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"Forward, always forward"
The philosophy of Outdoor Leadership is a combination of the Catholic faith and the philosophies of outdoor hiking and wilderness activities that still go on today. The most notable difference between this class and typical outdoor excursions today is the emphasis on God and prayer throughout our hikes. While most if not all outdoor excursions focus on being more connected with nature and finding oneness in the soul, God is rarely mentioned in these contexts. What the Outdoor Leadership course strives to do is make a travelling monastery in the proper sense, reinstating God as the central focus by incorporating frequent prayer and reflection throughout each day.
The first article covered in the course was Paul Stonehouse’s “Seeking virtue in the wilderness: Expeditions as traveling monasteries.” In it, Stonehouse speaks of outdoor adventure education and focuses on the similarities of the structure of these programs to monastic communities. Though Stonehouse does not mention prayer in this structure, he does note that this wilderness education helps build virtue and character for its members.
TravelingMonasteries.pdfHahnsMoralEquivalentofWar.pdfAs our second reading, we looked at “Kurt Hahn’s moral equivalent of war” by Lodewijk van Oord. This discusses one of the main figures of Outdoor Leadership activities, Kurt Hahn, and his philosophy of education. In large part, he wished to devise a school that would have the same character development as war, yet do this in a moral way that would not involve having a war each generation. He thus developed four antidotes to combat against the dangers of modern peaceful society.
The next reading covered was Mark Freeman’s article, “ ‘You can’t be an atheist here’: Christianity and Outward Bound in Britain, c.1941–1965”. In this paper, Freeman writes about the early days of Outward Bound, founded by Kurt Hahn in the early 40s. He specifically looks at the major influences Christianity had in its structuring of their outdoors schools for many years, and how it lost that focus starting around the 1960s.
YouCan'tBeAnAtheistHere.pdfSept_2022_ABR Krom Article.pdfThe Final article we read was written by none other than Dr. Michael Krom, labelled, "The Footsteps of St. Benedict: Listening to God in the Great Outdoors" In this, Dr. Krom lays out the basic outline of the Outdoor Leadership class, and looks at Benedictine education in general, stating that these schools, like Kurt Hahn's schools, cannot be properly focused unless they are "Schools for the Lord's Service".
For our final meeting before the hike, we looked at the podcast "Climbing the Mountains of Modernity" from the Genealogies of Modernity team. In this podcast, they look at what it means to be modern through looking at rock and mountain climbing. Similar to many outdoor adventure programs, they focus on the character development of these activities and sense of accomplishment, but neglect to focus on the focus one might have on God in these expeditions.
Listen to the Podcast Below:
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