From Tradition, to which this section of the last edition of Oasis was dedicated, to Education, a subject that forms the title of the cover of this edition of our review, is one short step but one not in the least to be taken for granted. Short because it is evident that the connection between the two terms is very close: to communicate and to test what we receive from the past involves a work of acceptance and dialogue with the next generations and not only with previous generations. But this work, this ‘handing over of a manual of life’ as Cardinal Turkson calls it in his leading article, is not mechanical and consequential. It involves of necessity the role of freedom, indeed of two freedoms: between those who give and those who receive is created a dynamic relationship that is open to the unforeseen and to shared construction. The authors of this section explore the different aspects of the subject of education, from its foundations and principles to the historical experiences that document how at the centre of every culture is specifically located that process of knowledge and communication which unites the generations.

• A Reform against Violence and the Loss of Meaning - Mustapha Cherif
• An Action Beyond Boundaries (Including those Established by States) - Henri Teissier
• In the Footsteps of the Charity of God that Receives Every Pain - Marialaura Conte
• That Patient and Tenacious Sowing over 150 years - Fouad Twal
• Learning to Co-exist in a Smiling Islam - Azyumardi Azra
• Good Intentions: so Easy and so Dangerous - Luisa Ribolzi
• Immigration: Why is not enough " not to be racist " - Paolo Branca
• In the schools of the world face to face with faith - Tony Blair
• Adaptation or Consisting in: an Anthroplogical Question - Francesco Botturi
• Between the Generations: Reasons, Crisis, Challenge - Jean-Louis Bruguès

St. Augustine wrote to his friend Deogratias on the meaning and method of education, referring in particular to the work of catechesis. Fifteen centuries later, in the speech that Benedict XVI gave to Romans ‘on the Urgent Task of Educating Young People’, there emerges a singular and powerful consonance with the vision of the Bishop of Ippona. At the centre of the two texts is the ‘dialogue of freedoms’ typical of the educational dimension, a dialogue that culminates in love. This necessarily includes love for truth, as this Pope himself observed in his meeting with the Muslims of the Cameroon. And which re-echoes in the medieval pages of ‘the proof of Islam’ Al-Ghazâlî.

• The True Believer is Saved Through Works, not Learning - Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî
• The Great Shared Pathway - Holy Father Benedict XVI
• From one Generation to Another, a Suffered and Grandiose Passage - His Holiness Benedict XVI
• The Mercy of God, the Heart of all the Catechesis - Saint Augustine

Minister, thinker, leader writer and consultant to various international organisations: Georges Corm is one of the most brilliant and eclectic figures of the Lebanon today. He loves opinions that go against the mainstream as one can understand when reading this impassioned interview in which ardour and tension reveal his absolute love for his suffering and irreplaceable land.
 

• Catch us if you Can! I will explain to you why despite everything no one will manage to put us Lebanese in a trap - Georges Corm

A journey to the United Arab Emirates where the idea is to change the face of a piece of the world. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, very many of whom are Christians, are active day and night in the colossal building sites that bring out from the desert the flowers of cement and glass created by man.

• The Army of Immigrants that Goes to Mass and Erects Skyscrapers - Riccardo Piol

Interventions, analyses et témoignages en provenance de différents pays et concernant différents thèmes. Dans ce numéro : préparation du prochain synode du Moyen-Orient ; la vision de la femme dans le Coran et dans l’exégèse musulmane ; la finance selon l’Islam ; une philosophie des droits de l’homme ; en Irak, au refuge des chrétiens ; le Liban des croyances célèbre la mère de Jésus.

Articles, analyses and testimonies from different countries and on different subjects. In this edition: preparing for the next Synod of the Middle East; the vision of women in the Koran and in Muslim exegesis: finance according to Islam; a philosophy of human rights; in Iraq in the refuge of the Christians: the Lebanon of faiths celebrates the mother of Jesus

• The Bank That Cannot Pursue Its Own Interest - Ersilia Francesca
• Human Rights Between Hard Power and Soft Power - Abdullahi-Ahmed An-Na'im
• In the Name of Mary United at Least for a Day - Mohammed Sammak
• Iraq: Pain nourishes the Resistance of the Christians - Gian Micalessin
• Pathways of the Feminine in the Muslim Tradition - Ida Zilio-Grandi
• For the Small Flock a Possible Mission. Perhaps - Paul Hinder

In the books of this edition: the modern revolution that began in Geneva; the icons of the Holy Land; so as not to lose the genius of Massignon; the madras schools and their function; why one cannot speak about a ‘return’ to the sacred. And lastly, to end this section, an itinerary between the films of today and yesterday following the red line of the ‘tale of formation’.

• Vitality, Struggle and Tenderness: the Most Beautiful Tale is Encounter - Emma Neri
• Faith, Culture and Holy Ignorance - Michele Brignone
• Models of Islamic Education - Martino Diez
• Massignon: Messenger and Researcher - Maurice Borrmans
• The Hidden Treasures of Christian Arab Art - Mattia Guidetti
• At the Origin of Modern Law - Andrea Pin