Photograph of Mrs L. Thurston's Mack tractor - FER864, taken 16 March 1963 whole front and side view

Pramuk, Christopher

English

epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 54 Article 15September 2018The Prophetic Character of Jesuit EducationChristopher PramukFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationPramuk, Christopher (2018) "The Prophetic Character of Jesuit Education," Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 54 , Article15.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/15                                                                                                                                                                                                               31His word was in my heart like a fire shut up in my bones.- Jer. 20:9It is a strange time to be a Jesuit university professor,a Catholic theologian, and a parent. It is a difficulttime, in the words of Thomas Merton, “to be humanin this most inhuman of ages,” an era perhaps not un-like the 1960s, when, to cite my dissertation director,“the whole country was having a nervous break-down.” In other words, not to be deeply unsettled bythe divisive climate of our times would itself be acause for deep concern. The question becomes, whatto do with our anxiety? To paraphrase the prophet Jer-emiah, how can we turn the “fire” in our bones, thesense that something is profoundly out of kilter in ourworld today, into a force for positive change? When Inhumanity Passes for NormalIn a remarkable essay published a few years after theNuremberg trials, Thomas Merton observed that“One of most disturbing facts that came out in theEichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined himand found him perfectly sane.” Merton continues: I do not doubt it at all, and this is preciselywhy I find it disturbing. If all the Nazis hadbeen psychotics, as some of their leadersprobably were, their appalling cruelty wouldhave been in some sense easier to under-stand. It is much worse to consider this calm,“well-balanced,” unperturbed official, consci-entiously going about his desk work, his ad-ministrative job in the great organization:which happened to be the supervision ofmass murder.               Lest we be tempted to hold Eichmann and thehorrors of Auschwitz at a safe historical distance,Merton then reverses our gaze, turning the mirroraround to interrogate our world, the cultural milieu of“Western civilization” that could allow such a man asEichmann and a whole nation to follow lock-step incarrying out Hitler’s Final Solution. The sanity of Eichmann is disturbing. Weequate sanity with a sense of justice, with hu-maneness, with prudence, with the capacity tolove and understand other people. We are re-lying on the sane people of the world to pre-serve it from barbarism, madness, destruction.And now it begins to dawn on us that it is pre-cisely the sane ones who are the most danger-ous. It is the sane ones, the well-adapted ones,who can without qualms and without nauseaaim the missiles and press the buttons that willinitiate the great festival of destruction thatthey, the sane ones, have prepared.        Merton finally turns our gaze on the church, ask-ing whether Christians are called “to be ‘sane’ likeeverybody else,” to assume “that we belong in ourkind of society,” that “we must be ‘realistic’ about it.Certainly some of us are doing our best along thoselines already. There are hopes! Even Christians canshake off their sentimental prejudices about charity,and become sane like Eichmann.”        The grim sarcasm of Merton’s voice here – adopt-ing something of Eichmann’s own self-rationalizing“‘double-talk’ about himself” – is perhaps not so distantfrom the anguished dread that many thoughtful peopleof faith today feel when considering President Trumpand his inner circle of advisers. The costs of adjustingourselves to a “reality” void of empathy, of highermoral discernment, of democratic principles, of com-passion – “I was only following orders,” was Eich-mann’s trial defense – are very high indeed, warnsMerton. He concludes: “I am beginning to think ‘thatsanity’ is no longer a value or an end in itself... or per-The Prophetic Character of Jesuit EducationChristopher Pramuk1Pramuk: The Prophetic Character of Jesuit EducationPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 201832 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          haps we must say that in a society like ours the worstinsanity is to be totally without anxiety, totally ‘sane.’”        Not so far from the terrifying Cold War climateof Merton’s era, today it seems we are left to rely on“the sane ones” surrounding the president to stay hishand. But who are these sane ones? To sanction racistxenophobia and unthinkable acts of violence in thename of God and country – what President Trump hascalled the coming “storm” – needs to be identified forwhat it is: blasphemy, idolatry, and demagoguery, akinto Pharaoh giving orders for the slaughter of the He-brew first-born. (Why do it? Well, because I can.) Whowill have the courage to check this president’s poten-tially catastrophic mental impulses?        From Moses and Jeremiah to Gandhi, King, andMerton, the prophets and saints raise certain funda-mental questions that continue to haunt us with thegravity of our present situation from the divine per-spective of the whole. Much like St. Ignatius, Mertonurges us to pay attention to the inner movements ofthe spirit as we face critical choices about our nation,our planet, and our children’s future. And also likeIgnatius, Merton urges us to reclaim the tender andfiercest strength of the human heart: our “capacity tolove and understand other people.”        When the prophet Micah gave voice to his aston-ishing vision of a future in which the nations would“beat their swords into plowshares” (Mic. 4:3), he waspainting a picture for his nation’s despairing imagina-tion, a people that had grown weary with burying theirdead. No doubt many of his contemporaries consid-ered him crazy. Jesus’ own relatives thought he was“out of his mind” (Mark 3:21). Rabbi Abraham Heschelfamously called the prophets “the most disturbing peo-ple who ever lived.” Of himself, he said, “I am the mostmaladjusted person in society.”       What about us? Can we dare to believe that thecapacity for love and peacemaking lives alongsidethe capacity for fear and violence in every humanheart? “We equate sanity with a sense of justice, withhumaneness, with prudence, with the capacity tolove and understand other people.” But do we?To Be Prophetic in the Wayof a UniversityIn her book The Public Dimensions of a Believer’s Life,the late Catholic theologian and Georgetown Univer-sity professor Monika Hellwig explores the tensionsbetween “conformity and critical dissent” that youngChristians inevitably face in their emerging relation-ship with civic life. While conformity with societalnorms is generally a virtue to be cherished, she ar-gues, history teaches us that there are exceptions,“and to miss the exceptions can be disastrous.”        Like Merton, Hellwig lived through history’sbloodiest century. As the German-born daughter of aJewish mother who lost her father to the Nazis at age9, and as a beloved Jesuit educator for over 30 years,she asks exactly the right question: What kind ofChristian formation will “bring believers to a matu-rity that allows them to be loyally critical to the insti-tutions to which they belong”? Hellwig concludes,“Unless the essentially prophetic, redemptive char-acter of the Christian commitment is emphasized,most Christians will settle quietly into the routine ofestablished observances and never realize that a crit-ical dimension of the faith is missing.”        As Jesuit educators it is crucial to remember thatthe vision of the prophets never ends in despair, butholds out God’s promise that we are capable of build-ing a more humane and peaceful world. “I have set be-fore you life and death, blessings and curses. Nowchoose life, so that you and your children may live”(Deut. 30:19). Critical dissent in the face of corruptpower is central to the biblical summons to freedom.And so is Jesus’ difficult command to love our enemies.        Before we dismiss the Sermon on the Mount asinsanely naïve and self-defeating, perhaps our task isto consider, utilizing all the disciplinary tools of ouruniversities, how the alternative is working out forthe human family. Indeed a great many of our stu-dents sense the peril of the present historical momentand are drawn to Jesuit universities, I believe, if ob-scurely and inarticulately, precisely for this reason,yearning to make a difference. In their desire to resistand transform the way things are, they need our sup-port. Above all, they need our witness in the sacredtask of learning to love and understand other people,and of holding our leaders accountable.  Christopher Pramuk is a theologian, author, scholar, and musician; in August 2017, after many years atXavier University, he returned to Regis University asUniversity Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination.2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 54, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 15https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/15

The Prophetic Character of Jesuit Education

Photograph of Pat Thurston's 4 wheel Maudslay box lorry - NHK568, taken 16 March 1963 whole front and side view

Leeson, Jack

University of Sheffield Library Digital Collections

Jack Leeson photograph, Whittlesey Fair, 1963.

Photograph of Mrs L. Thurston's Alloy Dodgem, taken 16 March 1963 part end view. DG41

Photograph of Mrs L. Thurston's Alloy Dodgem, taken 16 March 1963 interior view. DG41

General photograph of Fair, taken 16 March 1963 general view

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The Prophetic Character of Jesuit Education

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