St. Louis University
Studies: Catholic Education
Topic: The Ignatian Heritage
Course Goals
- To develop knowledge of the historical antecedents of contemporary Jesuit education, especially as these relatge to secondary schooling.
- To gain a better understanding of one's relation to the these antecedents as an instructor and colleague in a Jesuit institution.
- To articulate these relationships within the context of educational theory and policy in the United Stated.
- To examine tensions and dynamics evident in contemporary Jesuit culture, both within and beyond schooling.
- To explore what it means to be a non-Jesuit in a Jesuit educational undertaking.
This course will investigate a number of tensions and counter-balance elements in Jesuit educaztion, both old and new, with the intent of addresssing the above goals. These include:
- Obedience and intellectual freedom
- Vatican II and pre-Vatican II
- The jesuit tradition of "Inculturation" and non-negotiable elements of the gospel messsage.
- Revelation and reason
- Jesuit openness to the world and the Jesuits as a community of speical characteristics
- Scholarship and social action
- Academic rigor and educational access
- Jesuits and their relation to those in power
- The Jesuit past and the possibilities of the future
- Asceticism and beauty
In wrestling with these issues as educators, we will be compelled to look at a number of philosophical questions that underlie these issues. These include, but are not limited to:
How do we function as role models for our students?
What is justice? How does it relate to faith?
Why work in a Jesuit school?
How important is it to be Catholic in order to fulfill the Jesuit educational mission?
How do we understand our own academic freedom?
What, if anything, is unique about Jesuit education?
What is the message of Jesuit education in the 21st century?
Return to homepage
Send any corrections or suggestions to Matthew Sciuto