The Portal to Jesuit Studies

The third issue of the Journal of the Macau Ricci Institute is now available. (See an earlier news story about the launch of this bi-annual publication and another story about the availability of its second issue.)

The contents of this issue include:

Leader:
“Education for the Common Good” – Stephan Rothlin

Society:
“The Ideal of Junzi Leadership and Education for the Common Good” – Yang Hengda, Dennis P. McCann
“A Confucian Perspective on Tertiary Education for the Common Good” – Edmond Eh
“Revisiting James Legge’s Christian Interpretation of Confucian Filial Piety: A Comparative Approach” – Bai Limin
“Alfonso Vagnone’s educational project in Late Ming Dynasty and his Education of Children (Tongyou jiaoyu)” – Thierry Meynard
“Growing old in China: Filial Piety in the 21st Century” – Mark Pufpaff

Religion:
“Axial Age, China and the Meaning of Transcendence” – Yves Vendé
“Service Learning for the Common Good” – Dennis P. McCann interviews Rev. Dr. Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J.

World:
“Are We Educating Those Who Need Education? Educating the 70’s (The 70% Who Don’t Attend College)” – Eugene Michael Geinzer, S.J.

Events and Publications

More information about the Macau Ricci Institute is available online.

The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies now welcomes applications to A History of the Jesuits, a new online course. An application is available online. With questions, please contact the Institute (iajs@bc.edu). The course beings on January 14, and the first round of applications closes on January 11. Contact the Institute with questions or to request an application extension (iajs@bc.edu)

A History of the Jesuits offers an introductory survey to some of the men who made the Society of Jesus one of the most successful and, at times, most controversial religious orders in the Catholic Church. It explores this rich and varied past with particular attention, following the Jesuits’ suppression in 1773, to various enterprises and enterprisers in the Americas. The course seeks to answer these questions: What have been the characteristics of the Society of Jesus and its associated works? And how and why have those characteristics remained the same or changed? Complementing the other courses in the Certificate program, the course traces the development, expansion, suppression, restoration, and recent developments of the Society of Jesus by closely examining the historical contributions of significant Jesuits.

The course begins on January 14, 2019. It consists of 13 weekly modules, ending the week of April 22 (there are no modules the weeks of March 4 and April 15). The course features regular engagement between the professor and students with brief video lectures and small group discussions, via online discussion and video. A History of the Jesuits is a three-credit course.

The course is taught by Seth Meehan, Ph.D., the associate director at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. Meehan received his bachelor’s degree in theology from Georgetown University and his master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Boston College. His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Catholic Historical Review, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, Theological Studies, and Boston College Magazine, where he is a contributing editor. His scholarship has been recognized with awards from the American Catholic Historical Association, the Catholic Library Association, and other organizations. Currently, he is writing a biography of a nineteenth-century Jesuit, John McElroy, and editing a volume on a second, Salvatore Brandi.

Francisco Malta Romeiras has just published Jesuítas em Portugal depois de Pombal, an illustrated history of the Jesuits in Portugal after their official return in 1858. With more than 250 original photographs of teachers, students, and alumni, this books offers a sketch of Jesuit education in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Portugal.

The book is available through Principa: http://www.principia.pt/Os-Jesuitas-em-Portugal-depois-de-Pombal

Romeiras is a former Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He works at the Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia at the Universidade de Lisboa. A specialist in the history of science, Romeiras is also the author of a forthcoming book on Jesuit science and education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book will look into the successful intertwining between theory and practice at the colleges of Campolide and São Fiel, where the Jesuits made significant efforts in promoting a hands-on experimental teaching of the natural sciences. The book will also analyze the role played by the Jesuit journal Brotéria in the circulation of scientific knowledge and in the emergence of new scientific fields in twentieth century Portugal.

Much of Brotéria is freely available through the Jesuit Online Library.