Education, Arts and Sciences

Jesuit education is well-recognized and highly-regarded for its academic rigor, with schools throughout the world dedicated to caring for the whole person of each student they educate. Jesuit education follows an Ignatian pedagogy that includes five key elements—context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. Jesuit alumni should have a lifelong commitment to being open to growth, intellectual competence, faithfulness, love, and justice.

Ignatian Pedagogy
Jesuit Higher Education
Jesuit Secondary Education
Arts and Sciences

Ignatian Pedagogy

Society of Jesus Education Documents
Repository of presentations on education by Fathers General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, and Pedro Arrupe, SJ. Most available as Word documents in English, French, Spanish, or Italian.

Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities provides this introduction to the characteristics of Jesuit education. Included is a summary of Ignatian pedagogy, which embodies five key teaching elements—context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.

     Ignatian Pedagogical Components
Fr. Vincent Duminuco explains the five components of the Ignatian pedagogical method.

Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach (PDF)

An international team of Jesuits gives a practical pedagogy that unifies and incarnates many of the principles enunciated in The Characteristics of Jesuit Education (1986). Ignatian Pedagogy calls for the infusion of approaches to value learning and growth within existing curricula. The aim is to help learners interiorize and act upon Ignatian values.

Reflections on the Educational Principles of the Spiritual Exercises (PDF)

By Robert R. Newton

This study reflects on traditional Jesuit strategies in education in order to outline the norms by which Jesuit schools could discern whether they are being faithful to and drawing full value from the Ignatian spiritual and educational tradition.

The Jesuit Mission: Guiding and Educating to Pursue the Truth
By Fr. Ryan Maher, SJ

Op-ed piece in Georgetown University’s newspaper on why Jesuits teach.

Jesuit Higher Education

Why Jesuits Are in Higher Education
By William J. Bryon, SJ

“In education, as in all else, the Jesuit is not content with simple efficiency—doing something right. Rather, he wants to be effective, which means doing the right thing. Accordingly, in all things the Jesuit way involves a search for God’s will.”

     Jesuit 2.0
One in a series of well-produced videos on Jesuit and Ignatian themes from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. It provides a refreshing take on how and what a Jesuit education can contribute today.

     What Is a Jesuit Education?
Kate Metcalfe, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Marquette University, explains what a Jesuit college education is all about—how it’s rooted in service learning and educates students by exposing them to different perspectives and dialogue.

Jesuit-Catholic Identity
Loyola College in Maryland’s 1999 self-study on the Jesuit-Catholic identity that needs to exist in that university.

Ignatian Justice in Higher Education: The Vocation of the Teacher in the Ignatian Tradition (PDF)

By June Ellis

The article is in response to the challenge of Fr. Kolvenbach that Jesuit universities address the concerns of justice for the poor. Gives some concrete ideas for carrying out the mission.

Highlights of Social Justice Work in Colleges and Universities

Living Words
By Juniper Ellis, Ph.D.

An English professor reflects on teaching’s connection to Ignatian spirituality.

Collegium and the Intellectual’s Vocation to Serve
By Thomas Landy

The director of Collegium discusses workshops that engage university faculty in conversation about the mission of Catholic higher education. At the heart of Collegium is a desire to work with faculty and to nourish their own sense of vocation.

Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities

World Union of Jesuit Alumni
This Web site—with pages in English, Spanish, and French—aims to contact and connect with alumni from Jesuit institutions worldwide. Useful for those searching for a Jesuit presence in various parts of the world.

CJBE Documents
Document library of the Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education includes conference papers available for download as Word documents.

Ignatian Spirituality in Jesuit Business Schools (PDF)

By Fabio Tobon Londono

The President of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni/ae challenges deans of Jesuit business schools to work diligently to assure that their students learn and follow Ignatian principles in becoming people for others.

Jesuit Spirituality: The Civic and Cultural Dimensions (PDF)

By John W. O’Malley, SJ

O’Malley would like to see that the understanding of Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality encompasses not simply issues of personal conversion, but also recognizes the social and civic dimensions of the contributions Jesuits have made to the world.

Jesuit Secondary Education

Why Jesuits Are in Secondary Education
By William J. Bryon, SJ

Article describes in broad strokes the experience of education in Jesuit high schools.

Jesuit Secondary Education Association

Cristo Rey Network
Schools providing a college prep program to economically challenged and minority young people.

Backyard Brainstorm (PDF)

By G.R. Kearney

An excerpt from More Than a Dream, the story of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. In these pages, the idea for financing the new school with income from student internships is born.

     The Mission of Jesuit High Schools
Eileen Wirth discusses the goal of Jesuit high schools—educating men and women for others.

Arts and Sciences

The Artistry of God
By Peter Knott, SJ

The author explores the art of words, music, and painting as pathways into mystery. However, God’s culminating work of art is man and woman. As God’s unique works of art, we find our fulfillment by following the way Jesus Christ modeled for us.

Can God and Evolution Co-exist?
By George Coyne, SJ

A Jesuit scientist reflects on evolution and faith.

Taking a Moral Stand: A Religious Response to Electricity Production and Use in the United States
By Laura Blazer and Joseph Rowley

A paper from an interdisciplinary seminar on environmental ethics at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. The authors take a moral stand and articulate ethical principles upon which legislators, individuals, and decision makers may draw to evaluate, plan for, and enact policies regarding escalating electricity demand in the United States.

Ignatian Spirituality and Ecology
By Sandie Cornish

In this PowerPoint presentation, Sandie Cornish outlines the First Principle and Foundation and the Contemplation on the Love of God to show how they call the believer to a more active and more responsible concern for the environment.

The Continuing Significance of Bernard Lonergan
By Gerard Whelan, SJ

The author reviews the life and teaching of Bernard Lonergan, SJ. Lonergan worked to teach faithfully the Catholic tradition in light of the advances in modern science and philosophy. In addressing the modern world, Catholic teaching must be faithful to classical culture in a way that appreciates its insights but is open to the realities of the present day.

Articles by Guy Consolmagno, SJ, Vatican Astronomer

Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance
Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno, SJ, notes that at the center of the tension between science and religion is the human being who is the scientist. He explores how being human informs scientific inquiry and how “doing science as a Jesuit” gives him joy in getting to know and play with God.

God and the Mystery of the Universe
Consolmagno gives a brief survey of the history of cosmology, from Babylonian times to the present. He notes the turning points and discusses that while some theories of the cosmos could not be taught in Jesuit philosophy classes, they were taught in mathematics classes. Ends with a helpful distinction between the nature of examining scientific “problems” and exploring “mysteries.”

Couldn’t God Have Designed a Gentler Universe?
In this third article in a series for Thinking Faith, Consolmagno asks why God created a world with natural disasters, exploring the tension between scientific discovery of nature through equations and the “joker in nature,” the human family born with the capacity of free will that can change the course of nature’s future.

Heaven or Heat Death?
In the fourth article of a series for Thinking Faith, Consolmagno traces the development of “Big Bang” theory of the creation of the cosmos, first articulated by Fr. Georges Lemaître. While the universe is now expanding, at some point in time the energy keeping it going will run out, and all will contract. What are the implications for our belief in eternal life?

Techies in the Pews
Besides his credentials as an accomplished astronomer, Consolmagno’s identity as a Jesuit helped techies to be open with him about their experiences in faith. He discovered that the incidence of belief in God among professional scientists and technicians is not much different than that of the general population.

Jesuit History

The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from its Foundation to the Present Time
By Thomas J. Campbell, SJ

Fairly detailed and honest survey of the history of the Jesuits from Ignatius until the suppression in 1769. The author defends the Jesuits from the slanders and misunderstandings that appeared in articles, histories, and textbooks in the 1920’s. Full text of book from 1921, available in several formats.

The Jesuits in North America in the 17th Century
By Francis Parkman

LibriVox audio recording of the 1867 book. The Jesuits in North America in the 17th Century tells the story of the North American Martyrs. This is one volume in Parkman’s massive seven-volume history of France and England in North America. While his 19th-century Protestant prejudices color his judgment of Catholic beliefs, Parkman vividly tells the stories of these men whom he admired for their dedication and bravery.