Peripatetic Praxis is about something like philosophy, getting at the big picture, seeing  the “forest” and not just the “trees.” It’s about renewing the quest for wisdom and wholeness. It’s about transdisciplinary approaches to the most profound questions. It’s about transforming education.  It is not so much about answers but about articulating the questions better.  Peripatetic means being “on the move” in a loosely postmodern Aristotelian way.  Praxis means concrete, contextualized reflection that may lead to action and even transformation.  No topic is off limits:  books,  music, sports, politics, the university, art, poetry,  morals, wisdom, wine, etc.  All are explored in the hopes of figuring out what it means to be a human being.  There will likely be a few laughs along the way (some of which might even be intended by the author). The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Metanexus Institute, The Global Spiral, their boards, staff, benefactors, grantees, or partners. But they are pretty good views anyway….

Paul Valéry once quipped: “As far as I am concerned, any people who have been influenced throughout history by Greece, Rome and Christianity are Europeans.” In this new series, I’d like to explore this idea of Europe understood as Western Civilization: its origins, development through the ages, movements, synthesis, eras, deaths and rebirths, multiplicities, constant changes expressed via art, science, literature, philosophy, theology, religion, music. That is to say, that rich multi-cultural tapestry we call the West. We will attempt to deconstruct this prophetic statement by Klaus Held: “A European community grounded only in political and economic cooperation of the member states would lack an intrinsic common bond. It would be building upon sand.” What such a common cultural bond might be is glimpsed in this statement by the late John Paul II: “If the religious and Christian substratum of the continent is marginalized in its role as inspiration of ethical and social efficacy, we would be negating not only the past heritage of Europe but a future worthy of European Man—and by that I mean every European Man, be he a believer or a non believer.” Indeed, more than a geographical reality, Europe is an idea and it will live or die as an idea.