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Elias L. Rivers. La imaginacion amorosa en la poesia del Siglo de Oro - volver índice -
Hispanic Review
Philadelphia
Winter 2000

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Volume: 68. Issue: 1. Pagination: 80-82. ISSN: 00182176

Subject Terms: Poetry // History // Nonfiction //Literary criticism

Abstract:

Rivers reviews "La imaginacion amorosa en la poesia del Siglo de Oro" by Javier Garcia Gilbert.
Copyright University of Pennsylvania, Romance Languages Department Winter. 2000

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La imaginad6n amorosa en la poesia del Siglo de Oro. (Anejo no. xxii de la revista Cuadernos de Filologia). By Javier Garcia Gibert. Valencia:
Universitat, 1997. 132 pages.

This slender volume, written by the author of a doctoral thesis completed at the University of Valencia in 1990 and entitled Baltasar Gracidn y elficcionalismo ba?yoco, begins with an excellent chapter on "La fuerza de la imaginaci6n," which is an introduction to the theories concerning the imagination that were prevalent during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. These theories, derived from Plato, Aristotle, and ancient medicine, are further developed by medieval philosophers and theologians. This mental faculty (also known as "la fantasia") functioned as a bridge between, on the one hand, the internal "common sense," which combined the data provided by the five external senses, and, on the other, the storehouse of memory and the rational activity of intellect (also known as "la estimativa o cogitativa"). Plato had emphasized dangerous errors of the imagination, and its distance from absolute truth, while Aristotle viewed it in a more positive light as the creative or artistic faculty; but all philosophers tended to be critical of its excesses. Longinus and Renaissance Neoplatonists exalted the powers of the imagination, while scientific philosophers such as Bacon and Descartes deplored its errors as a diabolical source of superstitious beliefs.

Important for imagination in Spanish love poetry is the national religious tradition. While iconoclastic mystics such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross emphasized the importance of emptying the mind of all material images, Ignatius of Loyola built his spiritual exercises on the five senses and the use of the imagination in reconstructing religious scenes for contemplation and meditation. (The importance of this tradition in England was studied long ago by Louis Martz in his book The Poetry of Meditation, Yale UP, 1954.) We find a similar controlled imagination in love poetry from Dante and Petrarch to Boscan and John Donne. This introductory chapter draws widely on relevant non-Spanish sources: Italian and English poetry is cited, as well as European and American intellectual historians.

After this introduction, Garcia Gibert analyzes in detail the poetic uses of the imagination in four love poems by four major Spanish poets: a little-known sonnet by Luis de Le6n ("Agora con la aurora se levanta"), G6ngora's voyeuristic epithalamium ("iQ4 de imidiosos montes levantados!"), Quevedo's erotic dream sonnet ("iAy, Floralba! Sofie que te ... ZDir6lo?"), and Sor Juana's sonnet exalting the power of her imagination in love ("Detente, sombra de mi bien esquivo").

Garcia Gibert's analysis of Fray Luis' sonnet, previously studied from a different point of view by Ldzaro Carreter, is of particular interest. Although he finds no Italian source, there is clearly a courtly love and Petrarchan tradition lying behind this sonnet: it is absence, separation of the lover from the beloved, that gives rise to the fervid functioning of the imagination. In the quatrains Fray Luis' meditating lover imagines his lady rising with the dawn, gathering her hair in a rich coil, girding her cruel breast and her throat with gold, praying to God and perhaps even taking pity on him, playing a musical instrument and singing; but then, in the second tercet, this illusion is cancelled: "Mas luego vuelve en sf el engafiado / @nimo y, conociendo el desatino, / la rienda suelta largamente al Iloro." Garcia Gibert emphasizes the pre-Baroque, moralizing quality of this desengafio. He finds specific parallels in Petrarch, Celestina, Boscan, Spenser, Ronsard, Shakespeare; the latter's Sonnet 27 speaks of "my soul's imaginary sight" (28-31). In this chapter as a whole our author evokes a richly detailed pan-European literary practice of amorous imagination.


More familiar to most of us is the playful imagination of Gongora s "pensamiento" as it follows the newly-weds into the bridal chamber and observes their erotic combat, desiring " sea el lecho de batalla campo blando." Garcfa Gibert gives full credit to Christopher Maurer's analysis of Quevedo's dream of "enjoying" Floralba, observing that in this sonnet, unlike Fray Luis', there is no "proceso cognitivo de superacion racional, sino un proceso meramente vivencial (del sueho al despertar), que acumula al desengafio afectivo un desengaho existencial ...... Finally, in Sor Juana's sonnet, the female lover triumphs over the male tyrant through the power of her imagination (131): "el amor al cabo se reduce a la fantasia solipsista del amante." And so Garcia Gibert concludes his suggestive book with this sentence (132): "El refinado espiritu de Dante y Petrarca podia, quizd, seguir perviviendo, mds do tres siglos despues, en las fantasias del enamorado-, pero ya solamente como lo que ellos fueron: como muestras sublimes y sublimadas de literatura."

ELIAS L. RIVERS //State University of New York, Stony Brook

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John O'Donnell. The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics- volver índice -
Theological Studies
Washington, Mar 2000
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Volume: 61. Issue: 1. Pagination: 171-172. ISSN: 00405639

Subject Terms: Nonfiction //Theology //Philosophy //Aesthetics

Abstract:

"The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics" by Alejandro
Garcia-Rivera is reviewed.
Copyright Theological Studies, Inc. Mar 2000

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THE COMMUNITY OF THE BEAUTIFUL: A THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS. By Alejandro
Garcia-Rivera. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1999. Pp. ix + 211. $19.95.

Fox one without a fairly sophisticated knowledge of the American pragmatic tradition in philosophy this is a dense and complicated book, but it holds together and offers a coherent approach to a theology of the beautiful. It does this by entering into conversation with a number of partners such as Balthasar, Peirce, Royce, and Mukarovsky. Garcia-Rivera seeks to integrate the key insights of Latino theology with the tradition of European and American thought. He arrives at a consistent synthesis. He calls his work a theological esthetics. Since it is largely founded on philosophical considerations, I wonder if it is not more properly a subset of the philosophy of religion. I mention this because that would contrast his approach with one of his key conversation partners, Balthasar.

G.'s project seems to have been largely inspired by reading Balthasar's theological esthetics. He is impressed with the Swiss theologian's accent upon form. As is well known, Balthasar focuses his esthetics on Christ as the form of divine beauty. The other focus is on ecstasy, the act of faith by which the believer is drawn into the form by God's grace. While attracted to this perspective, G. wonders whether Balthasar gives enough philosophical underpinnings to his project. He finds a surer footing in the thought of Peirce and Royce.

G. does not refer to the last part of Balthasar's trilogy, the three volumes of the divine logic. I doubt whether he would find Balthasar's approach adequate, but in this last part Balthasar does attempt something like the justification that G. desires. One key difference between them is that Balthasar's focus is almost exclusively christological. The Incarnation and the Pascal Mystery are the definitive instances of divine beauty which Balthasar seeks to highlight.

Very frequently G. points to differences between Balthasar and himself. He says that Balthasar is interested chiefly in the difference between God and creatures, between Being and beings. He analyzes Balthasar's exposition and defense of the analogy of being with reference to the thought of Przywara, noting that Balthasar gives less attention to the difference among the creatures. While not denying this point, I think that Balthasar's chief interest is not the analogy of being; he always seeks to situate the analogy of being within the analogy of faith. Although respecting the ever greater difference between God and creatures, Balthasar's real interest is the astounding fact for faith that the Word became flesh, thus bridging the gap between God and the world; his real interest is christological.

One of Balthasar's major contributions was to rediscover and seek to illumine mutually the great transcendentals of being: the beautiful, the true, and the good. This desire explains the three parts of Balthasar's multivolume trilogy. G. has a similar interest and intent. He begins with the logic of Peirce, where Peirce develops a logic of signs which is always triadic. There is the sign and the signified, but these require a third, the interpreter himself. Peirce's cosmos is a world of interrelated signs. Peirce's vision highlights the differences between creatures and the relational dimension of all beings.

Peirce's thought leads to another question: What is the relation of the knowledge of truth to the will? Knowledge does not take place in a vacuum. Rather we know in the garden of good and evil. The question of truth is thus linked to the question of the good. Here G. points to the help given by Josiah Royce. One can only adequately interpret the signs through the ethical act of loyalty by which interpreters sacrifice their own point of view and open themselves up to the other. Full interpretation requires that one place oneself at the disposition of the whole human community. So logic leads to redemptive at-one-ment with the community.

But how does this lead to esthetics? The key is difference. Beings are related to each other. Individuals are different from one another. Sometimes this takes the form of negations, e.g., white is not black. But often it is a question of obverses: one thing does not negate the other but is different from it. Negation in this sense becomes asymmetrical. Recognizing the difference brings with it the quality of higher and lower. Jan Mukarovsky brought out the esthetic dimension of these asymmetrical relations by developing the notion of foregrounding. Foregrounding lifts a being from its background and highlights it. One sees the value of a being by placing it in relationship to other beings as well as to Being itself. The whole universe is thus seen as a series of relations and differences. The Creator lets the world be in its particularity and differences. The Creator created this world, which is different from some other world. The Creator rejoices in this particular world with all its richness, which is different from every other conceivable world he could have created. The human task is to develop the imagination in such a way that we human beings recognize the differences in their relation to each other and the Creator and in seeing the differences (analogous to Balthasar's seeing the form) learn to praise the Creator. Such an imagination G. calls the anagogical imagination, that is, an imagination developed in the capacity to praise.

The vision of theological esthetics presented in this volume is an alternative to Balthasar's but not in contradiction to it. Whereas Balthasar focuses on the christological, G. focuses on the rich variegation of creatures in relation to their Creator. His vision reminds us of Ignatius of Loyola's contemplation to obtain divine love, where the saint invites the retreatant to contemplate how all blessings and gifts descend from above. G. tries to develop the underpinnings that could ground such a vision. Following him in his quest is challenging, but the results are rewarding, particularly for those with a philosophical disposition of mind.

JOHN O'DONNELL, S.J.

Weston Jesuit School of Theology

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Leander S Harding. Theological Education In The Catholic Tradition: Contemporary Challenges- volver índice -
Anglican Theological Review
Evanston, Winter 1999

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Volume: 81. Issue: 1. Pagination: 179-181. ISSN: 00033286

Subject Terms: Nonfiction // Catholicism // Theology // Religious education // Essays

Abstract:

Harding reviews "Theological Education In The Catholic Tradition: Contemporary Challenges" edited by Patrick W. Carey and Earl C. Muller. Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Winter 1999

Full Text:

Theological Education In The Catholic Tradition: Contemporary Challenges. Edited by Patrick W Carey and Earl C. Muller, S.J. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997. 423 pp. $29.95 (paper).

The title of this book is somewhat misleading to Protestants who use the term "theological education" to refer to graduate level training for the ordained ministry. Two of the twenty-six essays in this collection are indeed about the vexing issues of seminary training. The rest of the essays touch upon the teaching of theology within Roman Catholic colleges and universities. The organizing theme for the collection is the role and use of "Catholic" theology in the maintenance and development of a distinctively Roman Catholic ethos and identity in higher education. Most of the papers contained in the collection were given at a conference on the subject at Marquette University in August of 1995.

This book will be relevant to Anglicans for the issues it raises. Some of these issues are peculiar to the Roman Catholic church, such as the relationship between professional theologians and the official magisterium of the church, but it does not take much imagination to identify the parallel issues in our own church life. The fragmented and hyper-professionalized nature of much academic theology, the polarization of approaches to the theological task, the divorce of theology from spirituality and from ecclesial life-these problems manifest themselves in particular ways within the Roman Catholic World but they are problems with which all of the mainline churches are familiar. It is particularly interesting for Anglicans to overhear Roman Catholics attempting to answer the question of what constitutes "Catholic Theology" and what ought to be the commitment of Roman Catholic institutions to the teaching of that tradition. The theological ethos of many faculties is generically neo-Kantian. In many places there is a lack of interest in and skill for the kind of historical investigation that can sustain a dynamic tradition. Some of the authors in this collection are asking whether there is enough competent knowledge of the tradition and understanding of what is historically distinctive about Roman Catholic philosophical and theological investigation to make the teaching of "Catholic Theology" possible in the American context.

Matthew Lamb of Boston College sounds the alarm in a sobering essay on the "Challenges For Catholic Graduate Theological Education." "A survey of all the Ph.D.s in theology at Catholic universities completed over the past fifteen years indicates that 75 percent of them have been studies of twentieth-century figures or questions. If the nineteenth century is added, it will account for almost 90 percent of all the completed Ph.D.s. There is a dangerous lack of balance in terms of the expertise required to carry on the long Catholic intellectual tradition" (p. 125). Lamb fears that without this expertise contemporary Catholic Theology will succumb to the Enlightenment opposition between faith and reason and that the teaching of theology will degenerate into the repackaging of contemporary secular methodologies. The distinctive and indispensable categories of sin and grace are in danger of being lost, to be replaced with behaviorism and Pelagian pep talks.

There are certainly parallel questions which Anglicans could ask themselves. Historically we have seen ourselves as heirs to the same Catholic tradition of which Lamb speaks. (When reading Hooker recently I was struck again by his high estimation of "the schoolmen.") We have also depended on a determinative reading of this tradition through the English Reformers and Caroline Divines. While the theological situation in Episcopal seminaries is not as dire as that in Roman Catholic colleges, it is worth asking if there is sufficient competence and commitment in our academic centers to make possible the transmission of the Anglican tradition as a living tradition. Or shall the word "Anglican" become a shibboleth used to describe a trendy antipathy to doctrine? One thinks of Eric Mascall's lone quest to renew the Anglican commitment to Natural Theology at a time when most of the theology faculties in England were mesmerized by Bultmann and Barth and more recently of Bishop Sykes's attempt to articulate an Anglican doctrine of the church. N.T. Wright's recovery of English teaching on the historical dimension of the resurrection also comes to mind as well as Michael Ramsey's plea toward the end of his life for a distinctively Anglican theological education. But these teachers are notable because they appear against a backdrop of indifference to the classic texts and insights of Anglicanism. Here Matthew Lamb sums up the challenge for Roman Catholic teaching of theology and also I think for those Anglicans who claim to be heir to a long, distinctive and intellectually rich theological tradition. "Without the linguistic and philosophical habits to learn from the primary texts, the students are not really equipped to be able to judge for themselves the adequacy of this or that translation, this or that recent interpretation. Without the intellectual, moral, and religious practices, and the virtues engendered by those practices, the students are not able to have a real apprehension and knowledge of the realities to which the texts are referring. Today we need Augustine's concern, expressed in the first three books of his De doctrina Christiana, for the appropriation of the theological virtues, along with the intellectual and moral, in order to discover and be in tune with the true realities revealed in Scripture and Christian teachings" (p.125).

There are other treasures in this book. Avery Dulles gives a clearsighted overview of the theological landscape. There are three essays on the relationship between bishops and professional theologians, two by bishops and a very comprehensive essay by Robert Imbelli. There is also a chapter devoted to important issues of inculturation and multiculturalism. I recommend the book for the essays by Lamb, Dulles and Imbelli. Bishops, seminary deans and those with responsibility for teaching Anglican thought will find much worth pondering in this volume.

LEANDER S. HARDING

St. John's Church

Stamford, Connecticut

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James E Hug. Educating for justice- volver índice -
America
New York, May 20, 2000

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Volume: 182, Issue: 18, Pagination: 16-22, ISSN: 00027049

Subject Terms: Higher education // Justice //Colleges & universities //Spirituality //Religious schools //Religious orders // Companies: Company Name: Society of Jesus // Company Name: Jesuits

Abstract:

Any university's major mission is to work for global transformation. The realities and trends of the growing gap between the rich and the poor and what is required to shift the Jesuit campus culture in order to foster real education for justice are examined.
Copyright America Press May 20, 2000

Full Text:

Any university s major mission is to work for global transformation.

AT A JESUIT UNIVERSITY halfway around the world, a visiting Latin American theologian told the assembled Jesuits, "Students? Oh, students are the necessary sin of a university!"

The comment was made tongue-in-cheek to stir the audience up. But his line of thought was deadly serious. Students come to a university to get a good education so that they will get good jobs and succeed in society. But the financial and social "success" to which they aspire is most often an essential contributing element in a dynamic that is rewarding a few while miring the majority in killing poverty. It is part of the problem of contemporary injustice, not part of its redemption.

The dilemma is obvious: If the university does not meet the students' and their families' expectations, they will not come, and the university will not survive. Yet any university's commitment to truth, beauty, goodness, the common good and justice requires that its major mission in today's reality is to work as a university-in its teaching, research, publications and institutional actions-for global transformation toward greater justice for all.

I heard echoes of this dilemma recently when I reviewed the "Education for Justice Self Study" done by a Midwestern Jesuit university as part of a national process to explore the commitment to justice in Jesuit higher education. The process will conclude with a national gathering in October 2000, at which Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ., the superior general of Jesuits worldwide, will give the keynote address.

The self study notes that "Jesuit law schools today are caught between calls to strengthen the competencies of graduates and movements [in legal education] advocating various social justice perspectives." It is clear in the context of the full study that this tension is not about law students spending too much time on the streets demonstrating. The tension is over the type of lawyer the school produces: one whose education has focused on practical skills training and who will move easily into "the workaday world" of the law firm, or one who has been exploring the role of law in establishing a more just society and is likely to challenge the assumptions and activities of today's "workaday world."

This is not the law school's problem alone. It is the dilemma of the whole Jesuit and Catholic university system and of every thoughtful, socially conscious parent and aspiring student. All these people invest their lives, their energies and their resources in an educational experience that they trust will lead to a happy, successful, independent and worthwhile life. Yet even a modestly successful, financially independent life by U.S. middle-class standards is available to only a small percentage of the human family That is not necessarily bad in itself, but the ways people today have to secure that lifestyle are literally making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Consider some of these realities and the trends they reveal:

The wealthiest 20 percent of the world's population (about 1.2 billion people) receive over 86 percent of the world's annual income according to the U.N.D.P annual Human Development Report. The poorest 1.2 billion people are living on about 1 percent. These percentages are not static. Over the last 30 years, statistics reveal an increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a shrinking percentage of the global population. In today's world economy, wealth does trickle, but it trickles up, not down.

Many argue that while the rich are getting richer, so are the poor. Everyone is better off. But in fact the rising tide of the global economy is not lifting all boats. The Human Development Report for 1996 and the report for 1999 both provide documentation showing that the people of nearly half the countries in the world (about 1.5 billion people or 1 out of every 4 people on earth) are poorer in real terms today than they were 10 or more years ago.

More economic growth-at least of the kind we are experiencing now-will only make the problem worse. Outside the United States, there is practically no production of new jobs. So while wealth is being produced, it is not being distributed through jobs. Government redistribution programs are being cut back almost everywhere. So the wealth produced by the current processes of economic growth will continue the consolidation of global wealth and the gap between the wealthy few and the vast majority in poverty.

The processes for creating wealth are not available to the poor. The poorest 20 percent of the world's nations receive 1 percent of foreign direct investment, export 1 percent of the world's goods and services, and make up 0.2 percent of the world's Internet users, making the odds against their successful participation in the current global economy overwhelming.

Nor will this deteriorating situation improve without dramatic changes. Most Americans assume that the poor of the world could be helped to live a comfortable, civilized life like our own without much change in our lifestyles, assumptions or values. That illusion cries out to be shattered. Environmentalists are now saying that a middle-class U.S. lifestyle for everyone on the planet would require three more planets with the size and wealth of the earth.

The path of economic development that defines early 21st-century globalization is a path toward greater and greater inequality, social unrest and ecological degradation. Preparing students=even poor or minority students on scholarship-to take their places in most of society's major institutions and to succeed in carrying them forward in their current directions will actually increase the economic and social injustice being done to the vast majority of the human family today.

The challenge that these trends reflect is major. It cannot be met by adding a course on some dimension of justice here or there in a crowded curriculum. The very orientation and cumulative impact of the curriculum itself must be reassessed. Does it prepare graduates to participate and to compete successfully in the processes feeding these contemporary negative trends? Or will it prepare competent and committed graduates to work for their transformation, for a world with basic justice for all its inhabitants and harmonious patterns of living within the ecological webs that constitute the universe as we know it?

The distinguished U.S. Catholic historian David O'Brien noted recently that Jesuit colleges and universities have excelled at encouraging volunteerism and have done a fairly good job establishing service-learning opportunities, but have only scratched the surface on actual education for justice. William Spohn, director of the Barman Institute for Jesuit Education and Christian Values at Santa Clara University and one of the principal organizers for the national Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education Project, confirmed that the self assessments done by the Jesuit schools across the country support that judgment. "When it comes to teaching, research and curriculum design," he said, "it seems that the work of education for justice has just begun."

What would such education for justice require? First, it requires a form of conversion, a shift in vision and values from the reigning assumptions governing expectations nationwide. Most people in the country today assume that U.S. lifestyles are and should be the main models for the global future. Without some type of arresting life experience in a context that not only permits but also promotes reflective reevaluation, people will not see the impossibility of that assumption and the urgent need for social transformation.

Members of the Jesuit Volunteers Corps speak of what happens to them in living and working with those in poverty as being "ruined for life!" Students and faculty members who have done overseas semesters or guided immersion experiences in third world settings like the Dominican Republic are practically unanimous in affirming the lasting transformative power of the experience. "Service learning" experiences, combined with reflection seminars designed to help participants probe the social justice issues raised by the experiences, can also have significant impact.

Universities also need to recruit students who, through their family culture or high school programs or domestic and international travel, already recognize the need for transforming our society's values and directions. Scholarships could be developed to attract those students who have shown leadership in, talent for and commitment to social justice. Perhaps one of the benchmarks of serious commitment to education for justice should be the point at which the number of scholarships fox leadership in service and commitment to justice surpasses the number for athletic ability.

The shift in campus culture needed to foster real education for justice will become possible when there is a critical mass of students who see the need and share the commitment to social transformation. The majority of faculty and administrators must also share in the vision. It is too much to expect students to integrate their life experiences and their studies into a justice vision and a career in mission to the greater social good while faculty and administrators continue their work on the basis of a considerably different set of visions and values, implementing a curriculum designed to achieve different goals.

Immersion experiences and justice seminars should be encouraged for all faculty and staff members. Education for justice must be an explicit part of hiring processes and incentive systems throughout the university. And the commitment to justice must be visible in how the university exercises its corporate influence in the larger civic community through its contracts,
employee relations and policies, awards and honors, public relations, fund-raising and advocacy efforts.

Is it feasible to make education for justice the central charism of the mission of Catholic higher education today? There are many understandable anxieties related to making this option. Where will the students and the money come from? How do such complex and ponderous institutions negotiate so dramatic a turn? What kind of future could graduates of an education for justice dream of?.

The questions are real, but they are questions of a dying age. The current trends and dynamics revealed in the processes of globalization cannot continue unabated without igniting social unrest and ecological disaster. More and more business leaders, church people, academics and social commentators in this country are acknowledging this-at least privately And billions of people trapped in poverty worldwide feel the injustice intensely as they glimpse the lifestyles of the rich and famous of the world from their huts and favellas.

U.S. Catholic higher education will be faithful to its deeper mission when it helps us to envision ways to live in solidarity with all peoples and with the earth in a single holistic community, one in which the law of justice and love regulates the social, cultural, economic and political development of everyone on the planet.

The tools of the cyberspace revolution can be used in exciting ways to open people's eyes to reality, to introduce them to the life and experiences of people in all types of situations around the world, to link them in real-time global collaboration in learning and in evolving a new, more just social vision and strategies for achieving it.

Promising new signs of student activism have been visible in recent months in the demonstrations in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and in the campus anti-sweatshop activities being organized across the country. As students begin to recognize the need for social transformation, demand visions of more just alternatives and provide the idealism needed to energize social change, they will cease playing the role of "the necessary sin of a university." Jesuit universities and the whole Catholic university system need to be present with those students, celebrating the grace of dawning conversion, nurturing the search for the truth that will bring greater justice to all people, leading the way into a viable, sustainable and more redemptive future.

JAMES E. HUG, S.J., is president of the Center of Concern in Washington, D.C.

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Alan Wolfe. Catholic Universities can be the salvation of pluralism on American campuses- volver índice -
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Washington, Feb 26, 1999

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Volume: 45, Issue: 25, Pagination: B6-B7, ISSN: 00095982

Subject Terms: Colleges & universities // Catholicism // Religious education // Multiculturalism & pluralism

Abstract:

Wolfe discusses how Catholic colleges and universities provide pluralism in the higher education system, and a different kind of education than that offered by the dominant research universities.
Copyright Chronicle of Higher Education Feb 26, 1999

Full Text:

AMERICA'S leading research universities call for diversity in everything except what they actually do: creating and disseminating knowledge. As they work to insure that their faculties and student bodies are inclusive, they foster ways of conducting scholarship that are exclusive. From the humanities to the social sciences, advancing theory and refining methodology are considered to be the only legitimate ways of treating one's subject. Belletrists in English departments and narrative storytellers in history departments are as irrelevant to the way contemporary academics define their vocation as old-fashioned institutionalists are in economics, public intellectuals in sociology, or historians of political philosophy in political science. Aping the sciences, humanists and social scientists at our top research universities believe that those not at the "cutting edge" of their disciplines have as much standing as creationists would in a biology department.


One exception exists: religious institutions, especially Roman Catholic colleges and universities. Philosophy departments at Catholic institutions continue to be interested in the great ideas of Western philosophy and thus remain relatively untouched by the emphasis in the rest of their discipline on analytic methods and the clarification of scientific concepts. Humanities departments that are concerned with religious themes in poetry, novels, and works of art and music avoid today's penchant for treating those genres as forms of "cultural production"-as if the actual texts were irrelevant to the questions we have about them. And political-science departments in many Catholic colleges and universities pay more attention to political theory, and to political institutions in the real world, than do political-science departments in secular universities-often, in the process, resisting the trend toward empirical methods and formal theorizing.

Catholic colleges and universities thus provide pluralism in our system of higher education: As long as they are vibrant, students and faculty members who appreciate a different kind of education from that offered in the dominant research universities have a place to turn.

That means that a current controversy within Catholic education could have a serious impact on all of American higher education. We would all do well to pay attention.

To flourish, pluralism requires that Catholic institutions retain a commitment to their faith, or else they will become indistinguishable from all other colleges and universities. But they must also remain somewhat independent of their faith. or else they will simply teach dogma rather than examine first principles. For years, religious traditionalists have worried that American Catholic universities are stumbling in their balancing act by becoming too secular. But now, a new threat to their pluralism comes from the other direction.

A heated debate between American bishops and Catholic educators has been raging for the past few months over guidelines that the bishops proposed last November to carry out an important papal document. Ex corde Ecclesiae was issued by Pope John Paul II in 1990: An apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, it instructed Catholic colleges and universities around the world to reaffirm their Catholic identity. A response in November 1996 from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on how to put the document into effect in the United States was returned by the Vatican with instructions to pay more attention to Canon 812 of the Code of Canon Law, dealing with how theology should be taught in Catholic institutions of higher learning. That, in turn, produced the recent draft guidelines from the bishops.

According to the draft, trustees of Catholic colleges should, "as much as possible," be faithful Catholics. The university, moreover, "should recruit and appoint faithful Catholics so that, as much as possible, those committed to the witness of the faith will constitute a majority of the faculty." The bishops also noted that "integrity of doctrine and good character" are expected of all faculty members, especially those in theology. "When these qualities are found to be lacking," they said, "the university statutes are to specify the competent authorities and the process to be followed to remedy the situation." Finally, "Catholic teaching should have a place, appropriate to the subject matter, in the various departments taught in the university." Colleges have until May to respond, after which the bishops will vote on the document.

WHATEVER the outcome, the fact that the issue has arisen in the way it has suggests uneasiness in the Vatican over the extent to which leading Catholic universities have strayed from their roots. It has also caused considerable consternation in the world of American Catholic higher education. An article in the Jesuit magazine America called the latest guidelines "unworkable and dangerous." The Rev. J. Donald Monan, chancellor of Boston College, and the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame, found the document "positively dangerous" to Catholic institutions of higher education and warned of "havoc" if it were adopted. One prominent Catholic historian recently told me: "At times, some people in the Vatican remind me of the House Republicans: obsessive, out of touch with reality, and prone to shooting themselves in the foot."

I believe, as they consider their responses to Ex corde, that academics at Catholic colleges and universities have three broad options. Call them rejectionism, parallelism, and opportunism.

The sociologist Max Weber noted the propensity of some religious movements to reject the world around them in favor of doctrinal purity. Ex corde gives Catholics who believe that their institutions of higher learning have accommodated themselves too much to the modern world an opportunity to call for rejectionism and to advocate breaking institutional ties with the secular culture by, for example, renouncing federal funds. Indeed, if put into effect, the draft guidelines of the U. S. bishops would place Catholic colleges and universities in conflict with existing U.S. law. Giving preference to the hiring of Catholics, for example, could run afoul of recent rulings by U.S. courts striking down affirmative-action programs that favor specific groups.

Furthermore, as purely religious institutions, Catholic universities could find themselves in violation of the principle of separation of church and state if they use federal funds for work-study programs or to support faculty research. Some institutions may, indeed, opt for refusing government money and other outside help-but the largest and most successful Catholic universities are too much a part of the modern world to leave it easily behind.

Those outside the faith, too, would pay a price if Catholic institutions were to take a rejectionist stance: the loss of a dialogue with those institutions. American history is replete with examples of hostility toward Catholicism, and rejectionism on the part of Catholic educators would only feed the prejudices of those persuaded that Catholic teachings could be safely ignored. That, in turn, would relieve everyone of the need to engage Catholic moral teachings on issues including abortion, capital punishment, social justice, and global peace.

A second possible response to the situation in which Catholic colleges and universities find themselves is to encourage parallelism. By parallelism, I mean the existence of more than one academic subculture within a national system of higher education, a system structured in such a way that the various subcultures would have little in common with each other and would instead operate on parallel tracks.

Parallelism is popular among those scholars who are religious believers and who see in the rise of postmodernism a potential ally with their commitments of faith. If the academy holds that there is no one road to the truth, parallelists say, then just as we acknowledge feminist or African-American ways of knowing, so we can also make room for Christian ways of knowing. Religious scholars already skeptical of the Enlightenment can only take heart when they see reason and rationality attacked-even if the attackers themselves may be leftists, possibly atheists. Parallelism offers Catholic colleges and universities a way to be in, but not of, America's system of higher education.

By suggesting that theologians at Catholic universities should seek a mandate from the church, Ex corde suggests one form of parallelism: Catholic doctrine would be taught at religious institutions in theology departments that would be held to recognizably different standards from those of other departments. But academic life is already sectarian enough: Rational-choice theorists in the social sciences feel that only they can judge the qualifications of other rational-choice theorists. Feminists, postmodernists, Marxists, and those who follow every other esoteric approach to knowledge take the same exclusionary stance. Each of those subcultures has its own journals, hierarchies of prestige, and career patterns. Under parallelism, Catholic higher learning would survive as its own subculture, one that does not reject the secular world but instead tries to mimic it-on Catholic terms.

And that is the problem. Parallelism does not confront the sectarianism that flourishes in the absence of pluralism: It simply adds to it. Secular institutions are committed in theory to pluralism, but rarely practice it. Religious institutions, by contrast, are not pluralistic in theory, but have been forced by circumstances to practice it in many of their departments. If Catholic education is understood to have more to do with being Catholic than with being engaged in a broader educational effort, the academic vocation at Catholic colleges and universities would suffer. It would become more a subculture within an alien system of learning than an integral part of that system.

I would argue that the third possible response to Ex corde is best: Catholic colleges and universities ought to opt for opportunism and develop even further the pluralism they possess.

In theory, America's tradition of separation of church and state ought to have led religious institutions to a withdrawal from society. and promoting land-grant universities-another great tradition in the United States-ought to have led secular institutions to an engagement and involvement with the social problems of the day. Yet, in some ways, the reverse has taken place.

Big Ten universities, emphasizing a highly professional and scientific model of academic success, prize detachment, while religious institutions, needing to define for themselves a place in secular society, are constantly reworking mission statements in an effort to emphasize their relevance to the society around them.

We all would suffer if Catholic universities were to forsake the opportunity to promote pluralism, for secular institutions have much to learn from the current soulsearching among religious institutions. Thirty years ago, American colleges and universities viewed themselves as liberal defenders of academic freedom and looked with suspicion on Catholic universities as propagators of dogma; some scholars, such as the philosopher Sidney Hook, denied that Catholic universities could adhere to principles of academic freedom at all. But having won the battle for liberal ways of learning, the research universities, in particular, found themselves relying on their own dogmas, rarely questioning their commitment to graduate education, their preference for particular kinds of research, and their habit of dividing themselves into departments.

I am not one of those critics prone to find fault with the modern research university, but I do think that it needs to be challenged by institutions whose priorities might be different. Catholic colleges and universities have kept alive a classically based, intellectually rigorous commitment to general education in the face of one educational fad after another. Secular universities need to have that model before them as they wrestle with the question of what they should be doing.

We have seen what can happen to secular universities when pluralism goes out the door. Lacking diverse viewpoints and approaches, they encourage scholarship that is seemingly daring yet bloodless, unorthodox yet thoroughly predictable, and politically motivated without any political content. Historically, religious scholars, distrustful of the secular world around them, also have failed to benefit from exposure to criticism that comes from discomforting and sometimes unwanted sources. Ex corde, in raising anew the question of how faith and knowledge interact, has given Catholic institutions the opportunity to put secular institutions to shame-but only if the Catholic institutions refuse to forsake the mantle of pluralism that secular institutions have dropped.

* The full text of the proposed guidelines for Catholic colleges is available on The Chronicle's World-Wide Web site at: http://chronicle.com

Alan Wolfe is a University Professor at Boston University and the author, most recently, of One Nation, After All (Viking Penguin, 1998).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.- volver índice -

Charles Zech. The faculty and Catholic institutional identity- volver índice -
America
New York, May 22, 1999

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Volume: 180, Issue: 18, Pagination: 11-15, ISSN: 00027049

Subject Terms: Colleges & universities // Religious education // Catholicism //Educators

Abstract:

Zech believes that the entire college faculty, not just those involved in religious studies, determine the extent of the college's Catholic identity. Some factors associated with an institution's ability to develop an attachment to the school's mission include the role of the president and the faculty age and experience.
Copyright America Press May 22, 1999

Full Text:

The entire faculty, not just those few who teach theology, determine the extent to which a college maintains its Catholic identity.

AT ITS MEETING in November 1998, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops once again considered a response to Pope John Paul II's 1990 constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. These proposed new norms represent the N.C.C.B.'s second attempt to develop an implementation document. Their first attempt was approved at their November 1996 meeting by a vote of 240 to 6. But in 1997 the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education rejected that document on several grounds, including its failure to implement Canon 812, which requires theology professors in Catholic colleges to secure a mandate to teach from the local bishop. This latest document proposes that theology professors obtain such a mandate. It will be voted on by the bishops at their November 1999 meeting.

Much of the press coverage of the bishops' attempts to agree on norms has focused on the issue of teaching mandates for theology professors and its implication for academic freedom and institutional autonomy. But it is the teaching and research of the entire faculty, not just those few who teach theology, that determines the extent to which a college maintains its Catholic identity.

In a study funded through the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Judith Dwyer of St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn., and I considered the extent to which faculty at U.S. Catholic colleges and universities identify with their institution's Catholic mission. We were able to uncover a number of factors that are associated with an institution's ability to develop successfully its faculty's sense of attachment to the school's mission.

Raw Nerve.

The data for our study was collected in spring 1995 through two questionnaires. One was sent to the presidents of 207 Catholic colleges and universities, of whom 74 percent responded. It gathered background information on each institution (number of students, number of faculty, religious order affiliation and the like) as well as information on curriculum and faculty development programs. The other survey was sent to faculty members at 98 colleges and universities randomly selected from the 207. Thirty full-time faculty members were randomly selected at each of these schools; the response rate was 44 percent. This survey asked the faculty about their attitudes toward their institution's Catholic mission, as well as for some background information on themselves (age, gender, religion, etc.). Respondents were invited to provide written comments.

Our survey clearly struck a nerve among the faculty respondents. Some returned the survey unanswered with a note indicating that this was a sensitive issue on their campus and they did not trust our promise that all individual responses would be kept in strictest confidence. Others took advantage of the opportunity to provide written comments. Some of these reflected a reawakening to the importance of their school's Catholic identity:

We have been negligent about the Catholic character of this college; we took it for granted...and are newly aware of the need to study the Catholic character of our institution.

Our college is presently struggling with this problem and challenge. It is a difficult and sensitive area for discussion which was taken for granted for 20 years and is now a problem.

Some respondents were fearful that Catholic identity would be equated with religious orthodoxy:

I am strongly opposed to Catholic fundamentalists who admire the methods of Bob Jones University. The search for truth should be open in a Catholic environment, not imposed from above.

While it is important to maintain an authentic Catholic character, I feel this effort is often a mask for the most conservative interpretation. A Catholic identity truly representative of the church and its history would be wonderful. One that subverts true Catholicity in the name of orthodoxy narrowly understood would be tragic.

While most faculty members were supportive of their institution's Catholic mission, some were indifferent or even openly hostile to the notion that the Catholic identity of their school should be important:

I am unconnected to Catholicism, and have no desire or interest in its role for faculty or curriculum, or vice versa. The Catholic character is irrelevant to me. I neither disparage nor promote it.

To introduce the bias of any religion into education as this survey suggests is totally counterproductive to the higher educational process. You should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting it.

I am profoundly disturbed by efforts to assign faculty and the curriculum a role in defining and promoting the Catholic character of any institution. These efforts are ill-advised, for they will hinder my institution's ability to be a first-rate university. They will, regrettably, maintain forever the university on a parochial basis.

I think "religious character" should be eliminated. It is a drawback to excellence. In time, I believe it will be, as was done over a period of several hundred years at many excellent schools, such as Princeton, Yale, etc.

Finally, some respondents focused on two critical issues, the hiring and tenuring of faculty at their institutions: Very little energy is in place with regard to the type of faculty being hired, that is, the emphasis is restricted to a faculty member's academic credentials rather than insisting on people committed to the college's religious identity and mission.

The difficult question is tenure and its expectations. Would you, without fear of a lawsuit, refuse tenure to someone, good in teaching and research, but somewhat hostile to the institution's Catholic heritage?

The faculty's role in advancing the Catholic identity of an institution is complex and multifaceted. We examined faculty attitudes from four perspectives: their opinions concerning the composition of the school's core curriculum; their willingness to teach about Catholic values across the curriculum; the extent to which they try to make a connection between their personal religious faith and their teaching and research; and the degree to which they feel connected to their institution's Catholic mission. Certain patterns surfaced that enabled us to identify factors that are associated with faculty engagement with the college's Catholic identity without sacrificing institutional commitment to academic excellence. These are treated here in no particular order.

The Role of the President.

Both by their numerical ratings and their written comments, faculty members made it clear that the institution's president plays a critical role in setting the tone for the importance of the school's Catholic identity. Faculty who perceive the president to be indifferent on this matter might well become indifferent themselves. It isn't sufficient for the president to make the case for the importance of the school's Catholic identity to external audiences like potential donors or the local bishop. The president must be a visible advocate on campus as well. We found that one of the most effective activities was an annual address by the president to the college community devoted to the institution's Catholic identity. Presidents who make the effort to communicate directly to the faculty on this issue send a clear message concerning their own priorities and their expectations for the faculty.

Faculty Age and Experience.

We found that older faculty members and those who have been teaching longer are more connected to their institution's Catholic identity than are younger faculty. This could merely reflect life-cycle differences; and someday these younger faculty may be as supportive of their school's Catholic mission as are today's senior professors. But James Davidson and his colleagues have argued persuasively that there are generational cohort differences among Catholics, with a fault line occurring at the time of the Second Vatican Council. They have detected significant differences in beliefs and practices when comparing Catholics who completed their education before that time (the preVatican II generation) with those who were in high school or college during the period of Vatican II (the Vatican II generation) and those whose educational experiences occurred after Vatican II (the post-Vatican II generation). Generally, they found that younger Catholics were the least knowledgeable about their faith, including the Catholic intellectual tradition, and least committed to the institutional church. Administrators at Catholic colleges need to take this factor into account. The current crop of senior professors needed relatively little in the way of faculty development to ensure their commitment to the school's Catholic identity. A greater effort must be spent on developing younger faculty members.

We found that faculty members themselves play a crucial role in assisting the younger faculty to develop an appreciation for the school's Catholic identity. Two separate approaches stood out. One was more formal: the appointment of a standing faculty committee charged with overseeing the institution's Catholic identity. The other was more informal: reliance on a group of faculty who assumed responsibility for mentoring younger faculty members regarding the school's Catholic identity. In both cases, faculty members effectively demonstrated peer leadership. But to the extent that informal mentoring is performed by the more senior faculty, it is unlikely the younger faculty will be able to assume this responsibility when they become more senior unless they are properly prepared. Catholic universities and colleges should consider appointing a standing committee for this purpose.

The Role of Vowed Religious.

One of our consistent findings was the important role that vowed religious play in inspiring positive attitudes toward the institution's Catholic identity. The example set by those faculty members who are vowed religious apparently permeates the entire faculty and sets a tone for connecting with the school's mission. Unfortunately, in this age of declining religious vocations, many religious orders are experiencing difficulty maintaining a significant presence among college and university faculties. Catholic schools need to recognize the impact that declining religious vocations have on their ability to develop and maintain a Catholic identity among their faculty. Catholic colleges and universities should make every effort to ensure that those few vowed religious who are on campus serve as prominent role models to the rest of the community, regardless of their official position (for example: faculty member, campus minister, administrator).

Types of Schools.

In nearly every measure that we used, faculty members at liberal arts colleges identified most strongly with their institution's Catholic mission, followed by faculties at comprehensive universities. Those who taught at research universities felt the least connected. These findings are not surprising, given the types of faculty members who are attracted to these different types of schools. Thus, while all Catholic institutions of higher learning need to be vigilant in maintaining their Catholic identity, research universities have an especially difficult challenge.

Special Liturgies and Workshops.

The spiritual side of faculty development is often overlooked, but we found that offering specially designated liturgies or para-liturgical experiences for the faculty was an effective means of increasing support for all of our measures of an institution's Catholic identity.

Also effective were faculty workshops that focused on the institution's Catholic identity. These workshops, typically featuring an outside speaker, can be effective in conveying the message that the school's Catholic identity is important. They can also be an invaluable tool to assist the faculty in carrying out the specifics of the Catholic mission by helping faculty members understand methods for teaching about Catholic values across the curriculum or by providing strategies for connecting their faith with their teaching and research.

Faculty Recruitment.

Conventional wisdom holds that the hiring process is a critical component in building a faculty that identifies with the school's Catholic mission. But we found that relatively few faculty hiring policies and procedures were associated with greater faculty support for the institution's Catholic identity. One policy that was found to be effective was the specification in all faculty recruiting advertisements that faculty members are expected to be supportive of the institution's Catholic mission. Surprisingly, only about a third of the schools surveyed routinely incorporate a statement to that effect in their faculty recruiting advertisements. Some schools might not include it because they take their Catholic mission for granted. Others perhaps fear discouraging qualified applicants. But if a college is serious about developing its Catholic identity, it is important that prospective faculty candidates appreciate that position from the very beginning.


A second faculty recruitment process that was found to be effective was providing guidelines to search committees spelling out their responsibility to recruit candidates who can contribute to the Catholic mission. Search committees frequently get so involved in evaluating a candidate's teaching and research potential that they might overlook the person's potential for contributing to the Catholic mission. Candidly, some faculty view this aspect of the search as either anti-intellectual or as a mere formality. Unless the search committees are made aware of this responsibility and enjoy administrative support, it is likely to be ignored or at best to receive only token consideration.

One of the most controversial issues related to an institution's Catholic identity concerns the proportion of the faculty that should be Catholic. In every measure of Catholic identity that we tested, faculty members who were Catholics themselves were, as a group, more supportive than were non-Catholic faculty. This does not imply that Catholic colleges and universities should hire only Catholic faculty. But most observers, including well-respected academics like the Rev. Richard McBrien and the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, argue for a "critical mass" of faculty who show an explicit interest in addressing the Catholic identity of their institution. But what constitutes a critical mass? Is it 75 percent? 50 percent? One-third? Our calculations set it at just over 50 percent. But what is a professed Catholic? Does a divorced Catholic qualify? Do we monitor weekend Mass attendance? The bishops used the term "faithful Catholics" and recommended that they comprise a majority of the faculty. But even they were unwilling to spell out what constitutes a faithful Catholic.

It is naive for anyone to suggest that our colleges' Catholic identity depends entirely on just the activities of the few faculty members who are directly engaged in the teaching of theology. The Catholic nature of our colleges and universities depends at least as much on the attitudes and activities of those faculty members who teach philosophy, history and even economics.

Our Catholic colleges and universities must recruit faculty of the highest quality, many of whom will not be Catholic. Every effort must be made to ensure that they understand and support the unique mission of our Catholic colleges. Those faculty members who are themselves Catholic have an additional responsibility. Too often they keep their religious lives and their professional lives separate. They must learn to integrate their religious convictions and values into their teaching and scholarship. They do this not so much by the answers they give as by the questions that they ask. At the same time, many of these faculty members will come to Catholic institutions less knowledgeable about their faith in general and about the Catholic intellectual tradition in particular. Catholic colleges and universities must be prepared to engage these faculty in developmental processes aimed at instilling in them an appreciation for and a commitment to their institutions' unique mission.

CHARLES ZECH is a professor of economics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.- volver índice -

BETH McMURTRIE. 3 Theologians Face a Dilemma for Themselves, Their Colleges, and the Church
The Chronicle of Higher Education- volver índice -
Washington, Jul 20, 2001

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Special Volume/Issue: Vol. 47, Issue: 45, Pagination: A8-A10, ISSN: 00095982

Subject Terms: Popes // Theology //Educators // Colleges & universities // Academic freedom

Personal Names: Pohlaus, Gaile
Connolly, John
Doyle, Dennis M
Companies:
Company Name: Roman Catholic Church
SIC: 813110

Abstract:

In 1990, when Pope John Paul II called for theologians to obtain a "mandatum," many scholars saw it as an intolerable limitation on their academic freedom. The cost of refusing to sign the document could be open fissures from within the church, public retribution from angry alumni who consider them disloyal Catholics, and classroom challenges from perplexed students. McMurtrie discusses the particular situations of three Catholic professors: Gaile Pohlaus, John R. Connolly, and Dennis M. Doyle. (Copyright Jul. 20, 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Full Text:

Gaile Pohlhaus is small and round, with a cap of fluffy gray hair. Sunk into a couch in the vast lobby of a Milwaukee hotel during the annual conference of the Catholic Theological Society of America, this former nun is the picture of grandmotherly sweetness. It is easy to imagine her in the classroom at Villanova University, tackling such personal topics as the sacrament of marriage with the thoughtfulness of someone who loves to teach.

"Every so often I think about retiring," she says. "But what else could I do that I would enjoy so much?"

But it is her role as a professor that lies at the center of a dilemma faced by more than a thousand other Roman Catholic theologians teaching at Catholic colleges in the United States. Ms. Pohlhaus has been ordered to seek approval of her teachings from her bishop. She is thinking of refusing to seek this approval -- called a mandatum -- as a matter of principle.

When she was her students' age, she says, the idea of a theologian's defying the church would have seemed incredibly romantic. "I would have thought they were Lancelot or Guinevere: 'Isn't that exciting? Aren't they strong for saying that?' Now that I'm older -- and I don't know how much wiser -- I know it's not a matter of strength. It's a matter of having your heart torn out, that's what it is."

If Ms. Pohlhaus does not feel like an Arthurian heroine, it's because she is not quite sure where her obligations lie. Should she listen to her conscience, which says the church is wrong to demand that she seek her bishop's approval for what goes on inside her classroom? Or should she be thinking of the ramifications this might have for her students and other Catholics, who may interpret her defiance as proof that the church is just one more monolithic institution to be treated with mistrust?

"I worry that students will think that it's not important to listen to the church if I decide not to do it. I mean, they already think it's not important to listen to the church, at least on sexual matters," she says, then stops. She is quiet for a long time. "I just think the whole thing is a mess, and there doesn't seem to be a solution for it."

In 1990, when Pope John Paul II called for theologians to obtain a mandatum, many scholars saw it as an intolerable limitation on their academic freedom. When they protested that the credibility of their discipline would be irreparably damaged, momentum seemed to move in the direction of mass resistance.

But today, with the deadline for seeking a mandatum just 10 months away, these same theologians have found that it's not so simple to just say no. The price of signing up may be the loss of academic credibility and a binding obligation to the church. But the cost of refusing could be high as well: open fissures with the church, public retribution from angry alumni who consider them disloyal Catholics, and classroom challenges from perplexed students.

The mandatum has put Catholic theologians at Catholic colleges in an unusual and, for many, stressful quandary. Although professors in general frequently struggle with the effect that their private beliefs have on their professional decisions, those decisions rarely become so contentious and so public. Ms. Pohlhaus is one of those standing at the center of a debate in which strong feelings, and sound reasons, pull from both sides.

Paradoxically, many theologians who have reached decisions -- whichever way they go -- believe that they are being true both to their responsibilities as academics and to their obligations as Catholics.

Ms. Pohlhaus has come to Milwaukee in hopes of finding an answer to her dilemma. She attends panels devoted to divining the meaning of the mandatum, in which professors offer competing definitions of ecclesiastical communion and debate the wisdom of invoking "nonreception" of a canon law.

Among theologians, much of the debate takes place on an esoteric plane well outside the boundaries of most academics' areas of knowledge. The professors are keenly aware of the political dynamics of this church law, but the spiritual dimension of the mandatum has often been underappreciated outside of the discipline. Ms. Pohlhaus listens carefully but is not particularly optimistic about finding the answer here. She prays for guidance.

Unlike professors in religious-studies programs, who examine religion from a cultural and historical perspective, theologians focus on interpreting practices and beliefs of a particular religion - - usually their own. "Faith seeking understanding" is the quick definition of the field. Such a blending of subjective belief and objective analysis has led academics in other disciplines to view theologians somewhat skeptically, as if they were not true scholars.

"It is important for me to live my theology," says Ms. Pohlhaus. "That means praying about it, reflecting about it. You don't do that in history. You don't do that in English. That's why theology is a suspect academic discipline, I'm afraid."

More than 30 years ago, Ms. Pohlhaus was a member of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth's, in Convent Station, N.J. She left the order in 1969 to marry, earned a doctorate at Temple University in 1987, and has taught in Villanova's theology department full time since then, specializing in sacramental theology. Her courses often focus on such hot-button topics as premarital sex, birth control, and homosexuality.

She has her disagreements with the church -- she would like to see women ordained as priests, for example, and does not believe homosexuality is a disorder> -- but she has no interest in either indoctrinating her students or convincing them of viewpoints that oppose the church's. Relaying Catholic teachings accurately and fairly, she says, is just part of the job.

"To be a good professor, none of us would run around claiming that it's OK for a Catholic to use artificial contraception," she says.

Ms. Pohlhaus has no doubt that she and her colleagues at Villanova would each be granted a mandatum if they asked. She does not think that the mandatum is a threat to their jobs, because it is not, so far, part of the university hiring process.

What bothers her, she says, is that the church is saying she needs its permission to teach.

"I don't know that I could stand up in front of my students and say that my understanding of Christian theology is that we are all called to be free as sons and daughters of God, knowing that by taking the mandatum I would not feel free."

Ms. Pohlhaus calls the mandatum a "bad law" because it defeats its own purpose. Rather than strengthen Catholic theology, as the church maintains, the mandatum will marginalize it, she argues. Although she does not expect the bishops to use it as a weapon, she believes that those outside Catholic higher education will see it as a muzzle on free thinking.

John R. Connolly, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles, harbors doubts darker than those of Ms. Pohlhaus. He has been suspicious of the mandatum since it first appeared in church law, back in 1983.

His father, a seminary professor, had inspired Mr. Connolly to became a theologian. His goal, he says, is to help his students develop "a more critical faith, a more intellectual faith, and, in the long run, a more realistic and true type of faith."

The mandatum, he says, runs counter to that ideal: It is Rome's attempt to ensure adherence to a narrow orthodoxy. "What they want is to have control down the line, to get rid of people who are teaching what they don't want them to teach."

As proof, Mr. Connolly points to the Rev. Roger Haight, of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, who was removed from his teaching post last fall and asked to "clarify" views that the Vatican felt run contrary to church teachings. Father Haight has yet to return to the classroom.

Mr. Connolly doesn't buy the church's argument that the mandatum simply expresses an obligation that has always existed between bishops and theologians. His authority to teach theology doesn't come from the church hierarchy, he says. It comes from his baptism and his academic training.

For him, the price of his decision not to seek a mandatum may come in the form of unpleasant public attention. Some Catholics consider the mandate a litmus test that measures one's faithfulness; they hope universities will force out those who fail that test. Mr. Connolly's name has already appeared on one Web site run by Catholic conservatives.

Because of such attention, many Catholic theologians refuse to say where they stand on the issue. But Mr. Connolly says he feels a moral obligation to speak out: "Sometimes one has to stand up if they believe the authority of the Catholic church is wrong, particularly when this is not a matter of faith and morals."

Mr. Connolly's position has not wavered, but some theologians have found their resistance to the mandatum softening after meeting with church officials. The bishops as a whole have pledged to be as benign and unobtrusive as possible, and many academics believe that American bishops will be reluctant to enforce a ruling that was essentially forced upon them by the Vatican.

For Mr. Connolly, those promises are not worth much. For one, he says, no matter how pastoral the bishops claim to be, the mandatum is, in fact, a church law that could be used against those who commit to it. Second, whatever bond of trust that existed was broken long ago.

"If the bishops had stood up to Rome like they should have, this whole thing would be over," he says.

"I cannot accept when a bishop nowadays says, 'Trust me and trust the church,' because they haven't trusted us. ... They didn't respect us. They didn't even ask us what we thought of it. They just did it."

Ms. Pohlhaus would like the clarity of conscience that Mr. Connolly displays. But just when she's feeling confident in rejecting the mandatum, some new angle pops up. Like last month, when a colleague told her that she had to consider the effect her decision would have on others.

Would Villanova's president, himself a theologian, be cornered by people who want to know if her refusal means that the theology department is leading students astray? Would parishioners at her church wonder why she is taking such a stand? Would her students understand?

Ms. Pohlhaus is already troubled by the supermarket approach that so many Catholics have toward their religion: picking and choosing the beliefs most convenient to them. Birth control: No. Premarital sex: Yes. Capital punishment: Why not?

While she respects anyone who rejects a church edict as a matter of conscience, she doesn't see much reflection among her students. She fears that they will consider a decision against the mandatum as further proof that one can do whatever one wants and still be Catholic.

Dennis M. Doyle is a professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, where he has taught since 1984. His conscience is as clear as Mr. Connolly's, although he sits on the opposite side of the fence. He intends to seek a mandatum, he says, because it is part of his responsibility as a theologian.

"To me, theology is a form of ministry, and it's something I do within the context of the church," he says. Yes, it is an academic discipline, and no, it's not Sunday school, he notes. But part of his job is relaying the church's point of view, and he is speaking as a part of that church. Therefore, he believes, his bishop has a right to say whether he is doing so accurately.

"The mandatum only says that 'Doyle, you're not free to present something as Catholic teaching that is not Catholic teaching.' That is all it says. And I'm happy to be restricted on that point."

But Mr. Doyle is also a realist, and he knew early on that the cost of requiring the mandatum would be high. Two years ago, he co- wrote an article in Commonweal, a Catholic magazine, unsuccessfully urging the bishops to spend more time on the matter. "If I were voting on it, I would not have voted to pass it," he says.

He worried the mandate was going to place a wedge between theologians and bishops, which it did. He anticipated that it would raise fears about a lack of freedom, which it has. He expected that it would make Catholic colleges the object of ridicule by some people at secular universities, which it may.

Despite the turmoil, however, he believes that the mandate will be like Y2K: lots of precautionary activity before it hits, but no real damage afterward.

The mandatum has put friends on opposite sides of the debate. Mr. Doyle notes that many of his friends plan to refuse to seek it. He's had a few heated arguments with others in his department, but says they've agreed to not let the issue divide them. He acknowledges, however, that no one -- including his colleagues at Dayton -- knows how differing decisions about the mandaturm will play out on college campuses.

He respects conscientious objectors and takes seriously their concerns, he says, but would oppose any form of organized resistance. His concern is that conservative watchdog groups will see such resistance as proof that Catholic colleges are losing their identity.

Mr. Doyle says he also worries that Catholic college are becoming overly secular. But he is more optimistic than people like the Rev. James T. Burtchaell, whose provocative 1998 book, The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities From Their Christian Churches (William B. Eerdmans), painted a bleak picture of the secularization of religious institutions.

If theologians treat the mandatum "as though it were an evil in principle," Mr. Doyle says, it would reinforce the idea that Catholic colleges are antichurch, and "that the Burtchaells of the world were right."

Weighing heavily on the minds of many theologians is the moment of reckoning with the local church official who has the power to grant a mandatum. In Philadelphia, that person is Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, a forceful and respected church leader.

Along with 120 other theologians from the region, Ms. Pohlhaus met with the cardinal this past April. Afterward, she says, she felt more torn than ever. "He wanted us to feel comfortable and reassured about the mandatum -- that it was not going to be used as a whip or anything like that. But it didn't seem to me as if he understood that there were conscientious objections to accepting or rejecting the mandatum."

Could she make the cardinal understand if she chose not to seek the mandate? Ms. Pohlhaus must wrestle with that uncomfortable scenario, in addition to her own conscience.

She continues to look for answers. She wants to study the final document on the mandatum, passed by the bishops in June. She wants to talk to more colleagues. She wants to think and pray.

"I wouldn't expect someone who has no religious commitment to necessarily understand what I'm struggling with here," she says. "I would simply ask them to respect that it is a real struggle. It's not something I can just leave at the office."

It's close to 11 p.m., and Ms. Pohlhaus's husband waits quietly in the background. Just before departing, she considers her dilemma some more. "There are good, logical arguments on both sides," she says. "But it doesn't get to that deep place where the true answer comes from."

UNDERSTANDING THE MANDATUM

Canon 812: "It is necessary that those who teach theological disciplines in any institute of higher studies have a mandate from the competent ecclesiastical authority." (1983)

Ex corde Ecclesiae: "Catholic theologians, aware that they fulfill a mandate received from the Church, are to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition." (1990)

Ex corde Ecclesiae: An Application to the United States: "The mandatum is fundamentally an acknowledgment by Church authority that a Catholic professor of a theological discipline teaches within the full communion of the Catholic Church. The mandatum should not be construed as an appointment, authorization, delegation or approbation of one's teaching by Church authorities. Those who have received a mandatum teach in their own name in virtue of their baptism and their academic and professional competence, not in the name of the Bishop or of the Church's magisterium. The mandatum recognizes the professor's commitment and responsibility to teach authentic Catholic doctrine and to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the Church's magisterium."(1999)

SOURCE: Chronicle reporting

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Margot Patterson. Following in the footsteps of Ignatius. - volver índice -
National Catholic Reporter. Kansas City.Apr 13, 2001
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Volume: 37, Issue: 24, Pagination: 13-14+, ISSN: 00278939

Subject Terms: Saints // Personal profiles // Meditation // Spirituality // Religious education

Personal Names: Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Company Name: Society of Jesus
Company Name: Jesuits

Abstract:

Though in this country the revival of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius has largely taken place during the last 30 years, and particularly the last 10, Jesuit Fr. John Padberg of the Institute of Jesuit Sources in St. Louis notes the conditions for the possibility of this resurgence began a hundred years ago with the discovery and publication of original source materials that gave a truer picture of what [Ignatius] and the early Jesuits thought and did.
Copyright National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company Apr 13, 2001

Full Text:

They've been called a school for freedom, a work of teacherly genius and a powerful tool for conversion. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are being turned to by growing numbers of people who say the 450-year-old primer on prayer and contemplation offers a personal encounter with the divine that frees them to be more themselves.

"There's no sense of predicting how you'll change," said Belden Lane, a theology professor at St. Louis University who did the exercises in 1994-95 and calls them "risky in the very best sense."

A Presbyterian minister who grew up in a fundamentalist Protestant family, Lane, said the exercises led him to come to terms with his father's suicide years ago, his mother's dying during the months he was doing the exercises and his own mortality. "You're taken into loss and death and all the denials and illusions you play with. It can be profoundly disconcerting," Lane said.

"There's a kind of desert journey," he said. "You travel into terrain that you want to forget about. You go there and you don't run away and you work through your fears and then you have the experience of Isaiah 35: the desert blooming like a rose."

For Lane, one of the unexpected gifts of the exercises was rediscovering the aliveness of the Bible, which as a child he had grown up reading on a daily basis.

For Victoria Carlson-Casaregola, an instructor of English at St. Louis University, the greatest challenge the exercises presented was integrating the head and the heart.

Whatever their individual experience, those who practice the exercises agree that the process is creative and the effects of the exercises unexpected.

"You're in it in order to be in the act of becoming," said Vincent Casaregola, an associate professor of English who did the exercises several years ago. "You can't name it ahead of time, and if you could name it ahead of time you'd stop the process."

A spiritual classic

St. Ignatius of Loyola was still a layman when he began taking notes on his own spiritual experiences. These formed the genesis of the spiritual exercises, which Ignatius was eager to share with others in his lifetime and which have since become a classic work in Christian spirituality.

Not surprisingly, the Society of Jesus, the religious order Ignatius founded in 1539, is rooted in Ignatian spirituality. At least twice in the years leading up to their final vows, all Jesuits make a silent 30-day retreat in which they do the exercises.

The 19th annotation of the exercises - so labeled by Ignatius when he wrote the exercises - is an at-home retreat that consists of an eight-month program of prayer in which those doing the exercises, often referred to as the exercitants, commit to an hour a day of prayer following the pattern of scripture reading, prayer and contemplation Ignatius laid down. As exercitants read the gospels and place themselves inside the stories, they are encouraged to pay attention to how God is inspiring them.

Today the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius are no longer just the preserve of Jesuit retreat houses. All of the 28 Jesuit colleges in the United States and most of the 40-plus Jesuit high schools offer the spiritual exercises to their faculty and staff, part of an effort these schools have undertaken in an era of dwindling vocations to the priesthood to transmit a key element of Jesuit identity and education to their non-Jesuit faculty members and staff.

Increasingly, it's the 19th annotation of the exercises rather than the classic 30-day retreat that people are turning to, if for no other reason than that few people have the time to make a month-long retreat. Even the athome retreat requires a substantial time commitment.

The surprise is that so many people make that commitment.

"It would be safe to say that more people are engaged in these exercises today than at any time in history," Jesuit Fr. Joseph Tetlow, secretary for Ignatian spirituality in Rome, wrote in National Jesuit News in 1995.

The 30-day retreat calls for retreatants to spend five hours a day in prayer and is divided into four blocks of time that are approximately one week each. The 19th annotation stretches each of these weeks into several. But retreatants still spend their time meditating on sin and their own experience of sin in the period designated as Week 1, on Christ's life and early ministry in Week 2, Christ's passion in Week 3 and the resurrected Christ in Week 4. The exercises follow the liturgical year, which is one reason why persons practicing the 19th annotation often begin in the autumn and end around Easter.

Today the popularity of the spiritual exercises has taken on an independent life of its own. "It's kind of a contagious thing," said Fr. Charles Currie, head of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Washington. "When people see how helpful they are, they tell their friends,"

Advocates say people are seeking a spirituality they can adapt to their busy lives.

"People are hungry for a spirituality that fits their own experience, and the experience of many people today is that they can't go away to find God. They're hungering to find God in the midst of their everyday life," said Jesuit Fr. Andy Alexander of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

In St. Louis, the Bridges program started by Joan Felling and her husband, Jim, in 1989 provides the 19th annotation of the spiritual exercises both through St. Louis University and through Catholic parishes in the city. Bridges offers another program, Prayer Companions, which trains those who have done the exercises to become spiritual directors for others doing them. Approximately 600 people have done the spiritual exercises through Bridges, most of them attracted by word of mouth. Its success has helped make St. Louis a center for Ignatian spirituality.

The St. Louis Center for Ignatian Spirituality hosted the first national conference on Ignatian spirituality in 1999 and will host a second in 2002. But the spiritual exercises are flourishing in many other cities - Seattle, Boston and Washington, to name just a few - and myriad retreat houses and centers around the country.

The spiritual exercises are even available online. Since September of 1998, Creighton University has offered the 19th annotation of the exercises at www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMi nistry/online.html. At the Office for Collaborative Ministry at Creighton, Alexander and Maureen Waldron developed the 34-week program for the Web site, which they report is attracting close to a thousand visitors a day. The 34-week program on the Web includes a guide leading people through the various movements of the exercises, photos by the well-known Jesuit photographer Don Doll, a guidepost for the week written by Jesuit Fr. Jerry Gillick, a place where retreatants can share their experiences of the online retreat and several links to related sites.

Listening to the Spirit

Whether they make the exercises online or off, retreatants are urged to bring their imagination and all their senses to their contemplation of specific moments in Jesus' life.

"Imagination is [Ignatius'] favorite faculty of human beings," said Jesuit Fr. David Fleming, author of a contemporary translation of the exercises, "People think of Ignatian prayer as meditative. Ignatius does talk a bit about meditation, but his emphasis is on contemplation - prayer by imagination."

A theologian who writes about geography and the sacred, Belden Lane said Ignatius brings both a poetic imagination and a keen understanding of place to the prayers he prescribes. Meditations on the Nativity and other moments in Jesus' life bring exercitants into the gospel story and make it their story as well.

"You go there. You work through the five senses. You hear the hornets in the cave, you see the straw thrown over the mud, you smell the urine of the animals. That place then and there becomes your place here and now," Lane said.

An intrinsic component to the exercises is a spiritual director. Those practicing the 19th annotation meet with a spiritual director once a week. The exercises become a guide to Christian maturity in the freedom of the Spirit, practitioners say.

"The spiritual director is key," said Mary Flick, assistant vice president of the Office of Mission and Ministry at St. Louis University. "You can't do the spiritual exercises alone," said Flick, who did the 19th annotation of the exercises in 199495 and has since become a spiritual director guiding others through them.

"Ignatius would say pay attention to your desires and in your desires is what you are called to do," said Joan Felling. "And that's why you have a spiritual director - to help you listen to the Spirit."

The emphasis on reflection, interior experience and imagination may account for why people so frequently describe the exercises as transformative in unpredictable ways.

"I describe Ignatius as the great reflector because he has you pray and then reflect in your journal, and then he has you sometimes repeat that," Felling said. "He encourages people to keep careful notes of their prayer, and he kept careful notes and that's why we have the spiritual exercises."

In particular, Ignatius directs retreatants to attend to movements of consolation and desolation they're experiencing within themselves, consolation being described as anything that moves a person to greater hope, faith and love of God and desolation as movements toward selfishness and self.

In reflecting about their own life story as they contemplate Jesus' life and in. observing the emotions generated by their prayers, retreatants say they gain both a more intimate relationship with God and a greater understanding of themselves and their deepest desires.

People think of Ignatius as a very organized, intellectual man, but just the opposite is true, Fleming said. "He [Ignatius] is the saint who has given us an understanding of discernment, and discernment is based on feelings. Discernment is learning the language as spoken in or through my feelings. God does not so much touch our minds as touch our hearts," said Fleming.


Marian Cowan of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a spiritual director for the exercises and author of a contemporary version of them titled Companions in Grace, said "discerning means I can figure out whether the desires that arise in me come from God or not." Discernment is a tool that helps people to not only determine and decide between the good and bad in their desires but to choose between competing goods, she explained.

Inevitably, the spiritual exercises promote a better appreciation of a saint who's been frequently misunderstood and sometimes vilified over the centuries.

Mysticism of service

Contradictions in the portrayal of service Ignatius abound. Perhaps few saints have acquired a reputation so at odds with reality. Often pictured as a stern military man, Ignatius was never a professional soldier but a gentleman at arms inspired by chivalric ideals who, after his conversion, would break into tears sometimes four or five times a day, the effect of the gratitude he felt for God's goodness. Conscious of his own early follies in the spiritual life, he never prescribed set prayers and penances for members of the Society of Jesus, and the spiritual exercises that he spent his life giving were meant to be adapted to every individual's need and temperament.

Fleming calls Ignatian spirituality a spirituality that is dynamic and active and reflects a mysticism of service. "A lot of people don't associate Ignatius with mysticism at all, but the reason Ignatian spirituality has the flavor it does is because it comes out of his mystical experiences," said Fleming. "Ignatius likes us to enter into our dreams to be shaped by Jesus and the gospels. Ignatian spirituality always calls for creativity. How does it come together - my dreams and the needs of the world, the church, my family?"

Though in this country the revival of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius has largely taken place during the last 30 years, and particularly the last 10, Jesuit Fr. John Padberg of the Institute of Jesuit Sources in St. Louis notes the conditions for the possibility of this resurgence began a hundred years ago with the discovery and publication of original source materials that gave a truer picture of what Ignatius and the early Jesuits thought and did. Incredibly, Padberg said, the autobiography and diary of Ignatius had sat unread, unedited and unpublished in the Jesuit archives for 300 years. When these and the writings of the other early Jesuits began to be published in the 1890s, "at that point we began to recover our history," Padberg said.

The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s added further impetus to Ignatian scholarship. The council directed that religious orders should both respond to the needs of the present day and recover their original founding charism, a directive that the Jesuits were ready th of respond to because they had a wealth of documents to help them do this. A tireless correspondent, Ignatius wrote approximately 7,000 letters as head of the Society of Jesus and insisted that his scattered companions in the Society of Jesus write quarterly reports from wherever they were posted. Few of Ignatius' letters were published before the 1950s. Even now only about 150 of Ignatius' letters are available in English; in the next few years the Institute of Jesuit Sources will publish an expanded collection of about 600.

Only after the Jesuits rediscovered Ignatius can you begin to talk about the resurgence of Ignatian spirituality, Padberg said, who notes that Ignatius' autobiography and diary brought a fresh appreciation of Ignatius asa mystic and teacher of prayer.

"The resurgence of Ignatian spirituality started with the Jesuits and it didn't start in the United States. It started in Europe with the rassourcement" - the investigation of the theology of the early church that took place especially in the 1930s and '40s, Padberg said.

Laypeople lead exercises

In Europe, people were giving individually directed retreats to laypeople in the early 1940s. That didn't begin to be popular in this country for laypeople until the late 1960s at the earliest, Padberg said.

Today the laity is taking a leading role in the dissemination of the exercises,sometimes with the religious and sometimes without and sometimes via technology. As of early March, more than 230,000 hits had been recorded at the Creighton University Web site. Alexander and Waldron say they've received myriad letters from people saying their lives had been changed because of the online retreat.

Captioned as: Ignatius casting out demons

"We've had so many letters from people who said they were just searching around the Net and they found this site a haven for the kind of spiritual nourishment they were seeking," said Alexander.

The online retreat does not offer spiritual direction. Alexander and Waldron said they decided to offer the online exercises without a director because there are many people who have access to the Internet who would never speak to a spiritual director but who are nonetheless hungry for what the exercises offer. Waldron noted that many of the people who use the online retreat are people living in isolated circumstances. She mentioned a rancher in western Nebraska who lives 60 miles from town, a woman in Haiti who logs on to the site whenever the erratic electricity supply in Haiti allows her to, a woman in her 80s in Edinburgh, Scotland, dying from cancer.

"I think there's a desire in every human being to draw closer to God, but the time and the place are not always there," Waldron said. "We think we're following Ignatius, who had a practice of leaving the churches and going out into the public squares to preach."

People have adapted the site in various ways. Alexander and Waldron said they've heard from a priest in the Philippines who works in a school with few computers. Each week he prints out that particular week's guide to the exercises and posts it on the bulletin board so that others in the school can do the retreat. A parish in Cincinnati did the online exercises and formed sharing groups for each of the 34 weeks; another parish in Long Island, N.Y., set up a bulletin board on the U.S. Catholic Web site for parishioners to share thoughts.

The Creighton University Web site also functions as a resource center, offering a list of Jesuit retreat centers around the world as well as information on the martyrs in El Salvador, spirituality links, and links to Catholic information sites.

An evangelizing mission

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is less a book to be read cover to cover than an instruction manual for spiritual directors. Most directors discourage retreatants from reading the exercises until they've finished their retreat. Alexander points out that just reading the exercises is meaningless. "If I read an exercise book, I don't get in better shape. I have to do the exercises."

Despite its dry language, the book has been published several thousand times. People continue to be influenced and inspired by the exercises, as much or more today as when Ignatius wrote his exercises.

Fleming said Ignatian spirituality is a practical spirituality that touches in right where people live. "It really does help them live their ordinary lives with a God perspective, with a real sense of the value of what they do. People feel that the way they live makes a difference not just to themselves but to the people they live with."

"[Ignatian spirituality] is not a spirituality at odds with the world," Alexander said. "Ignatius saw the world as good because God made it and didn't feel we needed to leave the world to transform it."

In Venice where Ignatius and his companions went in 1537, hoping to board ship for the Holy Land, they worked in hospitals for people stricken with syphilis. In Rome, their first church was chosen for its proximity to government offices, the papal courts, poor 'people's homes and houses of prostitutes. There they opened orphanages, a house of instruction for Jewish converts, a house of refuge for prostitutes. Education, which became the Jesuits' chief endeavor, was something Jesuits "glided into, "according to John O'Malley's influential work The First Jesuits.

Ignatius said whoever wanted to join the Society of Jesus should keep in mind the following characteristics of a member of the society: "He is a member of a community founded chiefly to strive for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, and for the propagation of the faith by means of the ministry of the word, the spiritual exercises, and works of charity... "

The spiritual exercises still accomplish this goal, seeding. and strengthening faith.

"[Ignatius] has been able to translate his experience into a format that for lack of a better word evangelizes, that somehow transforms you from a passive Christian to a Christian who is in love with God and committed to the reign of God," Joan Felling said.

Those who have completed the exercises describe their effect in the language of Easter: a renewed sense of God's love, joy and freedom, growth and rebirth.

"Ignatius helps us see that a grateful person is a generous person," Alexander said. "Once I become overwhelmed by God's love for me, I want to share that love. That's what we say is the mystery of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus."

Margot Patterson's e-mail address is [email protected].

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