"Dividing his efforts between the church and the classroom poses few major problems for this English department chairman."--Table of contents for issue

Anthony, Jay

English

University of Missouri: MOspace

BOB BARTH: Mizzou'S Jesuit Professor By JAY ANTHONY 6~ THE PRIEST stood before the gath{;ri n~. The audience w;litcd attentively for him to speak. "My text today is fir st Corinthi ;ms," he began . The audience bUTst into l:llJght cr Blasphemy!? Heresy!? Sacrilege!? No, just the bculty of the College uf Arts and Science acknowl edging the abil -ity of Father ). Robert Barth, SJ, PhD, tu find 01 touch of humor in the most serioLls situations. He w:Jsn't standing before the group as a Jesuit priest ddivering a ser-mon. Rather, he was addre ss ing th em as chairman of th e Engli sh department, advocating a reconside rat ion of the pro-posal to sp lit the Coll ege into sepa rate units of the ans and scie nces. To anyone knowing Bob Barth, it would come as no surpri se that hi s reasoned, thoughtful argument ca rried the day. ADD A BLACK TURTLENECK swea ter to Bob Barth's salt-:md-pepper beard :md fringe of hair of the same co lori ng, put his favorite pipe in hi s mouth, perch his half-frame reading glasses on his nose, and put a poetry book in his hand. Si t him o n a stool in a single spot light. You have the gentie poe t reading to a hushed audience in a smoky coffeehouse during the Beat pcriod of the '50s. At firs t gla nce, Bob Harth would appear to lead a schizophrenic ex is tence, priest one minute, professo r another. But he doesn't see his life that way. He's one per-son, doing one thi ng: helping others, whethe r in the chape l or th l! classroom. Hi s first exposu re to the Sodety of Jesus came at Canisius High School in his hometow n of Buffalo, N.Y. It was the teaching priests there who fostered the two major influences in his life, poetry and the priesthood. His decision to enter the order, made in hi s senior year, was part of "a normal chai n of events. It 's like choosing a career; you pick role models. These were absolutely admirable people. I thought J would like to share their life. If I was going to be a priest, J was going to be a Jesuit priest. I admire them." What was mOst attractive about the Jesuits was that it is a se rvice-orien ted order and Barth knew he w:lJlted to serve others. He even felt sure be knew how he wiln ted to serve, but first he had to go through IS years of spirit ual and scho larly training which even t uall y led to his ordination in 1960. IJesuits arc ordained after compl eti ng 13 years of training, leading to the joke, Barth says, that for other o rde rs ordination is the begin ni ng of a new life while fo r a Jesuil it is a reward for a life well-spent. I But the new Father Barth didn't wilnt to be a parish priest. Nor did he want to join the hundreds of Jesuit missionaries in re-mote part s of the world. He didn't want to go into polit ics like Father Robert Drinan, a Massachusetts Democrat who was re-cent ly orde red by Popc John Paul II to give up his seat in Congress_ And he didn' t want to be on the batt lefront of soci.1I re-form like Fathers Phillip and Daniel Berri -gan, leaders of many Vietnam W.lr pro-tests. Instead, Father Barth wanted to follow two other Jesuit traditions: the intellec-tual life and teaching. " I thi nk I always saw myself in a teaching role," he says now, "bec.luse the Jesui ts [who influ-enced him at Can isill s] were teac hers./I That decision was cemented whc n he taught at:1 Jesuit high school and loved it. THE LOVE OF POETRY and literature came a long time ago. " I've always been fascinated by words, the sound of words." When he fjnished his training, his rolc in the society was clear to him. And there was never any question from his superiors in the order. "They try to find the places whe re we' re natura ll y suited. We're not forced in to a role that we don't fit in./I It was decided that Barth would pursuc a doctorate in English at Hilrvard. Preferring a figured tie and a colored dress shIrt to his Roman collar, Father Barth says his ministry Is whatever he Is doing. "I don't feel anv less a priest when I'm teaChing than when I'm preaChing." ~7 "Excellent teacher," "full Of teNor," "entertaining as well as enthusiastic," are all phrases students use to describe Barth. But seldom. say his students. does his Priesthood enter the classroom. "IJustthlnk of him as a professor." 8~ WHY A SECULAR SCHOOL when th e Jesuits run many fine universi ties! Again, Jesuit traditi on. The order believes its members should attend the best sc hools, Catholic or secular - th e belief bei ng that the priests will be more effective as teachers if th ey ge t the best poss ible edu cation. Barth was agai n fo llowi ng Jesuit tradi · tion by going to Harv:lrd, where mlmcr· ous Jes uit scholars have s tudied and taught. " I remember going to class for the first time and being intimidated by the Harvard mystique," he says, but that soon passed because of the qui ck acceptance he was given by Harv;Hd 's man y intellec-tual s who ope nl y acknow ledge the Jesuit inte llect ual tradition. Barth upheld the order's stature at Har-vard as hi s docto ral di sse rtati o n on Samuel Taylor Coleridge was named the best of his class. It later became hi s fi rst book. His latest book, The Symbolic Im -agination: Coleridge (lnd the Romantic Tradition, won an award as the best in its field in 1977. Barth made such ;1l1 im-preSSion at Harvard that he was offl:red a five-year teaching pOSt in the English de-partment following completi on of hi s studies. This enhanced hi s growing repu-tation among English literature scholars. In his fourth year at Harvard, when it be· came known that he might soon be on the job market, other schools began courting him to join their faculties. The winner was the University of Missouri and ei~h t ye:lrs ago he came to Columbia. Why leave th e heady atmosphere of Ha rvard and th e culture of Boston ? To Barth, the answer was as c lear as when he decided to join th e Jes uit s. Coming to Mizzou offered th e chance to cont inue as a coll ege teacher and a lso to pursue hi s priestly ca lling more directl y by joining th e staff of the Newma n Center. He could com bine hi s two commitments in a si n-gle setting. Until about 20 years ago, Jes uit s t:lUght :limost exclusivel y al the ir own schools. But Jesu it leaders reali zed that alt hough the ma n y Catholics on Catholi c ea m· puses needed help, there was an even lar· ger Catholi c student population at secular campuses who also needed to be served. "God docs not confine his prese nce to Catholi c e;lInpuses," says Barth. "A Jes uit is call ed to be wherever is th e meeting place of God and man. Om.: of those places is a university where people arc always thinking. " A priest in a secular c lassroo m could raise questions. Barth say s, though, th:!t he's never had his objecti vity in th e class-room questioned. " I'm not trying to can· vert anyone. I meet people on their ow n terms. I t ry to help them be th emse lves. I tell them the first day what I am. I let them know where I'm coming from " If you ' re all honest teacher, that lh is priesthood I s houldn 't make any differ-ence. I have personal fee lings, but I try to be objective. It 's likely that I will let some of my personal kdings come through. Tha t's not all bad. I think it's a plus. It lets them sec a committed person. Stu-dents need to sec passion. I wa nt lO teach them, move them." Sitting in on one of hi s classes, it is easy to sec that Ba rth indeed to uches :lIld moves hi s s tudents. His dr:lm a t ic teach ing style - filled wit h hand and fa -cia l gestures and body language, hi s voice overfl owi ng wi th his love of th e su bj ect - draws students Ollt, invo lves them in the words of Wordsworth an d the o ther Romantic poets. He challenges them with ques tions about th eir feel ings about th e poems. "Right on!" he says, hi s clenched righ t hand punches the ai r like a chee r-leader ;lPplaud ing a gre:n play. His ever present smile add s furth er rewa rd for a student who has voiced an insight about the pocm unde r discllss ion. With hi s feet resti ng on the scat of a desk, Ba rth rea ds a section from Words-wort h 's liThe Prelude./I Hi s voice rises and falls with the ri se and fall of the words, aga in con juring up the Bt:at poet in the coffee house, fo ll owing his dictum to students "to read alou d, rega le your ca ts and dogs . How much of the poetry is in the sound! " The passage desc ribes a flow -ing breeze. As he reads, Barth 's arm s bt:-come that breeze as he bends at the w;li st, sways from side to side, a rms weavi ng through the air. "A N EXCELLENT TEAC HER ," S:lyS Mi chael McKeon, a second year Engli sh master's candidate from New Hampshire. " He's a good interpre ter of th e poe ms. When he reads them , th ey really cOllle to life . He knows how to gCt student s to say what they feel. He's ente rtaining as well as educationa!." " He's full of fervor," says Rocco M:ni -naeeio, ano the r Engli sh maste r's candi -date fro m New York Ci ty . "He's as enthu -siast ic as you can be about a subi ect . It 's obvious he lo ves the subject and loves being in front of a class." Mc Keo n ;l nd Marina cc io arc bo th Catho lics, but Barth 's pri es thood "doesn't come off in c la ss e ith e r way," says McKeon. " It seems to jar me when some-one calls him Fathe r. I just think of him as a professor. " Mary Lou ise Ra u, wh o is from St. Louis, is not Catho lic, and she has no problem with Barth being a pri es t. " I don 't find him tryi ng to imprcss upon us that he's Ca tho li c./I SOME STUDENTS admit being leery :It first of taking a course from a priest, but that's quick ly dispelled and he hooks them on the poetry. They even ca ll him "Thc Barel." The word gets around Cam -pus about good teachers, and good stu -dents work th ei r schedu les co include these teache rs. And they give teachers further recognition With things such as the Purple C halk Awards, prcsented annually by the student government to three outstanding instructors as chosen by student s. Barth received one laSt year. He cherishes it more th:lIl any other scho-larly recognition. lilt's from th e Stu-dents," he states simply. When Barth doffs hi s academic robes to don his pries tl y robes for Mass at the Newman Ce nt er, the re's no dramati c change in personality. The smile remai ns (he smi les at eac h communicant as he hands them the Eucharist ic bread, look-ing them stra ight in th e eye with a look of true ca ring). the sense of humor remains (He te ll s some late arrivals to co me sit down front in lithe $8 sca ts''!. He uses th e same well-honed speaking techniques to involve the parishioners in his sermon's mess;lges as he uses to involve students in th e Romanti c poets. The poetry re mains. It's always in hi s speech, unconsciollsly perhaps as whe n he says of the Jesuit teac hers who inspired him at Canisius· li lt was a matter of being in spired by peo-pl e I admired ." John Robert Barth obviously loves the dual path he has chosen to walk and plans to continue along the way. " I iust [ovt: the universi ty se tting. The students keep me alive. I e n joy leac hin g - I' m a lways [earning." And also he likes Co lumbia and Miz-zou. "Wh en I came I expected to be in deep cu lture shock. Hut I was al home here in a week and J've been at home ever since. " I'd like to stay here for a long tim e," he says, smiling. 0 The smile, humor and poetry remain as Father Barth begins his priesthood duties. He uses the same teaching teChniques to Involve parishioners and students, he says. ~9 

Bob Barth : Mizzou's Jesuit professor

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/10355/73893/1/MizzouAlumnus1981NovP6-9.pdf

Bob Barth : Mizzou's Jesuit professor

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Missouri: MOspace