Giuseppe Mari
Mari and the challenges of education
Remembering the areas of reflection of the pedagogist is the recognition of a scholar who has contributed to redesigning the figure of the educator.
In a recent essay on "The challenge of education in the light of Romano Guardini's thought", reconstructing the profile of the great Catholic educator, Giuseppe Mari mentioned his commitment both in the university environment and in the less formal educational practice intended for young people, the wide-ranging activity and service of those interested in education who embrace concrete action, together with study and research on pedagogical themes.
The synthesis that Giuseppe Mari dedicated to Guardini the philosopher and educator, appears to us today, suddenly, in a new light, not just a simple reconstruction or an essay among others, nor the umpteenth editorial deadline to which, as a tireless scholar of pedagogy, he scrupulously turned his attention.
His sudden death urges us rather to stop and reread the works of our friend and colleague. And in this re-going, being able to find the red thread of his tireless pedagogical progress, made up of constant dedication aimed at several joint fronts: in the case of Giuseppe Mari to that of his appreciated reflections on the pedagogical rereading of Aristotle and on the references to anthropological foundations, together with attention to the numerous challenges of education, from freedom to the challenge of otherness, from the constant reminder of the value of the person in view of that construction of identity, albeit difficult, but still to be accompanied in young people, to be formed "Beyond the fragment", as it began in its first volume in 1995, to face the challenges of postmodernism, the challenges of nihilism, aware of having to "educate after ideology", in an era that having lost references, it needs to reunite "metaphysical rationality and pedagogical thinking", if we want to educate to freedom.
But the rediscovery of Giuseppe Mari's countless areas of reflection is not intended to be a cold and detached re-enactment of study paths. Rather, it is intended to be the recognition of those who have contributed to redesigning, in the light of the tradition and thought of the classics, the figure of the educator attentive to the perspective around man, to the foundations of education, to the different lines of pedagogical study, without which concrete education could not even take shape; because it needs "vectors", as Giuseppe Mari often loved to repeat.
And among the "vectors" he has repeatedly recalled, there is certainly attention to Western education, especially in the light of evangelization, the centrality of the person, as a reference for continuing to take up "the challenge" and "the challenges of education" with trust and commitment, under the banner of high cultural content, of a boundless passion for the value of the person.
Giuseppe Mari, a scholar of theology, philosophy of education and pedagogy, leaves behind all this as an educator of hundreds of students and young people who knew and appreciated him in his courses in General Pedagogy.
He leaves a huge void to his colleagues and friends, as a high-profile scholar, as a man of profound rectitude and as an example of a believer.
(S. Polenghi, M. Musaio, Cattolica News 15 November 2018)
The death of Prof. Giuseppe Mari (Cattolica News 15 November 2018)
Sad loss of Professor Giuseppe Mari
Siped: in memory of Giuseppe Mari