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    Current Issue cover of Plough Quarterly Issue 39
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    Joseph Clair

    JosephClair
    Joseph Clair is an associate professor of ethics and the executive dean of the Cultural Enterprise at George Fox University. He is the author or several books including most recently, Reading Augustine: On Education, Formation, Citizenship and the Lost Purpose of Learning. 

    Acclaim

    • An excellent book for parents, alum, and donors as a resource in their support of the humanities in higher education. …As long as there are humans who seek knowledge and wisdom as the underlying flow that energizes their lives, we will continue to rely on the stories of those who lived a life well observed: the goal of a liberal arts education.

      Englewood Review of Books

    • These writers offer an expanisve vision for the arts, rooted in companionship and gratitude for good gifts that are still – despite all of the evident losses – with us and continuing to impart life. The book manages to be both a no-nonsense manifesto and a convivial exchange of great ideas

      ClassicalEd Review

    • This collection suggests that the liberal arts provide an education that meets the highest aspirations of the human person, an education aimed at human flourishing. It is difficult to put a price on that. What we need are administrators who are willing to offer the opportunity to aim higher.

      The Wall Street Journal

    • A welcome addition to the long tradition of advocacy for the liberal arts. It brings together argument and delight, uniting the format of apologetics with the spirit of celebration. …An appropriate gift not only for those who are already “in the fold” of the liberal arts community but also for friendly skeptics and potential converts.

      Current Magazine

    • The Liberating Arts is a transformative work. Opening with an acknowledgment of the sundry forces arrayed against liberal arts education today, this diverse collection of voices cultivates an expansive imagination for how the liberal arts can mend what is broken and orient us individually and collectively to what is good, true, and beautiful.

      Kristin Kobes Du Mez

    • The liberal arts have been about common goods, not elitist goods. ...These practical chapters are rich examples of the liberal arts in practice, stoking the imagination for how the liberal arts can play out in different contexts—whether with incarcerated adults or in elective adult education.

      Front Porch Republic

    • In this lucid and inspiring volume, a diverse group of thinkers dispel entrenched falsehoods about the irrelevance, injustice, or uselessness of the liberal arts and remind us that nothing is more fundamental to preparing citizens to live in a pluralistic society attempting to balance the values of justice, equality, and community.

      Jon Baskin, editor, Harper's

    • At their best, the humanities are about discerning what kinds of lives we should be living. But humanities education is in crisis today, leaving many without resources to answer this most important question of our lives. The authors of this volume are able contenders for the noble cause of saving and improving the humanities. Read and be inspired!

      Miroslav Volf, co-author, Life Worth Living

    • In our era of massive social and technological upheaval, this book offers a robust examination of and an expansive vision for the liberal arts. As a scientist who believes that education should shape us for lives of reflection and action, I found the essays riveting, challenging, and inspiring. I picked it up and could not put it down.

      Francis Su, author, Mathematics for Human Flourishing

    • In this series of lively, absorbing, and accessible essays, the contributors invoke and dismantle all the chief objections to the study of the liberal arts. The result is a clarion call for an education that enables human and societal flourishing. Everyone concerned about the fate of learning today must read this book.

      Eric Adler, author, The Battle of the Classics