways. The first is what we have been talking about. God is present and manifest in each of us in every dimension of our being: social, economic, political, cultural, environmental, and spiritual. Given that we humans are made in God’s image, and that God is life-giving relationality, it follows that as human beings we are all intimately and integrally bound up with one another.”
He also drew on the wisdom of numerous recent Popes, including Francis, Benedict and St John Paul II to demonstrate that integral human development is at the foundation of what we do and who we are as people and communities.
“So, from Saints Irenaeus, Augustine and Ignatius, we glean two important insights into what it means to be an integral human being. The first is that it requires being fully alive, in contrast to the virtual compulsion nowadays, as one Irish poet puts it, to “half-do a lot of things, to half-live our lives, half-dream our dreams, half-love our loves…”.”
He then turned his attention to examining the role of a Catholic University in guiding, shaping and supporting the formation of students, staff and the broader community.
Fr Conway said it is imperative that universities keep sight of the need to help students develop well-principled and cultured minds.
“I note that our university’s billboards reflect what is being referred to by Newman and McIntyre very well, I think, by stating that what we offer is an ethical education,” he said.
“This approach to education fits well with the contemporary emphasis on developing our students as life-long learners in an age where the only certainty is uncertainty.
“However, integral human development is about more than developing skills. It has, fundamentally, to do with enabling our students to appreciate and accept their inherent dignity and the unique service for which they which they have been both gifted and called.”
Fr Conway went on to reflect on current issues in modern society and how a university with a focus on integral human development can prepare their students for a troubled world, including workplaces that are “stressful and in flux”.
He called out current workplace trends, including burn-out, stress, workloads and industrial disputes resulting in people leaving their professions.
“I have no doubt that a business case could be made for integral human development being to the fore in formation programmes for the professions we have referred to. This would be argued on the basis that rounded graduates, ethically trained, well-principled, of cultivated mind, as Newman says, and with the ability to make sound judgements as McIntyre says, are more likely to be able to negotiate work-life balance.
“They are also more likely to exercise the kind of thought-leadership necessary to transform their workplaces in the service of the common good rather than finding themselves with no other option but to abandon them in order to safeguard their mental health at what, after an expensive education, no doubt must be a huge cost to the public purse.”
Fr Conway concluded on a positive an uplifting note by acknowledging the positive work being undertaken across the University of Notre Dame Australia to deliver an authentically Catholic approach to education that places integral human development at the centre.
“I am convinced that if, as a University, we are able to make integral human development as understood and taught by the Church the bedrock of the experience we offer students and staff, within and outside the classroom, we would be making an invaluable and badly needed contribution to our troubled society.”