Transformation in Higher Education  
ISSN: (Online) 2519-5638, (Print) 2415-0991
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(Re)Inserting charity in education
Author: Background: Recently, charity (re)appears in cultural discourse. It is no longer confined to 
Erik Meganck1  (moral) theology.
Affiliation: Objectives: The aim of this article is to defend the acceptance of charity as a major and 
1Department of Spirituality fundamental category in the formulation of professional learning goals and in the transformation 
and the Social Doctrine of the 
Church, International Institute and development of curricula in higher education, using historical and philosophical arguments.
Canon Triest, Belguim 
Methods: I first offer a philosophical survey of modernity as instrumentalisation and of late 
Corresponding author: modernity as where charity (re)appears. Then I translate this analysis into an educational 
Erik Meganck,  challenge and its promising effects. The transition from a culture that hinges on strict 
erik.meganck@telenet.be instrumentalisation into one that opens up to charity has not yet been integrated in official 
Dates: pedagogical and didactical directives.
Received: 14 Mar. 2018 Results: The philosophical exploration of the cultural field shows the possibility as well as 
Accepted: 29 May 2018
Published: 08 Aug. 2018 a desirability of integrating charity in (not only) higher education. Though the effects of 
this integration can only be considered forthcoming, a promise without any evidence, this 
How to cite this article: philosophical reflection argues the probability of positive pedagogical results.
Meganck, E., 2018,  
‘(Re)Inserting charity in Conclusion: The reappearance of charity in culture urges education to also look beyond its 
education’, Transformation  modern formats. One possible initiative is the ‘insertion’ of charity. Reflection on a care 
in Higher Education 3(0), a38. experience is a pedagogically justifiable form of this insertion. What was deemed irrelevant, 
https://doi.org/10.4102/the.
v3i0.38 private and optional before becomes core educational challenges now. The new meaning of 
the world, without changing the world, is precisely this: let us keep teaching economy, 
Copyright: engineering, law, medicine, etc., but always against the backdrop of charity.
© 2018. The Authors. 
Licensee: AOSIS. This work 
is licensed under the 
Creative Commons Introduction
Attribution License. The argument for a (re)insertion of charity1 in education hints at the possibility of a transformation, 
which this journal, Transformation in Higher Education, has chosen from the very beginning, 
to study in its full complexity (Du Preez et al. 2016). The transformation I will defend here is 
not, however, ‘structural’. It does not aspire a change in organisation, financing, pedagogical 
implementations and so on. And yet it somehow affects all of those elements. You might compare 
this insertion of charity with the adding of salt to a dish. This does not alter the taste, as when one 
replaces meat by fish, yet it intensifies the flavour. Charity does not replace any current educational 
system with another – it never does this to or with any system – but it reveals a different meaning 
of it. Within all existing educational systems, the ‘sense’ – all meanings of this word included – 
shifts. The students who graduate, who ‘emerge’ from its system, are not other people – saints 
instead of sinners, martyrs instead of people next door, apostles instead of ‘rich young men’ 
(e.g. Mt 19:6–30) – but have become professionals who have acquired a taste for what is not 
typically or exclusively ‘modern’ is not completely instrumental and accumulative. They should 
have an eye for a beauty that is not of this world, lend an ear to an ‘other’ that cannot be reduced 
to myself, mind a truth that is not confined to science. Why and how would education have to 
take these traditional pillars of thought, truth, good and beauty, beyond modernity? And where 
does charity come in?
Cultural historical background
The rather strange and challenging, perhaps even provoking, title suggests a current lack, a 
privation that affects actuality. The basic contention of this article will be that modernity as the 
process of instrumentalisation (and accumulation) has left something valuable behind, has left 
Read online: something out of our educational concern with the future and with those who will inhabit it. This 
Scan this QR ‘lack’ now becomes visible as such, as urgency and opportunity, as challenge. Charity is more 
code with your than just a pedagogical option but appears in contemporary thought as ‘destined’. The appearance 
smart phone or 
mobile device of charity in cultural discourse then becomes the most radical challenge to education.
to read online.
1.Charity refers to neighbourly – and, of course, ‘otherly’ – love here, not to donations of any sort.
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Of course, modernity has been known to think about charity legal action taken by parents against the faculty’s evaluations 
(Hanley 2017). But its attempts always pointed at sources and decisions – whereas before, parents used to collaborate 
like affection or reason and ended up reducing charity to with schools in the education of their children. Applied ethics 
sympathy or solidarity, which is definitely something else. demands that education meets with detectable and preferably 
I will maintain that charity always enjoys a religious measurable criteria and achieves ‘clear and distinct’ goals – 
provenance and needs this to keep being articulated. which is why mathematics’ scores are often used to compare 
schools: it is supposed to be ‘objective’ only in that it is more 
Modernity, instrumentalisation and accumulation measurable than, for example history; though the latter 
perhaps might be considered to contribute more adequately to 
The question concerning modernity is, as such, too large to humanitas than math.5 In Belgium, the amount (quantity again) 
be treated here. I will therefore, at the risk of being selective of teaching Full Time Equivalent (FTEs) (quantity) a school can 
or even arbitrary, isolate three features that are typical of employ only depends on the amount (quantity) of students 
modernity and relevant to education, viz. planning, liquidity they counted during the former school year. And how about 
and the obsession with competences. These tendencies were, the quality of education? This may be translated into a ‘sales 
of course, not yet explicitly present and detectable in early argument’: alleged quality, at least the perception of quality, is 
modernity. It is only by analysing late-modern society and no more than an argument for clients and stakeholders to 
looking back that we can discern these tendencies as such. increase the number of students.6
Planning and growth I need to mention a second fundamental trait of modernity 
here, which shall remain a function of the first one for the 
As is commonly accepted, modernity is marked by a process 
sake of the argument of this article. It is the ‘accumulation 
of instrumentalisation, one of many possible translations of 
imperative’, the sanctification of progress. I once accidentally 
Weber’s concept of rationalisation (Weber 2004), the social skipped through the financial pages of a respected daily 
echo of Descartes’ methodological focus. Those who read and paper where the evaluation of a firm perplexed me. 
understand Heidegger will recognise this as an element of It explained that while, admittedly, the firm was ‘growing’, 
technology, his name for the history of metaphysics (Heidegger there was every reason for concern because the growth itself 
1977). Many of his students have followed that line of thought was not growing. I wondered how the necessity of exponential 
(Arendt 19582). The process of instrumentalisation can take growth can be anything else than short-term suicide. This 
many forms – let me just give some examples as they occur to ‘perversion’ is not only typical of capitalism; capitalism is a 
me: building a just society (in the ancient Greek sense) becomes typically modern economy because it thrives on this 
efficient managing and marketing of social atoms (liberal ‘accumulation imperative’. From history as progress and the 
individualism); politics loses its vision and becomes amoral famous paradigm of evolution – which excludes the ‘event’ – 
decision strategy and vote counting; morality reduces to to marketing unnecessary new models of anything and the 
deontology and other forms of applied (‘instrumental’ and notion of lifelong learning – which is something else than 
‘utilitarian’) ethics; juridification and formalisation of human wisdom – are all effects of this imperative. The history of 
relations;3 urbanisation, neutralisation and anonymisation of philosophy as progress (e.g. Hegel and Comte) is only 
social space; measuring and predicting, production and justified by the typically modern philosophy of history – that 
consumption as the only way of dealing with ‘things’; only served to ‘prove’ that modernity is the magnificent 
reduction of care to cure and of education to didactics; the outcome of history as progress. This means that history in 
transition of society into market where social atoms are further general and progress in particular are self-explanatory and 
reduced to producers and consumers; the existential modesty self-justified. Late modernity has questioned this ‘proof’ and 
of acceptance (‘mercy’) became the managerial arrogance of has revealed the tautological core of the alleged evidence of 
planning (control); the experience of advent (‘wonder’) history – hence the many books and articles that have the 
became the future of extrapolation (disenchanted calculation); overtly paradoxical ‘after history’ in their title.
charity (the complex phenomenon of gift) became solidarity 
(investment), etc.4 All these cultural–historical ‘vectors’ – I The phenomenon of ‘programmed instruction’7 can be 
hope everyone recognises these as indeed typical – of considered typical of the above trends, the pedagogical 
modernity interact (contaminate?) with and confirm each echo of Descartes’ focus on method. Education reduced 
other. Education, for one, becomes a didactical market by to a technology, to planning. The whole field of humanitas 
turning students into clients and parents – and society itself – is reduced to a well-defined package of knowledge that 
into stakeholders (Weyns 2013). Juridification of the 
pedagogical relation can be discerned in the growing rate of 5.Actually, as Paul van Tongeren remarks in Filosofie Magazine (2016:24[3], 10), the problem is where modern education and care want to ensure quality. But this 
‘ensurance’ requires measurable evidence, results. Therefore, quality that needs to 
2.In this study, she famously describes and criticises the historical transition from be ensured is unavoidably replaced by quantity.
action through work to labour. This transition affects everything, from art to politics. 
It can be applied to education also. An elaboration hereof would take us beyond the 6.There is a wonderful episode of the brilliant series Yes, Minister, ‘The compassionate 
scope of this article. society’, about a hospital that is fully staffed except for medical staff because there 
is no money for that. So the hospital runs like a charm, without patients. The core 
3.The basic rights in terms of freedom, like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, business, healing the sick, is completely absent, but its efficiency is exemplary – it 
etc. are purely formal and totally independent of what one believes, says, etc. What even won a prize for that. (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01oual9ysQ)
one believes, says, etc. is constitutionally irrelevant.
7.This method was developed from Burrhus Skinners notion of ‘operant conditioning’ 
4.The term ‘reduction’ here is not necessarily morally loaded. onward.
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everyone is supposed to share, the accumulative acquisition generations. Marriage meant the same for our parents as for 
of that package is realised through methods based on their parents and so on, all the way back into the early 19th 
conditioning psychologies, whereby the student’s mind is century. But now this format is changing so rapidly that even 
considered a tabula rasa or at least a container that contains during one lifespan, within one generation, it changes 
precisely the same content – different ‘initial conditions’ significantly. In many states, civil divorce has been commonly 
can be regulated by studying the social, economic and accepted and now same-sex marriage.11 In some states, same-
geographical backgrounds in order to ‘remedy’ and indeed sex partners can adopt children. All this changes the whole 
even erase the differences. The differences that cannot be concept of family – which, by the way, according to some, is 
remedied (e.g. religion) have to be considered immaterial precisely the ideological anti-Christian and anti-traditional 
(‘strictly private’) and cast out.8 The whole process is again a strategy underlying this legislation. We can say the same 
matter of control and planning. What cannot be translated about tax regulation, traffic law, the prices of bread and 
into the programme is considered superfluous by necessity. houses (the ‘trigger index number’ is a tool to make this 
The learning and teaching experience is completely free change acceptable), etc. This asks for a different way of 
of desire, of a healthy curiosity, of wise authority, in short – ‘coping’, of ‘relying’ than in (early) modern society.
12
of Plato’s pedagogical eros. The notion of programmed 
instruction and the enthusiasm it enticed is typical of I can indeed say ‘modern society’, as liquidity is considered 
the American 1950s. In the post-World War, planning Bauman’s qualification of postmodern society. If we confine 
(Wiederaufbau) was the main cultural determinant, and since ourselves to the moral and legal ‘aspects’ of postmodernity, 
Europe was shot to pieces, literally, the United States could to the normativity in present society, then we can easily 
take the cultural lead. One may wonder if there would not discern a major change that renders this society incomparable 
have been a Second World War, would we have had with all former versions: the rejection of authority. ‘You 
behaviourism, programmed instruction, socio- and other cannot do that there!’ simply does not work anymore because 
metrics. But then again, experimental psychology started of a complete lack of unanimity on most socio-ethical matters. 
halfway the 19th century in … Germany.9 When I asked a young boy to remove his dirty boots from a 
bus seat, he came back with ‘Do you own this bus, maybe?’13 
Liquidity There is no moral argument that stretches beyond the individual. But then again, the ‘individual’ in its modern 
The whole idea of education being programmable is now sense does no longer exist, the rational subject has gone. 
frustrated by an unexpected effect of modernity – namely Ethics has gone ‘tribal’ (Maffesoli 1996). It has become a code 
the world’s liquidity – as diagnosed by Zygmunt Bauman.10 that has its validity only within certain subcultures and 
The thought behind programmed instruction is the complete cannot sustain itself over several generations and become 
integration of a predetermined set of knowledge and ‘tradition’. Liquidity is modern in that it does not even – or 
competences, the acquisition whereof can be measured, that no longer – have to reject tradition, it prevents it.
is supposed to be a necessary asset to adult professional life. 
The problem that liquidity poses here is that no one has any This ‘code’ is already something else than the codes that were 
idea how the world will look like in 2038. Our modern disposable in the 1960s. Then the code was simple: accept 
‘institutions’ that have guided modern life during some two (civil code) or reject (hippie code) the one existing code – 
centuries are changing increasingly faster. I would illustrate what United States president Nixon called the ‘moral 
this by taking marriage as an example. Since Napoleon majority’. Now there is no longer a default code that one can 
introduced his famous code, marriage was no longer in the relate to. This is by no means a youth strategy. Communication, 
first place a church matter, what it had been for centuries, to name but one example, has changed so rapidly – through 
but became a free contract between a man and a woman. industrial processes during the former generation – that this 
They had to answer some other (modern) criteria: they had to demands an idiosyncratic moral code (‘netiquette’) that 
be free, that is, unmarried and not forced by parents or by cannot be shared by grandparents who do not have a 
anyone else; they had to be fully ‘conscious’, that is, rational Facebook account.
and informed. Once a marriage had been arranged in the 
city hall, people could ‘upgrade’ their liaison in the church, This means that a large part of ‘young morality’ escapes the 
but not before the marriage was a civil fact. The format of notice of those who are in charge of education. They simply 
this ‘double contract’ with, firstly, the Secular community, 11.I remember, when I was young, there was this joke that went ‘Last Sunday, two 
men got married in our church.’ ‘WHAT?’ ‘Yes, one at 10 o’clock and then another 
and secondly, the faith community, held out for about ten one at 11 o’clock’ and that was considered funny. Now, you can only make 
conservative Christians cry with this ‘joke’.
8.Society can organise initiatives to remedy the lack of social skills (e.g. scouting), of 
economic potential (e.g. grants), of proximity (e.g. boarding schools, school bus), 12.Of course, not all of these changes are ideologically motivated, like the legislation 
but cannot not ‘efface’ religious difference. Logic operation, managing strategy, concerning marriage – although the way divorce has been facilitated lately can be 
political decision does not affect religious obedience or identity. When an Indian seen as an ideological attempt to undermine the (Christian) notion of the family as 
politician suggested that all pariahs should convert from Hinduism to Buddhism in the cornerstone of society. But legislation that concerns bioethical matters, like 
order to escape from social rejection, they bluntly refused. I cannot imagine anyone abortion and euthanasia, certainly is. Also, one could see how the way the 
refusing a grant or a school bus ride on the ground of social or economic identity. financing of mental health care significantly shifts from residential to ambulant 
might hide a strategy to diminish the impact of catholic congregations who have 
9.In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt ‘opened’ the first laboratory for experimental psychology been engaging in resident care for ages.
at Leipzig University, which was supposed to move psychology as a hard core 
science away from philosophy (and theology). 13.When I was their age, we knew it was ‘not done’ to place dirty boots on a bus 
seat, and we expected elderly people to reprimand us; otherwise the act would 
10.Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity (2000), Liquid Love (2003), Liquid Life (2005), lose its character of ‘rebellious statement’. Now, it seems just a matter of 
Liquid Fear (2006), Liquid Times (2006) and finally Liquid Evil (2016). complete indifference.
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cannot understand the code that ‘communicates’ that morality I found it difficult to lead my students away from their 
within those spheres where this code is evident or valid. Nor world – though this is what the Latin e-ducere means. 
can they communicate their code as valid, it is simply not A completely different method proved to be more fertile: 
accepted. The only way out of this, the only ‘cure’ against throw them into a completely new world – with this notion of 
liquidity, is authority (Verhaeghe 2015). Of course, I do not ‘code’ at the back of our thoughts. I took my students to an 
mean dictatorial control, but rather the ‘quiet authority’ of abbey – a completely different ‘code’. They loved it! Not 
someone who gets all due attention without explicitly having because it was catholic, but because it breathed religion (in 
to ask for it. its broadest sense) and as such, contrasted favourably with 
the liberal, neutral, industry-driven, achievement-orientated 
Competences and individualist-mechanical format of their daily life in 
modern society.
Our school system (in Belgium), and indeed our culture in 
general, has become obsessed with (technical) competences Education finds itself therefore confronted with three 
as the modern compensation for or even alleged emancipation challenges: facing liquidity, thinking beyond (mere industrial) 
from the more traditional ‘content transfer’. The problem competence and instrumentalisation, and re-inserting charity. 
with this is that the schools hand over youngsters to society These three challenges mirror the three great metaphysical 
who are capable of almost everything, but lack the social topics: the true, the beautiful and the good. Facing liquidity 
and moral imperative, let alone the ‘desire’, to actually apply refers to the Heideggerian historical-destinal understanding 
those competences. The reduction of the final end of of truth; thinking beyond instrumentalisation means opening 
education, viz. to build a good and just society, to a mere up to what is meaningful without being useful; (re)inserting 
ticking off of external, measurable criteria fails to meet the charity requires a rediscovery of a Platonic–Augustinian 
fundamental requirements and problems of current society. approach in thought. I will come back to this later, when I 
These criteria, moreover, are dictated by current industry, quote Ignace Verhack on the challenges to catholic education.
as, e.g. the Browne report shows (Collini 201214). All that 
industry requires is indeed a set of competences – industry 
itself will take care of the content input after the competences Late modernity and charity
have been mastered. The subject that gathers these Cultural experience
competences should not be motivated by morality but by the In an instrumentalised world, charity is not everything. Last 
need to survive in society or by plain greed. Industry thrives year I underwent some heavy surgery when ‘they’ performed 
on this. And yet, at the moment when traditional economy a pneumonectomy. Now, the first interview with the surgeon 
and industry are challenged by this (sociological) ‘revolution’, was interesting. With gleaming eyes, one hand holding a pen 
named sharing economy, the same industrial and financial and drawing a lung that looked like a clumsily poached egg 
world, in ‘crisis’ because unable to maintain itself according and with the other making cutting and stitching gestures, he 
to its own basic principles, commands government, in its told me how he would cut me open, spread my ribs, rip out 
turn unable to control the aforementioned world, to force the lung, staple the remains and so on, suddenly pausing to 
these principles onto education and care institutions. Here take an inspired note reminding him that he still had to order 
is some ugly perverse mechanism at work that hampers some blood, in the way one writes ‘milk’ with a circle around 
education – and care. it on a shopping list. I remember thinking ‘Am I really going 
to put my life in the hands of this butcher?’ and replying a 
Not only did the curriculum shift from content to competence, little later ‘Yes, because this is a technical routine for this 
but the faculty also experienced a similar shift. Nowadays, noble and renowned craftsman!’ And so it turned out to be. A 
didactic technological skills are considered more important marvellous piece of work. The only charity involved here 
than general cultural content. No teacher or professor is was that the surgeon worked for 5 h to make it technically 
supposed to know who Vivaldi or Beethoven, Breitenbach or perfect without rushing it, realising that he would earn 
Coetzee is, what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights exactly the same enormous amount of money if he did the 
or the French Revolution is all about. Teachers have become thing in under 4 h.
technicians. Cultural embeddedness, however, a source of 
the aforementioned authority this may be, has (silently and I am truly grateful that the surgeon completely ignored the 
implicitly) been declared obsolete. Even religious education symbolic or religious purport of my – or of course any other 
prefers pop songs to Bach’s Passions. And that has also to do patient’s – body, which might well have given him stage 
with the ‘associative’ method that I tried once, never to call fright. A problem arises when the instrumentalisation of the 
upon it again. This method says you should always start body becomes the only way of physical interaction or even 
from the experience of the students, their ‘living world’. intimacy. The ‘pornification’ of the body may well be a 
symptom of this. Once I participated in a Relational and 
14.This British report from 2010 states ‘Higher education matters because it drives 
innovation and economic transformation. Higher education helps to produce Sexual Education session with 14-year-olds. It was awful. 
economic growth, which in turn contributes to national prosperity’. See www.gov.
uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/422565/bis-10- Only the technical aspects were treated: how penetration 
1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf (visited 14 March worked and what kinds of contraceptives were available. 
2018). The link www.independent.gov.uk/browne-report, mentioned in this 
pdf-document, does not work. Not a word about the value of sexuality or its place in a 
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solid relationship. The ‘inter-’ in intercourse was purely constructive cooperation with society, then education is no 
utilitarian – to distinguish it from masturbation, presumably – more than a machine for varieties on programmed instruction. 
and utterly mechanical.15 Cartesian sex. Those responsible for the organisation of curricula should 
be convinced of the necessity of a ‘humanisation’ that reaches 
In Flandres, a centre for personal training offers the following beyond mere ‘instrumentalisation’. His view has been 
programmes.16 When you are alone, you may benefit from confirmed at a conference organised in 2012 by VSKO, at that 
course one – How to meet other people. When this works, you time the Flemish umbrella organisation for catholic education, 
can attend course two – Engagement training. Suppose you are showing that voluntary work leads to less depression and 
in love, there is course three – Marriage counselling. In case your burnout.19
marriage threatens to fail, you can rely on course four – 
Marriage repair. If your marriage actually fails, turn to course While governments seem to ‘restyle’ education according to 
five – Successful divorce. And then you can go back to course current economic imperatives, (Christian) scholars point out 
one. The message of this centre is simple: life requires that this ‘instrumentalisation’ of society and its youth 
professional technical instruction. Do not trust your own neglects several fundamental human values. Education that 
common sense or your nearest and dearest to help you live narrows itself down to the transmission of competences and 
your life. It is as if we cannot learn anything from tradition, the ‘spirit of achievement’ leaves no room for voluntary work 
from our parents and our peers that is worthwhile without as this has nothing to do with competence nor achievement, 
becoming technological and professional. All this instruction at least not at first sight.20 There is no scientific evidence for 
is, of course, well meant and very useful, but there it stops. the ‘use’ of voluntary work – only statistical covariance with 
Usefulness as a modern ethical imperative is not questioned measurable and definable feelings of satisfaction, comparable 
here, it is taken for granted.17 with the feelings that paid work yields.
This instrumentalisation, the total immersion of culture into One of the notions that lost its cultural ground because of 
technology, has ‘discouraged’ many people, young and old. instrumentalisation and the subsequent suppression of 
The absolute priority of use has obscured the desire for sense educational desire was indeed charity. Doing something for 
that motivated thought before (and after?) modernity. As others without explicitly expecting something in return 
psycho- and other therapies took over from religion, became a stupid thing that neither economy could defend 
something disappeared: the ‘meaning of it all’. The external nor (social) psychology could explain. Neo-Marxists even 
reference, from the caricature of a God with a long grey beard considered charity counterproductive and hypocritical 
in a white dress to the most subtle religious imagery, died because it was nothing more than a strategy to hide the 
out – as prophesised in Nietzsche’s autopsy of God (Nietzsche injustice that was kept alive at the roots of society by precisely 
1974, §125). Modernity – i.e. the victory of enlightenment those who practiced charity – i.e. Christians. The fact remains 
over its reaction, romanticism – reduced the ‘meaning of it that no human science, typical product of modernity, can 
all’ to the scientific explanation of the world. In a not explain or justify charity. Even altruism is unmasked as social 
completely fathomable way, science succeeded in positioning egoism. This is why charity never really ‘escaped’ from 
itself as the modern evidence. The scientific explanation is (moral) theology where it was generally agreed to belong.
better than any other because it is scientific. But if this world 
‘encloses’ on itself, around certainty, power and success, There is even a political motif that shows how and why 
society breeds burn out, depression and delinquency. In his charity, neighbouring love, remains a marginal value in 
lecture at the first academic opening of my project ZIeZO modern society, even though it is one of the three pillars of 
(organisation of reflection retreats for students), leading modern, enlightened political thought: fraternité, together 
youth psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens pointed this out.18 with liberté and égalité. One can read this in the very first 
He significantly added that education has its responsibility article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It 
here. If it merely ‘delivers’ young people who are only fitted proclaims that:
for industry, if it only serves as an instrument to generate All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. 
competences and transfer scientific facts, if it forfeits They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act 
21
15.The school doctor was surprised when she told the 14-year-old children that towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
doctors were no longer obliged to notify the parents when a girl of their age asked 
for a ‘morning after’ pill and I told the class that I utterly regretted this, since I was 
convinced that in such situations the parents, after an understandable moment of This means that liberty and equality are treated as structural 
frustration and anger, would only turn out to be the only possible support. I do not 
consider ignoring the parents in such situations a victory, as the school doctor evidence, but charity belongs to the moral register. This 
initially did. Later on, she agreed with me. further implies that, unlike charity, liberty and equality can 
16.For reasons of discretion, I will not mention the name of the organisation. easily be ‘formalised’, translated into a consistent jurisdiction 
17.This utilitarian ethics has recently developed into an ethics of sterility. In an and a political ideology that have to safeguard them. 
illustrated weekly, a respected journalist wrote that a hand shake is no longer 
accepted, since you actually rub each other with bacteria. Even a high five has 19.Unfortunately, as VSKO does no longer exist, the documents are no longer to be 
become dubious. We should all follow the example of former president Obama and found on the Internet.
confine ourselves to a ‘fist bump’. In an academic journal, I read of a doctoral 
student in medicine who could not understand how parents still allowed their 20.The care experience implies a total absence of technical or professional activity. 
children to blow out candles on a birthday cake, since that was no less than injecting There is no goal or result that has to be achieved and that is not the experience 
bacteria into the cream. Sterility beats tradition. (of bliss?) itself.
18.3 October 2012, Keizersberg Abbey, Louvain. 21.See www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights
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More and more, society finds itself unable to integrate charity which is why sharing economy shares the same problem 
into the mechanisms of the modern nation-state because, with competence education.
while law is obligatory, morals are not. Nowadays, political 
thought only deduces its insights from the two premises of Philosophical reflection
liberty and equality. This yields a society where everyone can It seems that technology, including scientific explanation, has 
be the congenital egoist one is by nature, a social atom, an somehow reached its limits, has exhausted its potential 
island that must not harm anyone else and must not be (Heidegger 1978:374–377). This is the whole philosophy of the 
harmed by anyone else. Law takes care of that. As modern 
‘end’ of metaphysics, the ‘end’ not being a historically or 
philosophical political thought has it, since Hobbes, the state 
scientifically established end. This ‘end’ contains the (re)
has to curb natural egoism – homo homini lupus – and that 
appearance of charity in thought, in culture. The late-modern 
warrants the survival of individuals as citizens in a society 
(Hobbes 2011). A cold, sterile and mechanical society, but still interest in charity does not stem from an anachronistic 
a society. Political voices that allow for religious motivation strategy to ‘rewind’ modernity, but on the contrary, to think 
defend another ‘model’. They will have it that, as all religions through modernity by ‘breaking’ the rationalist imperialism. 
really aim at peaceful living together, they should inspire a It would indeed be charitable for thought to allow for other 
common moral pre-political motivation to that effect.22 The than strictly rationalist discourse. By removing the primacy of 
basic requirement here is decency, not power or anything like scientific argumentation from philosophy and maintaining 
it. Decency can be considered the ‘stepping stone’ to charity. this argumentation as a meaningful narrative amongst others, 
A young fellow who takes the bus to a political meeting but equally valid in their truth claims and free from the complacent 
does not give up his seat to an old lady is not a decent member system of objectivity, thought would finally recognise the 
of society. sense of a movement that has been working its way through 
Western culture since the end of the 19th century.24
Still, charity lives on in our societies. A major study in the 
Netherlands showed how patients and their relatives and In a technological world, it is not wrong or bad or evil to 
friends appreciated charity in (catholic) hospitals but think technologically. This is what Heidegger meant 
remained almost totally indifferent as to what motivates this with Gelassenheit (often translated as ‘releasement’); you 
charity (Dresen 2002:3–14). Even capitalist industry thrives can only say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to technology (Heidegger 1966). 
on charity, a fact that can be detected during a work-to-rule One can neither reject it nor can one overcome it on one’s 
action. When all employees start doing nothing more or less own initiative. It is historically destined. We have no 
than what their contract (juridification) and deontology choice, the world that has been given to us is a technological 
(applied ethics) require, then the firm or institution shows a world. But we should not succumb to it. The notion that 
slowdown or decrease in productivity or fails to maintain a our world is finally and ultimately the only true one has 
certain level of service. The inability of traditional economy – been criticised from all sides, for example by Nietzsche, 
and also of socio-liberal politics, high level education, Spengler, Popper and of course Heidegger. It is therefore 
sociometrics, etc. – to deal with this ‘moral margin’ is just one just possible that each world (or cultural epoch) reveals 
more symptom of this instrumentalisation. Charity, the its own flaws and inner discrepancies at the moment of 
‘favour’ for free, with nothing expected in return, remains its crisis. And if there is one word that has come up in 
invisible in the industrial equations that determine the French thought, trying to grasp beyond traditional Western 
understanding of labour. This symptom has recently thought, it unquestionably is ‘other’, the ‘other’ that cannot 
produced another symptom that ‘contaminates’ traditional be totally recuperated and reduced to the ‘same’. If Hegel’s 
economy, namely sharing economy, also called peer-to-peer system as the total recuperation of anything ‘other’ is 
or collaborative economy. It is intrinsically social (regional) typically modern, then late modernity is the denial of 
and ethical (ecological) but presupposes, as platform this ‘totality’. The ‘other’ resists recuperation, reintegration 
economy, high IT-performance that requires current cultural and reduction to the self.
‘digital presence’. What happened to Uber and Airbnb is of 
course also symptomatic, not of the instability of traditional 
How can this ‘other’ remain truly other in a technological 
industrial models but rather of their persistency. To some, 
society that hinges on control, planning and extrapolation? 
sharing economy is where ethics are (re)inserted in capitalist 
When I press the light button of my reading lamp, I do not 
economy. But still, in the same way as above, someone who 
takes the bus to a picking farm or a repair café and refuses to expect charity from the bulb or from a deity that helps readers. 
give up his seat to an old lady scores zero on the moral scale This is technology, as realised through science. The problem is 
(Comte-Sponville 200123). Ethics still remain an option here, not that we should skip science and technology in a nostalgic 
or rebellious mood. We should acknowledge that science and 
22.It is fundamentally wrong to state that religion and violence always go together. 
We can follow René Girard where he discovers the violent roots of religion and we technology are not everything in an ultimate sense, that they 
also follow those who point at the relation between actual violence and religion. can perhaps define their own ‘total’, viz. the scientific world, 
Inasmuch as that relation is genuine, it always turns out to be a perversion of that 
religion. Let us not forget, for instance that Muslim terrorists barely know the but that this ‘total’ is never a Hegelian identity with the 
Coran and who they, once welcomed into ISIS, only receive military training and no 
more religious indoctrination. one and eternal ‘world’ or ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ – words that all 
23.Politeness, he suggests, and decency are themselves perhaps not real virtues, but 24.I refer to the famous Methodenstreit, Kierkegaard’s and Nietzsche’s criticism of 
they certainly are the indispensable conditions of virtuousness. Without them, Hegel, the appearance of psychoanalysis and quantum mechanics, the tradition 
ethical virtues remain empty. that Heidegger ‘started’, etc.
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become problematic when we leave the scientific (in the sense attitude re epistemology is not method, but humility and 
of Hegel or of science itself) system of objectivity. gratitude. This is what Plato, of whom Whitehead said that 
all Western philosophy can be read as a footnote to his work, 
To give an example that comes from the religious world: has taught us, not that man has a dual nature and the rest of 
Holy Unction or Anointing. What does this mean, even textbook-Platonism.28
philosophically? It is not a trick where magic ointment will 
compel God to cure a patient in a miraculous way that would It should not be considered accidental that both Plato, who 
stupefy the medical world and urge the Pope to canonise opened the door to metaphysics without actually stepping 
someone. No, the moment when the doctors declare through, and Heidegger, who opened the same door to 
themselves baffled and leave the room, we light a candle and allow metaphysics to leave without actually following its 
send for a priest. Why (Meganck 2016a:473–498)? Because disappearance himself, should consider gratitude so essential 
when technology fails and leaves us in total despair, from to thought. Augustine, Christianity’s own Plato, also posited 
another angle or perspective hope rises. Hope is despair seen (Christian) love (so: charity) in- and outside the order of 
from a non-technological position – following Christ up the being and knowing, where also Plato’s ‘Agathon’ is to be 
mountain (Mt 5:1). Hope is where thought recognises its (dis)located. Charity, Augustine says, works its way through 
religious roots. Late modernity is precisely the point where thought without being determined by reason.29 To ‘describe’ 
thought stops rejecting this recognition. this (dis)location, one needs poetry instead of logic. Anselm 
came, I think, closest to achieve this. He spoke of God as 
In a refreshing conference, organised by Christen Forum, on the the Highest entity one could think. This is indeed the 
fundamental challenges to catholic education, Ignace Verhack metaphysical Highest Being or Highest Idea. But then, at 
(emeritus professor of Philosophy at the Louvain Institute of the same time, he also says that God is greater than all that 
Philosophy) formulated three of them – that turned out to refer can be thought. So, God is at the same time the ultimate 
to the three traditional themes of metaphysics: truth, good and reference point of the whole thought system and the 
beauty.25 But he introduced them without the recuperation point where thought ‘loses’ itself. God is also where thought 
imperative of traditional metaphysics. Instead, he followed stretches beyond its own boundaries. The strongest element 
the ‘step back’ that Heidegger advocated (Heidegger 1969:49). of metaphysics has therefore always been its weakest – and 
Catholic education is not just a matter of evangelisation. It this is a biblical dynamics, no less. God is, metaphysically 
should show, point at, open upon the possibility of what lies speaking, the point where metaphysics lets go of its absolute 
beyond the world of science, of law, of efficiency. It should turn (Aristotelean) form, this self-emptying being de-exaltation to 
the world of explanation (quod erat demonstrandum) into a the Holy Name – the name that has no corresponding being 
world of appeal (‘Listen, Israel’ and ‘You have heard … but I and is therefore holy (Phlp 2:5–11; Meganck 2015:211–224).
tell you …’). It should offer a ‘spiritual vocabulary and 
grammar’ that at least allows young people to see beyond the The point I am trying to make here is that the insertion of 
world of science, and make a choice. Here, for example suffering charity (gratitude and mercifulness) at the heart of thought, 
would be understood as an appeal instead of reduced to a of philosophy – whether the academy is ready for it or not – 
(scientifically established and diagnosed) problem that could is a move ‘beyond’ traditional metaphysics that complies 
and should, but is not being (technically) solved by therapy, with the undercurrent that critique of metaphysics has been 
and when therapy fails, euthanasia. following now for over a century. It has become an ‘open’ 
thought because the cork, namely the absolute, the total, the 
It was Gilles Deleuze who famously remarked that Plato was Highest, has worn off. In the words of Nietzsches madman, 
an ethical thinker in the first place and that his ontological God is dead. And whereas many academic philosophers 
and epistemological thought derives from that basic fulminate against this critique because it threatens to kill 
inspiration. I would rephrase that insight here as follows. As thought, the critique replies that it is precisely traditional 
the basic miracle of the world consists in the fact that we can metaphysics that is suicidal, wanting to enclose the 
understand it, philosophy is all about understanding well. world into its one and final (scientific, logical, conceptual) 
Therefore, it is our moral duty to safeguard understanding explanation.
and to keep thought ‘clean’. The way in which Plato tried to 
do this is less relevant here. It is about our moral duty to The ‘good message’ of philosophy consists in the experience 
think and to think well. When modern philosophy deals with that we do not have to bend the run of history to welcome 
‘thinking well’, it speaks of method and clear concepts, charity in thought. We can detect traces of an emergence that 
rejecting tradition and prejudice – prejudice entailing also can only be called promising. Firstly, ‘charity’ and similar 
religion.26 But according to Plato, understanding was a terms have entered the philosophical discourse without real 
present of gods, a divine gift.27 Therefore, the correct moral 
28.‘The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that 
25.Unfortunately, I am unable to find the exact date of this conference. it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato’ (Whitehead 1978:39).
26.As Gadamer famously remarked, typical of modernity is its prejudice against 29.Augustin said ‘Love, and then do whatever you want’. No harm can ever come from 
prejudices. real love. Now, within the sphere of logic, ‘anything follows’ only applies to a false 
proposition (a contradiction). So, in order to prevent charity from becoming the 
27.He used theos, theoi as well as theios to denote the divine arrival of thought in contradiction at the core of Christianity – more or less in the way Freud called 
man. Perhaps this might have been his real problem with the sophists, not that Christian charity a perversion, a sort of psychological contradiction – and thereby 
they used rhetoric, but that they should consider themselves the owners, the perishing in what is called a ‘deductive explosion’, we should think of it beyond the 
makers of truth instead of recognising a more religious source of thought, of truth. reach of logic.
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headstrong resistance. Secondly, charity no longer exclusively is an alarming rise of antidepressant medication intake by 
belongs to (moral) theology anymore. It is Gianni Vattimo children between 11 and 15 years old. A society that ‘removes’ 
who remarks that charity is now generally accepted as a all religious or philosophical safety nets and replaces them by 
genuine philosopheme (Vattimo 1997:40, 46–47; 1999:64). industrial imperatives actually creates the above-mentioned 
Continental (French) as well as analytic (English) philosophers symptoms. The ‘growth model’ that motivates industry lays 
courageously study charity. It should be noted here that this a heavy burden on the frail shoulders of youngsters. More is 
happens almost exclusively within a tradition that has never enough. In the financial reports, one can read that firms 
become known as the critique of metaphysics. that achieve growth, but whose growth itself is not growing, 
that is, who do not achieve exponential growth, fail to meet 
Leaving aside Kierkegaard, who famously launched his market requirements. This shows an inner perversion at 
criticism of Hegel from (more or less) the same Christian work at the heart of industry. It is, again, this perverting 
background that both thinkers shared, we start this tradition industrial logic that, through helpless politics, determines 
with Nietzsche. Very significant but hardly noticed here is his education. Not only do schools find themselves compelled 
preface to the second edition of his The Gay Science. There, he to organise their institute according to this logic, as noted 
mentions the three theological virtues, but not in connection above, but the same logic is systematically infecting the 
with God but with the delivery from metaphysics as a school curriculum.
salvation to be compared with a physical healing (Meganck 
2016b:154–170). I contend that this introduction of charity, Young adults who should acquire social skills and 
hope and faith in philosophical thought is all but coincidence, competences, which are sadly lacking in the curricula, are 
a literary effect or an unhappy metaphorical reference. When confronted with levels of achievement that only the very best 
thought reaches beyond traditional metaphysics without can ever hope to reach. So, the rest just ‘drops out’. This is all 
actually destroying it, it cannot but meet the cornerstones of the more sad because every teacher has known pupils who 
its very provenance, viz. Christianity. The new configuration were rotten at math but had a heart of gold …
or constellation where philosophy and theology find 
themselves in today is more than just an academic, speculative Secularisation seems to be the term that connects the 
exercise. The ‘theological turn’ (Janicaud 2000) of history promotion of the above logic and the diminution of religious 
cannot be ignored as a failed strategy of a handful of devout impact on society, including education. In Louvain, the 
philosophers, sharing a phenomenological background, in Jesuits organise an ‘open year’.30 Whoever considers taking 
France (Jonkers 2005). It has become a cultural event, up university studies can apply. The students are supposed 
announced in the work of Marcel Gauchet. to ‘taste’ some courses, engage in community life (including 
prayer) and in voluntary work. This formula is very 
Educational experience successful. Students testify of its positive effect. Only the 
The possibility of this above-mentioned new configuration is above logic can prevent this formula to become the default 
implied by the political question concerning the place of first academic year from now on. If one could ignore what I 
religion and philosophy in public debate. While modernity called the ‘industrial imperative’, one would only find 
seems to have decided that these discourses should remain arguments in favour of such system.
within the private sphere, late modernity obviously no longer 
holds this to be evident. Recently, (non-functional) identity – It is high time for education to reflect – also literally curb – 
religious or not – has become an item on the socio-political this tendency. Firstly, instead of allowing government to 
agenda. Catholic education could not prevent, even if it force schools to apply the perverse industrial logic while 
wanted to, the shift of ‘identity’ from evidence to problem. reducing funds, school should force government to treat 
Schools found themselves challenged to articulate their education as its most important investment and leave 
‘catholicity’ (Meganck 2018:30–46). industry and banks to solve their own problems. But this is 
not what this article is about. Secondly, the curriculum should 
This has to do with secularisation, broadly understood. In reverse its ‘industrialisation’ and formulate a new teleology. 
modern society, every single life span used to take place This teleology should not be elaborated in terms of production 
within one and only one ideological ‘pole’. Catholics went or consumption and formal (i.e. liberal) citizenship.
to catholic schools, catholic youth organisations, catholic 
pubs and catholic hospitals, they were a member of catholic Educational challenge
unions, catholic health insurance companies, even played Decades ago, in catholic higher education, students used to go 
in catholic football clubs and ditto brass bands. The same to an abbey and reflect on faith as such. As an effect of what 
holds for socialists and liberals, respectively. Those barriers was generally perceived as secularisation, this formula was 
eventually fell down to make place for a religiously and replaced by other, more socially orientated initiatives. But for 
philosophically indifferent and neutral society. one reason or another, these initiatives, once amputated from 
their traditional and religious – two mutually contagious 
Some scholars defend a connection between this indifference notions – provenance, soon ‘deteriorated’ into group survival 
and rather disquieting symptoms like depression, burnout 
30.https://www.kuleuven.be/studentenvoorzieningen/kot-leuven/residenties-cerab/
and radicalisation. Recent study in Belgium shows that there dondeynehuis/project
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trips or even just plain sport events. This can easily be Until further notice, care is still institutional and mentally 
perceived as a symptom of the above-mentioned secularisation disabled persons, persons who suffer from dementia or 
with its – not necessary or intrinsic – implication of (religious) psychic problems, are still ‘strangers’ in our society. There are 
indifference. still lots of work to be done about their ‘stigmatisation’.
Precisely because of the negative connotation of indifference, a Appendix: The gain: Psycho-ethical 
fresh approach to the notion of ‘retreat’ was required. It would 
have to appeal to students and yet have all the spiritual effect effects of charity in education
that catholic (or indeed other religious) education is supposed Youngsters profit from a care experience on several levels 
to provide. As the old formula has fallen out of grace, so to (Burman 2013). On an affective level, a student ‘meets’ 
speak, education should start from the premise that a retreat another human being ‘behind’ the label. It is perfectly 
should not ‘re-treat’ God but needs to hinge on an existential natural to be lightly nauseated by the very idea of mentally 
experience that is strong yet not spectacular. Reflection should handicapped persons, psychiatric patients or demented 
‘root’ in the world and ‘grow’ towards God, not the other way elderly people. Our society does not breed saints that easily. 
around (anymore). This latter, deductive approach has lost its Even St. Angela da Foligno experienced traces of nausea 
absolute validity. As Ignace Verhack says in his latest book, when washing lepers.31 We are so used to live in a sterile 
Christian faith and thought have become impossible without social environment that the sight of someone who is 
a positive attitude towards the world (Verhack 2016). Its constitutionally unable to keep up with current hygienic 
acceptability depends largely on a world opening up towards standards by himself or herself can only be disturbing for a 
God, a world that is no longer deductive in that it derives its youngster who has never been confronted with this 
meaning from a scholastic understanding of creation. phenomenon. This new world is strange and this experience 
is what theology calls a ‘desert experience’ and psychology 
Actually, projects such as this have many ‘advantages’. There calls ‘deep water’. It is not what one seeks from oneself, 
is of course the mere experience of caring that would serve which is precisely the main reason for this project. Our 
as the starting point of a spiritual reflection – which will be experience, however, ensures us that discomfort, fear and 
explained in the appendix below. This is the main target of even disgust will eventually turn into something beautiful, 
this initiative. There is also the positive effect of someone namely the recognition of an unalienable human dignity.
who is ‘left out’ of social interaction getting a (voluntary) 
visitor instead of a (paid, professional and technical) care On a cognitive level, students acquire a social awareness, 
taker. But it also means that suddenly those ‘marginal mainly in terms of responsibility – going from merely keeping 
categories’ (the ‘poor’) regain their legitimate presence in their appointments with an institution to understanding the 
society, just by being seen and heard again, not because of fact that someone is actually counting on them to just ‘be 
any (spectacular) achievement. Finally, it shows youngsters there’. Also, the students are able to criticise prejudices and 
the hardness of work in the ‘soft sector’ and leads to respect caricatures in society and commercial media. They acquires 
for (professional) care givers. insight in causes, mechanisms and effects of different systems 
of deprivation (disability, psychiatric problems, poverty, 
In the 1970s several social developments generated the addiction, etc.). This way, they understands that those people 
phenomenon of institutes for the so-called ‘target groups’. are not to blame for needing care and help.
This would ensure specific treatment for those who needed 
it. Because of this specificity, the institutes were deemed more On a moral level, one sees voluntary work as meaningful 
human than the households who could only offer a family experience and is motivated to apply the social competences 
life that was often unable to function satisfactorily because of above as part of life, to integrate this experience as 
the special care some household members required. That care co-determining life choices (study, profession, relation, 
would now be taken over by professionals. Despite all the vocation) and to recognise religious thought and ditto 
good intentions and the benefits of professional care on reflection as proper motivation for charity.
specialised sites, this development literally removed those 
persons that needed special care from the spheres where Important here is the way cognition is integrated in other 
daily life was lived by ‘normal’ people. faculties like disgust, responsibility, empathy and respect. 
‘Humanity’ as a category is ‘broader’ than mere competence 
Government is now taking initiatives to ‘remedy’ this acquisition or content saving.
situation, and launches projects that encourage ‘inclusion’, 
‘responsibilisation’, ‘socialisation of care’, etc. And indeed, 
at the surface these projects seem to be meant to give the Conclusion
elderly, the disabled and psychically troubled persons their Late modernity is where thought, culture and philosophy 
social rights back, but unfortunately they often are nothing explore the limits of instrumentalisation. By weakening the 
but ‘tighten the belt’ measures. Inclusive education is cheaper modern imperatives, charity – hitherto confined to (moral) 
than special education, responsibilisation and socialisation 31.When she caught herself being nauseated, she actually ate a piece of leper 
usually means that next of kin can pay for the extra care skin floating in the tub, as punishment, but was then blessed with the sensation 
of receiving the Body of Christ, in the consecrated form of a Host of flesh. 
someone needs. Most students do not go that far as this mystic nun.
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theology – reappears in cultural discourse without resistance. Du Preez, P., Simmonds, S. & Verhoef, A., 2016, ‘Rethinking and researching 
transformation in higher education: A meta-study of South-African trends’, 
This urges education to also look beyond its modern formats. Transformation in Higher Education 1(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v1i1. 
2thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/2/9
One possible initiative is the ‘insertion’ of charity. Reflection 
Hanley, R., 2017, Love’s enlightenment: Rethinking charity in modernity, Cambridge 
on a care experience is a pedagogically justifiable form of University Press, Cambridge.
this insertion. What was deemed irrelevant, private and Heidegger, M., 1966, Discourse on thinking, Harper & Row, New York.
optional before becomes a core educational challenge now – Heidegger, M., 1969, Identity and difference, Harper & Row, New York.
I hope. The new meaning of the world, without changing Heidegger, M., 1977, The question concerning technology, and other essays, Garland Publishers, MI.
the world, is precisely this: let us keep teaching economy, Heidegger, M., 1978, Basic writings, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
engineering, law or medicine, etc., but always against the Hobbes, T., 2011, Leviathan (revised edition), Broadview Press, Ontario.
backdrop of charity. Education should come from the heart, Janicaud, D., 2000, Phenomenolgy and the theological turn: The French debate, 
Fordham University Press, New York.
as Plato would have it. This way we may make liquid society 
Jonkers, P. & Welten R. (eds.), 2005, God in France: Eight contemporary French 
heaven on earth. thinkers on God, Peeters, Leuven.
Maffesoli, M., 1996, The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass 
society, Sage, London.
Acknowledgements Meganck, E., 2015, ‘In godsnaam: Een filosofisch parcours’, Nederlands Theologisch 
Tijdschrift 69(3), 211–224.
Competing interests Meganck, E., 2016a, ‘Spem in Aliud … What May I Hope For?’, Ethical Perspectives 
23(3), 473–498.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal Meganck, E., 2016b, ‘Ratio est Fides: Contemporary philosophy as virtuous thought’, 
relationships which may have inappropriately influenced International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 77(3), 154–170. https://doi.org/
10.1080/21692327.2016.1221356
him in writing this article. Meganck, E., 2018, ‘Re-telling faith: A contemporary philosophical redraft of Christianity 
as hermeneutics’, New Blackfriars 99(1079), 30–46. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/
nbfr.12184 
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