Revisiting integral education in a digital age: challenges and reconfigurations of Catholic educational philosophy in Lebanon

Within contemporary Catholic pedagogy, education is facing unprecedented pressures owing to globalisation, digitisation, and the increase in pluralisation of societies. Within this study, the focus will be on assessing the sustainability and relevance of contemporary Catholic philosophical ideas on education that are grounded in religious expressions and backed up by findings from Lebanese Catholic schools. Built on an integral anthropology that commits to attaining harmonious development of the intellect, morality, community, and spirituality, the paper seeks to assess the relevance of contemporary pedagogies. A mixed-method design was adopted, combining questionnaires (N ≈ 200), semi-structured interviews with principals, teachers, chaplains, and catechists (n = 10), and two focus groups across twelve schools in Mount Lebanon. The results demonstrate a wide tendency towards convergence between Catholic purposes and modern ‘student-centered’ practices, particularly with regard to aspects of reciprocity, inclusivity, and autonomy. The results also pose pressing questions with regard to performance-based cultures, overexposure to media, and disenchanting spiritual times in overly packed curricula. The Catholic schools should be seen as educational synthesis where tradition and innovation are merely contrasted in terms of insight rather than opposed to one another. This study contributes to the discussion of religious education by highlighting the potential and necessity of a collaborative renovation and by pointing out regional strategies meant to guarantee holistic formation in times of instability.