What is REAC?

Tory Jeremiah D'Anna. Untitled
Religious Education Across the Curriculum, or REAC for short, is an interdisciplinary approach to education that finds a coherent revelation of the Creator in all of creation, thus all disciplines inherently possess a religious dimension. As much as one part of the creation cannot be fundamentally removed from the context of the whole of creation, a consilience between disciplines is recognized. I think any fair introduction to the concept of REAC in a Catholic context would also involve an incarnational worldview where the material world and human experience have been elevated into participation in the divine by Christ, and the secular/sacred dichotomy is recognized as something forced. We find God in all things, and we approach all things in light of one thing, the ultimate meaning found in God who is worthy of supreme devotion. I find a correlation in the words of Christ and Kierkegaard, namely that the pure at heart shall see God (Matthew 5:8) and that purity of heart is to will one thing. Our understanding of the meaning of life and the purpose of creation is found in Christ, so it makes sense that we would want to propose his relevance in all things.

This fits the Catholic tradition of not only speaking to all disciplines of knowledge, but also to the devotion spurred by faith to pursue greater knowledge of creation through the sciences, the cultivation of beauty in the arts, and the contributions to social institutions contributing to the common good. Phillip Phenix calls this impulse the sacred secular, and it is in these moments where the church’s existence as salt of the earth comes to light. In the same manner, the reduction of religion to a corner of human experience robs religion of its supreme importance, and the secular sacred of a cultural Catholicism that does not transform the lives of those called to set the world ablaze.

 In his article, “The Value of a Catholic Liberal Arts Education,” Dominic Aquila rejects the cult of method and technical specialization in favor of a Louise Cowan modeled pursuit of the beautiful and real that is attained through a broader liberal arts approach. Cowan was one of the great literary critics of the twentieth century.  She and her physicist husband Donald were both Catholic converts and philosophers of education who were instrumental in building the University of Dallas. I was privileged to attend one of her last public lectures in the months before her death. She was teaching The Brothers Karamazov one last time in a way that was deeply moving, reaching the core of human desires and frustrations. The reading was alive because she was awake to the world around her and found beauty in the motions of being human. There was a warmth in her instruction where we felt like welcome guests. I don’t think this gets displayed in the never-ending saga of compartmentalized packets and projects. Cowan was not teaching the catechism, however her faith was very evidently incarnate in front of us, and she gave her audience, mostly teachers in North Texas, a model to imitate.

 The commands of Scripture are to preach the Gospel in season and out of season, and there is a way the Gospel may be revealed in a science or English or math class. We are told that God so loved the cosmos that he gave his Son, and this idea of cosmos consumes all sorts of cultural and scientific pursuits. We are of a catholic faith, and its catholicity can be found in the universal variety of experience and endeavors. And where Cowan’s work at the University of Dallas had a Benedictine influence, we can also see the God in all things approach in Ignatian spirituality. It is doubtlessly at the heart of all of the differences made in the lives of students who attend Jesuit institutions. And my own spiritual tradition through Communion and Liberation insists that reality, existence itself, is a gift, and that we encounter Christ in this reality we are given.

 Key Learning Outcomes for Blog Readers

  • The readers will remember to contemplate the beauty, truth, and goodness that is evident in all of creation.
  • The readers will encounter Christ through this contemplation.
  • The readers will grow in understanding of creation in the light of Christ their Creator.
  • The reader will understand themselves better because they are a part of creation created in the image of their Creator.
  • The reader will have a beginner's grasp on methodology, knowing it is secondary to both Christ and content knowledge.
  • The reader will adapt that methodology based on the personal dynamics of their colleagues and students.


 Works Cited

 Aquila, Dominic. "The Value of a Catholic Liberal Arts Education." Catholic Education Resource Center, 1997.

 Phenix, Philip. Education and the Worship of God. Westminster, 1966, 13-33. Chapter One.