'Clutching the wheel of St Catherine', or a visit to a re-enchanted college

This article argues that the obsession with metering, monitoring, benchamrks and outrcomes in contemporary education has depleted and disenchanted the process of learning. It finds that these phenomena are result of a universal apiritual malaise, what the French thinker Rene Guenon called 'the Reign of Quantity'. Playfully and seriously, the article goes on to argue that in the twentieth century St Catharine's College, Cambridge resisted the Reign of Quantity, and became a centre for the re-enchantment of learning. It develops this argument by examining the teaching and charismatic presence of the college's Director of Studies in English, Thomas Rice Henn. It goes on to show that at least two of his students - Malcolm Lowry and Patrick Harpur - carried forward this enchantment in their works, albeit in very different ways. It is thus still available.

This piece is a slightly modified version of the chapter already published in 'Re-enchanting the Academy', and already deposited here.

Modified article in Temenos Academy Review 2019, Issue 22 (ISBN: 9781916481848)

Book chapter in Re-enchanting the Academy (ISBN: 9781943710133)