Rise, Character, and Development of Jesuit Education

Abstract

One key to the success of Jesuit education has been the tension between the recognizable mark of uniformity that long distinguished the methods, contents, and practices of Jesuit schools and their ability to adapt to different contexts and times. Both of the aspects could be said to have found explicit support in that unique foundational document, the Ratio Studiorum, which retained some sway up until the middle of the twentieth century despite the many variations and complexities that had arisen since early modernity. Soon after the Ratio fell into oblivion, Jesuit schools began to think about what made them distinctively Jesuit. There was a need to clarify the profile of their mission in the contemporary world. This chapter will sketch a history of Jesuit education, focusing on both the permanent and changing traits of its distinctive pedagogy.

Education, Confessional Conflict, and the Catholic Mission in Scotland, c. 1660–1707

“…Scholars have long acknowledged that the Jesuits were highly effective educators. 13 They established schools across the globe while effectively adapting their educational programme to suit local needs. Most scholarship on Jesuit curriculum and pedagogy has focused on the Society's official documents (the Constitutions and the Ratio Studiorum), on the teachings of well-known Jesuit educators, or on specific schools and universities.…”

Animals, Sages and Saints: Alfonso Vagnone’s Rhetorical Strategy in Chinese Context

“…(Falato 2020, p. 164, modified) 13 吾西諸國， 每都會， 又立一大學， 遍邀賢師， 專務幼教。 又有士既成學， 而不 計罰祿， 不計榮 達，但圖立功於天主，有利於國家，設學頒訓者，既耶穌會也。 (Mei and Tan 2017, p. 170) At that time, the Jesuit Chinese mission was far too understaffed for seriously considering to establish colleges in China. However, as had been the case in Europe (see Casalini 2019), Vagnone and his fellow Jesuits may have been hoping that, at some point, benefactors would help to establish first elementary schools and then colleges placed under the authority of the Society even if most teachers would have been recruited among local scholars. Jesuits would have considered such an endeavor as an excellent way to foster local vocations as well.…”

Threefold translation of the body of Christ: concepts of the Eucharist and the body translated in the early modern missionary context

“…Moreover, Ratio Studiorum, the specific Jesuit training which included the study of rhetoric, dialectics, and theology in the Thomistic heritage (cf. Hinz et al, 2004;Casalini, 2019) is important for our analysis, because this was the reservoir from which most of the Jesuit translators got their expertise in conceptual and textual grids.…”