Howell, S.J., Patrick

Lee, S.J., Patrick

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epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 40 Re-creating Jesuit Higher Education: TheGeneral's Challenge Article 11September 2011For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must AskOurselvesPatrick Lee, S.J.Patrick Howell, S.J.Follow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationLee, S.J., Patrick and Howell, S.J., Patrick (2011) "For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must Ask Ourselves," Conversations on JesuitHigher Education: Vol. 40, Article 11.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol40/iss1/11Conversations 23All Jesuit institutions in their origins arise out ofthe inspiration of the Spiritual Exercises of StIgnatius. They are meant to be centers forprayer, imagination, and discernment for whatGod is doing here and now so that this dis-cerning vision might lead to action on behalfof justice and truth. Those inspired and formedby the Spiritual Exercises regularly ask,“Where is God laboring today?” The concluding meditationin the Spiritual Exercises, for instance, is entirely about goingdeeper into all of our experience, our history, our learning,and our journey with God. So a vital question for Jesuits and Jesuit collaboratorstoday is whether American Jesuit higher education is theplace where this discernment continues to happen. Are weconsciously asking how God is working and laboring in andthrough these Jesuit institutions? Is this the place which pro-vides the most effective instrument for reconciliation withGod, with one another, and with our Earth?This Ignatian-inspired focus became more evident afterthe Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Following the man-date of the Council to go back to the founder’s vision—inour case, Ignatius of Loyola—to go deeper into Jesuit spiri-tuality, and at the same time to follow the “signs of thetimes,” the 28 American Jesuit universities have made a com-plete overhaul. They have become more articulate, morefocused, more broadly aware of the Jesuit vision than theywere when this vision was simply taken for granted becauseof the large number of Jesuits on campus. The Jesuit mission,now shared by a broad array of colleagues, has taken rootand flourished. But now Father Nicolás invites us to go forward with stillgreater depth and creative imagination. At a meeting with the American Jesuit Provincials inFebruary, 2011, in Jamaica, Father Nicolás continued hisprobing exploration of the key themes he had articulated atMexico City the year before. He provocatively asked how theSociety, the Church, and our Jesuit institutions have them-selves been waylaid from pursuing greater depth. What havebeen the distractions over these last 45 years which at times hasled to shallowness rather than depth? What have been the mis-guided steps, which the Society, the Church, and our Jesuitinstitutions embraced and hence been distracted from pursuinggreater depth? Have we, driven by prestige, responded tooquickly, too casually, to the fads or impulses of our diverse soci-eties? Hence he continued to urge Jesuit higher education to“deeper analysis, reflection, and discernment.” Father Nicolás suggested at that same Jamaica meetingan iconic metaphor for how the international Society of Jesusmight collaborate more fully, more richly, more deeply: Hesaid that he looks to Africa for new life and vitality, to theWest for its traditional pursuit of the truth, and to Asia forthe Way (Tao) for intuition, harmony, and beauty to comple-ment the West’s overreliance on rationality.These questions about depth and creatively are back-drops for the further question which we pose: “Has the Jesuitmission lost its groundedness in the Exercises of Ignatius?”We offer three considerations:DialogueA constant in earlier Jesuit education was the dialoguebetween faith and reason, faith and science, faith and philos-ophy. Karl Rahner, the great 20th century Jesuit theologian,engaged in dialogue with Heidegger and the wholeEnlightenment tradition in order to re-think and to re-imag-ine all the great mysteries of the Christian tradition.FOR SPIRITUAL DEPTHThe Questions We Must Ask OurselvesBy Patrick Lee, S.J., and Patrick Howell S.J.Patrick Lee, S.J., former vice president for mission and ministry at Gonzaga University, is currently the Jesuitprovincial of the Oregon Province. Patrick Howell S.J., professor of pastoral theology, is the rector of the Jesuit community at Seattle University and chair of the NationalSeminar in Jesuit Higher Education.1Lee, S.J. and Howell, S.J.: For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must Ask OurselvesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 201124 ConversationsHow do we do this today? Do our Jesuit universitiesprovide an arena where faith engages science? Do ourphilosophy departments provide a dialectical partner forfaith? Given the dominance of deconstructionism and itspremises of relativism andpower interests, is it even pos-sible to establish a dialoguewith faith? When the Jesuits affirmedthat a central element of theirmission was “Our Mission andInterreligious Dialogue” (GC34),they cited the fourfold dialoguerecommended by the Church: a)the dialogue of life; b) dialogue of action; c) the dialogueof religious experience; d) and the dialogue of theologicalexchange. Is this rich level of dialogue occurring in everydimension of our universities? Does the undergraduate core, the required course ofstudies, the heart of a Jesuit university, still carry theintellectual component of the Jesuit mission? For 420 years(1551-1971) the core rather clearly advanced the formationof the whole person and the God-given dignity of everyindividual. Students in Jesuit universities and colleges hada strong dose of ethics and spiritual formation, of thehumanities and languages, with a few requirements in sci-ence and mathematics. The core was not just for educat-ing the whole person, but for the sake of the world, forthe sake of shaping leaders who addressed unjust socialstructures that perpetuated poverty and oppression.What happens when we strip out art and poetryand literature from our cores leaving only skeletalremains? As Mary Reichardt, in Between Human andDivine (2010) aptly explains, In a postmodern world where the primacy ofreason has disintegrated, the arts may actually growin significance as a means of re-imaging the currentcultural shift. Despite a variety of contemporaryforms and themes, Catholic literature continues todraw on tradition in emphasizing the humanencounter with transcendence and mystery, and inexploring ultimate questions in light of the incarna-tional and sacramental basis of the faith. As does allart, its prophetic voice can help point the waytoward a new synthesis of culture and faith, makingall things new in Christ.Has the laudable movement towards globalization,multicultural awareness, and welcomed diversity beenachieved at the expense of a common core, which for-merly provided a source of identity, a fulcrum fromwhich to leverage one’s convictions? Have the increasingaccreditation demands of professional schools devaluedthe core? Without an adequate metaphysics and a theo-logical background, how can Christology, the under-standing of Jesus Christ alive and living in our worldtoday, be taught and understood? In the SpiritualExercises, the contemplationsusing the “application of thesenses” on scenes from the lifeof Christ provide the integratingexperience for an encounterwith Christ. Does the core, withan emphasis on discerning wis-dom, still provide the integrat-ing principle for all disciplines? Since 1970 our Jesuit uni-versities have sought to hire the very best in theirfields—topnotch scholars and researchers in their fields.But, often enough, these talented faculty members haveno understanding or background in the Jesuit missionwhen they step through the doors of a Jesuit college.Consequently, the college or university is constantlystarting from scratch, infusing them with Jesuit Mission101, hoping that somehow they will be able to carry for-ward the Jesuit core of the university. Do we need in thefuture to be much more attentive to hiring for missionand hiring at least a cadre who have had previous expe-rience with Jesuit education?Wisdom The universities in the 12th century arose out of themonastic traditions, especially the Benedictines andCarthusians. They were marked by quiet reflection,study, and questions seeking wisdom. Likewise, theJesuit colleges in the 16th century were centers of wis-dom, places where conversation, reflection, prayer, andthe arts could flourish. And they went a step further: theywere creating leaders who could act on behalf of thepoor, the widow, and the oppressed. They were asking,“What is God doing here?” “Where is God laboring in theworld today?” Such contemplative study was for the sakeof going deeper into the realm of mystery, exploration,and discovery.Since the worldwide revolutions of the 1960s inwhich the voices of wisdom were muted and the voice ofyouth given ascendancy and the primary value, we havelost respect for tradition, for leisure as the basis of culture,and opted for measurable outcomes, analytical results,and education as commodity. The immediate, the now,the instant drive our psyches and our souls.Likewise, financial pressures, economic upheavals,and the dominant values of American culture have driv-en Jesuit universities to rely more and more on businessmodels often enough antithetical to primary Jesuit values.The academy itself, ironically, gets pulled into thisGiven the dominance of deconstructionism is a dialogue with faith possible?2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 40, Iss. 1 [2011], Art. 11http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol40/iss1/11Conversations 25mode of production—generating articles fortenure files without questioning at timeswhether they offer helpful insight and actualwisdom. Does the academy allow itself theleisure “to waste time” for a dialogue of discov-ery, for research in depth, and for creating pen-etrating lectures that dispel illusions and arriveat truth?HopeAt the heart of our Jesuit institutions lies acontemplation on hope—hope for each of usand hope for our world. At its best Jesuit educa-tion engages in a dialectic of the present with thepast, of the ephemeral with the wise, of faithwith reason, of personal spirituality with prophet-ic action on behalf of the common good.Discernment in the Jesuit tradition lies pre-cisely here. It lies in this dialectic; it welcomesthe apparent divergence of opposites. That’swhy the four dialogues of life, action, religiousexperience and theological exchange, recom-mended to all Jesuit enterprises, are so vitalIn addition to drawing on the wisdom ofthe ages through rigorous academic study, cer-tain advances in Jesuit education seem brightly new andoffer greater hope: engagement with the world and serv-ice learning. Engagement with the world, properly con-ceived, can induce students to garner an “educated sol-idarity with the poor and oppressed.” And service learn-ing, fired by faith and integrated with critical reason andcommitment to action, can lead to a lifetime of civicleadership on behalf of truth and justice. These are greatopportunities to enliven empathy. Student developmentlikewise provides experiences for leadership, relationalmaturity, and a greater empathy for others.The challenge then is, What do you do with it?Students come out of a morally gray world in which lifecommitments are increasingly difficult. Will their Jesuiteducation offer them the wisdom for discerning thegood, for gazing contemplatively on the world, forappreciating their own lives and talents, and then intuit-ing and committing to wherever God is laboring withand for them today?Without a grounding in faith—whether Protestant,Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist — many of our grad-uates may be like reeds shaken in the wind. Without life-long commitments, they may simply pursue power andprestige and the latest consumerist lure.Throughout this essay, we have raised questionsabout faith and wisdom, about truth and justice. We haveasked whether our Jesuit institutions are free enough toengage these questions. It will be easy enough to dismissthese questions, especially if the link between theSpiritual Exercises and contemporary Jesuit higher edu-cation is broken irreparably.Our hope is that Ignatian discernment will guide usdeeper into the mystery of God so that our creative imag-ination can propel us towards a more just and peace-filled world, towards a sensitivity to the world “chargedwith the grandeur of God.” ■New talented faculty members do notknow the background ofJesuit educationPhoto by Loyola Marymount University student Majorie Allen, class of 2014.3Lee, S.J. and Howell, S.J.: For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must Ask OurselvesPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2011Spring Hill College26 Conversations4Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 40, Iss. 1 [2011], Art. 11http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol40/iss1/11

For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must Ask Ourselves

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For Spiritual Depth: The Questions We Must Ask Ourselves

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