go on building their life on a faulty basis”.747

3. Theology of education

Don Bosco does not have a systematic and theological anthropology at his disposal. This aspect of Don Bosco's priestly seminary formation seems to lead him back to just a few important, basic acquisitions. What Peter Stella wrote about a well-defined and widespread dogmatic and moral, though not universally applicable theology can be applied to Don Bosco's culture and his mindset as educator and pastor. Dogmatic Theology saw everything in the light of predestination or a free response to grace, and the account to be given to the Divine Judge, in expectation of either eternal life or eternal death.

Therefore Dogmatic Theology focused on seeing everything from the perspective of its value for eternity, reward or condemnation.

Moral theology, on the other hand, with its debates on Probabilism and Probabiliorism, focusing everything on the relationship between divine law and freedom, trained people to see their actions as responsible compliance with divine law.748) Some other material, probably of a key nature was added to

this: books on religious forma tion, writings used to prepare meditations, instructions, homilies for

ordinary and extraordinary preaching, other sources of an historical, catechetical and apologetic nature.

And finally, Don Bosco's natural disposition and his meaningful conversations w ith his boys were no doubt decisive in his gaining a comprehensive picture of the natural dispositions of the young as

regards salvation and salvation -oriented education.

Don Bosco could attribute his ability to sketch out various classifications of young people to his

constant living amongst them. He used many terms and not all of them were necessarily synonymous.

In some cases these classifications have a precise pedagogical meaning aimed at differentiating the way

a boy should be educated.

749

Bu t more often than not, these classifications were nothing but theological

and moral evaluations and generally with a preventive or apostolic aim in mind: keeping them away

from the wicked, or being friendly with the good and, at times, bringing the dissolu te and wavering youngsters back on the right path.

750

The most significant text on a theology of youth and education is certainly found in the first lines of

Don Bosco's Introduction to his 1850s Piano di Regolamento (an outline for a set of rules) where he quotes from St. John's Gospel 11:52.The text is applied to the youth of his day: Jesus had to die “to gather together in unity the scattered children of God”. In this outline we see the main actors in the growing process: God and the means of grace, the family with its deficiencies, society with all its dangers, the educators, the appropriate places, the young themselves with the wealth of resources they are naturally gifted with.

Youth is the most of delicate and precious portion of human society. It is onyouth that the

hopes of a happy future are based, and youth of itself does not have a wicked disposition. If

you remove their parents' neglect, idleness, meeting up with bad companions, which they

they are subject to especially at weekends, then it turns out to be quite easy to instill in their

tender hearts the principles of order, good moral behavior, respect and religion. And if it

747Cited in MB VII 404. John Baptist Lemoyne says he got it from a Cronaca by Fr Bonetti.We did not find it in the

surviving Cronache.

748P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità.... Vol I, p. 61: cf also p. 63.

749Found as we will see in the Cenni storici intorno all'Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales, and in the Articoli generali, at

the head of the Regolamento delle case. On this see P. Braido, Il sistema preventivo in un decalogo per educatori, RSS

4 (1985) 143-144.

We will speak furtjher on of the pedagogical and differential aspect of classifications.

750Cf Cenni on Comollo (1844), p. 63-64, OE I 63-64; Il giovane provveduto (1847), pp. 21-22, OE 201-202; Vita di

Domenico Savio (1859), pp. 26-27, OE XI 176-177; MO (1991) 59.