Aquinas Academy 1945-2015: A Very Personal Australian Story

by Julie Thorpe

Overview

This book tells the stories of women and men of the Aquinas Academy, a centre of adult education in Sydney founded in 1945 by an Australian Marist priest, Austin Woodbury. The book places the personal narratives within the social, cultural and intellectual landscape of Australian Catholicism spanning seven decades. Chapters trace the founding vision of the academy as a Catholic institution of higher education affiliated with Saint Thomas Aquinas's university in Rome, the expansion of programmes of adult spirituality across the eastern Australian states and the growing place of contemplative and mystical prayer in a church rediscovering its spiritual core. Combining archival research and conversations with former students and staff about childhood, war, family and the struggles to make sense of losses and loves, the Aquinas Academy is a story ultimately about adults learning to grow up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925486148
Publisher:	ATF Press
Publication date:	06/30/2016
Series:	Marist , #7
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Julie Thorpe received her doctorate in history from the University of Adelaide in 2007 and has held teaching and research positions in Germany and Australia. Her book Pan-Germanism and the Austrofascist State 1933-38 was published by Manchester University Press in 2011.

Table of Contents

Foreword 1. Founding Stones 2. A Mother's Son 3. Wartime Academy 4. The People's Bread 5. Academicians 6. A Priest and a Politician 7. Seeing in the Dark 8. Going to Rome 9. After Thomas 10. Christian Growth 11. New Faces 12. Mary's Song 13. Handing on the Faith 14. A Mystical Heart 15. Nazareth Timeline of an Academy Acknowledgements