Resourcing the Culture 6 February, 2014

Second Spring at The Centre for Faith & Culture

Second Spring began as a magazine supplement in 1992 and at the dawn of the new century became the journal of the Centre for Faith & Culture in Oxford. Out of this grew Second Spring Oxford, founded by Léonie and Stratford Caldecott and managed by their daughter Teresa – a small consultancy devoted to the evangelisation of culture through events, education, and publishing. Find us on social media: TwitterFacebookPinterest, and Instagram.

You are also encouraged to visit Stratford Caldecott’s personal blogs: Beauty in Education and All Things Made New. Selected articles from these blogs also appear on the Imaginative Conservative site.

LATEST NEWS:

Our 2014 Centre for Faith & Culture SUMMER PROGRAMME in conjunction with Thomas More College of Liberal Arts will take place in Oxford 7th-21st August. Further details will be posted shortly. Students wishing to participate and gain accreditation should email [email protected], and others should email Tessa at [email protected]

INTERFAITH COLLOQUIUM at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford. Saturday afternoon 1st March 2014, 2–5pm in the Refectory, admission free. Christian and Islamic thinkers engage in a conversation about notions of society, the secular, and the human vocation. Includes the Gothic architect Warwick Pethers, teachers both Muslim and Christian, and stonecarver Karim Lahham discussing the topic Humanising Work. Come and join us.

BOOKS  Stratford’s latest book, The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity, from Angelico Press, is available for purchase through us (email [email protected] or contact our distributers ‘Prompt Reply’ directly), along with his other Angelico Press titles, Beauty in the Word and All Things Made New. A sequel to Radiance on social doctrine called Not As the World Gives: The Way of Creative Justice is to appear later in 2014. We also have in stock his book on the great Catholic writer J.R.R. Tolkien and the spiritual meaning of Middle-earth, The Power of the Ring, which was released recently by Crossroad as an expanded and revised edition of the now out-of-print Secret Fire published by DLT. A Spanish edition of the same book, El poder del Anillo, is now available as well as Italian and Russian translations. You can read more about books by the Directors of Second Spring under ‘Books>Recommended Books’ in the navigation menu.

Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of EducationStratford’s sequel to Beauty for Truth’s Sake, completing his study of the seven Liberal Arts, was published in 2012 with a Foreword by Antony Esolen. Education is in crisis, and new possibilities are opening up all the time, but any genuine reform will have to be based on an understanding of what education is for. Teachers and parents are invited to join our growing network to share ideas and discuss initiatives. Follow the link to find out more (and read an article on the whole project here). Angelico Press have a Facebook page for the book and related works that you can join to become part of the conversation. The book is available through Amazon. Read the interview.

WINTER SALE OF OUR COLOURING BOOKS CONTINUES The Mass Illustrated for Children is designed not just to keep a child quiet during Mass but as a rich resource for parents and catechists to use to explain what happens in the liturgy to young children – to stimulate both faith and imagination. For a limited period only, this title is available in the UK and Europe at the discounted price of only £1.95*. Also, SCOTT HAHN’s introduction to the Bible for children (God’s Covenant with You), illustrated by David Clayton in the style of classical icons and illuminations, is still available, along with our other titles, all at £1.95. Books in the Second Spring Catechesis series are available in the UK by emailing [email protected], texting 07836 520597, or leaving a voice message on 01798 343718. If you are in the U.S. you can order via Thomas More College. See the books in action in this featurette or Second Spring Catechesis film. (*+p&p, and not in conjunction with any other discounts.)

CATHOLICISM AND THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE  The eighth issue of Humanum, the free online book review journal of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC, edited by Stratford, is available here. It features papers from a conference with the Mayo Clinic. The previous issue was on problems caused by technology in the home. These and other topics are examined through articles and book reviews by contributors familiar with the Christian anthropology of John Paul II.

Step by step, Humanum is examining the pressing issues of our time as they affect the most vulnerable members of society, and includes a round-up of relevant life, health, and family news from around the world. Follow the links and click for a free subscription so that we can alert you each time a new issue is published! Upcoming issues include one on contemporary threats to the extended family, including many of the issues surrounding urban development.

SECOND SPRING JOURNAL  Our seventeenth issue, on The Economy, includes readable articles by John Medaille, Edward Hadas, Michael Black, and others, with poetry by Megan Furman. As controversy rages around the critique of capitalism to be found in Evangelii Gaudium, read about modern Distributism in action, about the debate with Neoconservatism, and about the Crisis of the Corporation. The previous issue was on the theme of Holy Vessels for all you Grail seekers out there, and included articles by Duncan Stroik, Margaret Atkins, Jerome Bertram CO, Margaret Truran OSB, Léonie Caldecott, and others. You can purchase back issues (including PDFs) from Thomas More College in the U.S., or contact us at the Oxford office. The upcoming issue will have a focus on Theatre, and is edited by Léonie Caldecott.

MAGNIFICAT  The popular monthly prayer book and missal MAGNIFICAT, well known in the US, which we edit here in Oxford for the UK and Ireland, is also available as a iPhone/iPad app. It contains spiritual meditations for every day of the year by the great writers and saints of our tradition, with a beautiful cover as well as high-quality artwork to accompany an art essay in each issue. Several brand new features will be introduced in December. MAGNIFICAT is a wonderful aid to daily prayer and meditation, even if you can’t get to Mass each day. The UK/ Ireland/ Australia edition is edited from our office in Oxford and can be viewed online here. (It is on Twitter and Facebook too.)

ASSOCIATED PROJECTS:

OASIS  Issue 17 of this very important international journal founded by Cardinal Angelo Scola is now available, and the theme picks up two of our interests – interfaith dialogue, and the future of the economy. Titled “The Economy Called Into Question“, this issue of Oasis relates the deep economic questions raised by the global crisis to the ongoing political crisis going on in the Middle East and North Africa, with articles by Edward Hadas, Michael Naughton, and a host of others, plus book reviews and news. The Oasis website is a great place to go for informed coverage of events.

G.K. CHESTERTON  The CHESTERTON LIBRARY (Charity No. 1134101), curated by the Centre for Faith & Culture for several years, has now moved to the Oxford Oratory’s new study centre devoted to Newman and the Literary Revival. Academic and Christian interest in G.K. Chesterton is growing worldwide, and the study centre will contain a room dedicated to him where this unrivalled collection of books and memorabilia will be made accessible to scholars and visitors, although funds are still urgently required to finish the project and to shelve the books and display miscellanea. If you wish to become a supporter either of the Oratory Building project or the Library Trust itself, go to the Library page where relevant links are maintained.

SIERRA LEONE CHESTERTON CENTRE  was started by a former student of Plater College and Oxford University, John Kanu, and is a centre for community-led sustainable development inspired by the ideals of G.K. Chesterton in one of the world’s poorest countries. It is helping to revitalize the rural economy on which the country depends. The Centre desperately needs equipment and tools, ranging from scissors to computers and generators. Detailed information is available on request. Help if you can!

IMAGINATIVE CONSERVATIVE  If you haven’t already come across this online journal ‘for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful’, we would like to recommend you waste no time in getting acquainted! With a hearty dose of several essays a day on culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the leading thinkers in Imaginative Conservatism (Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Irving Babbitt, Christopher Dawson…), the community provides much food for thought. Stratford and Léonie are both regular contributors.

HUMANITAS  This important international journal of Christian anthropology and culture, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, is also available in a beautifully produced English language edition. The first English-language issue is about the legacy of Pope John Paul II, the second has a number of important articles on Pope Benedict’s call for a broadening of human reason, the third  is on the theme of the Year of Faith. The fourth is a tribute to Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, and contains a profound analysis of our cultural crisis from Archbishop Bergoglio, as well as lavishly illustrated articles on modernity, Hildegard of Bingen, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and J.R.R. Tolkien. The FIFTH ISSUE is now published, and reflects on the year of two popes. Each issue can be read online with free registration. Also now available for free download from the Humanum site is a Vademecum or Handbook of John Paul II’s anthropology, plus a selection of other useful and important documents from John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Stratford, Léonie, Teresa, & Sophie Caldecott