Jesuit Higher Education In A Secular Age

In Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age, Creighton University President Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, explores three pedagogies of fullness–study, solidarity, and grace–to show how Jesuit education can foster greater self-awareness, a stronger sense of global solidarity, and an aptitude for inspiration, awe, and gratitude among their students.

In Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age, Creighton University President Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, explores three pedagogies of fullness-study, solidarity, and grace-to show how Jesuit education can foster greater self-awareness, a stronger sense of global solidarity, and an aptitude for inspiration, awe, and gratitude among their students.

As Taylor characterizes Western individuals as independent and invulnerable, my pedagogies of fullness render relational possibilities to ourselves, others, and an Other that correspond with a hopeful envisioning the self and the social. The way of envisioning, a Jesuit imaginary, views selves and social milieus as interrelational and transformative of each other.

Speaking candidly, twenty-seven noteworthy Jesuits from major areas of Jesuit higher education have contributed essays that discuss how the recent 34th General Congregation has had an impact on their scholarship and role as teachers and administrators.

Winner of the 2005 New Scholar Book Award given by Division F: History and Historiography of the American Educational Research Association In 1893 Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot, the father of the modern university, helped implement a policy that, in effect, barred graduates of Jesuit colleges from regular admission to Harvard Law School. The resulting controversy—bitterly contentious and widely publicized—was a defining moment in the history of American Catholic education, illuminating on whose terms and on what basis Catholics and Catholic colleges would participate in higher education in the twentieth century. In Catholic Higher Education in Protestant America, Kathleen Mahoney considers the challenges faced by Catholics as the age of the university opened. She describes how liberal Protestant educators such as Eliot linked the modern university with the cause of a Protestant America and how Catholic students and educators variously resisted, accommodated, or embraced Protestant-inspired educational reforms. Drawing on social theories of cultural hegemony and insider-outsider roles, Mahoney traces the rise of the Law School controversy to the interplay of three powerful forces: the emergence of the liberal, nonsectarian research university; the development of a Catholic middle class whose aspirations included attendance at such institutions; and the Catholic church's increasingly strident campaign against modernism and, by extension, the intellectual foundations of modern academic life.

“Brings to the new field of university ethics the case of the Catholic Colleges and Universities. . . . [A] compelling plea to make mission drive the model.” —James F. Keenan, S.J., author of University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics Gerald J. Beyer’s Just Universities discusses ways that U.S. Catholic institutions of higher education have embodied or failed to embody Catholic social teaching in their campus policies and practices. Beyer argues that the corporatization of the university has infected U.S. higher education with hyper-individualistic models and practices that hinder the ability of Catholic institutions to create an environment imbued with bedrock values and principles of Catholic Social Teaching such as respect for human rights, solidarity, and justice. Beyer problematizes corporatized higher education and shows how it has adversely affected efforts at Catholic schools to promote worker justice on campus; equitable admissions; financial aid; retention policies; diversity and inclusion policies that treat people of color, women, and LGBTQ persons as full community members; just investment; and stewardship of resources and the environment. “[C]ompelling...inspirational in its call to action.---Adrianna Kezar, Wilbur Kieffer Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, University of Southern California, Director of the Pullias Center (pullias.usc.edu), and Director of the Delphi Project “A remarkable analysis. . . . Higher education should be most grateful for Beyer’s contribution.” —James A. Donahue, President of St. Mary’s College of California [A] pioneering, much-needed book. . . . essential reading for anyone interested in university ethics and religious higher education.” ―Anglican Theological Review “Sure to become a seminal text for future research and discussions on this topic. . . . Highly Recommended.” —Choice

A Jesuit Education Reader is a collection of the best writing on the mission, challenge, and state of Jesuit education. This anthology will prove especially valuable to those who work in Jesuit education and other Catholic and Christian schools.