Download Hiring for the Jesuit, Catholic Dimension of Mission

Hiring for the Jesuit, Catholic
Dimension of our Mission
Mark Bosco, S.J.
Associate Professor of English and Theology
Director, The Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage
Loyola University: Catholic and Jesuit
A Catholic University: one of 260 Catholic institutions of
higher learning in the USA.
•Inspired by and given its foundation through a Catholic
intellectual tradition that cherishes, studies, and transmits
the classical treasures of human history and culture.
•An academic endeavor where faith and reason do not
conflict.
•Retains a strong sense that knowledge and wisdom
contribute to the common good—manifested in an array
of academic fields—theology, philosophy, ethics,
but also in the arts, sciences, and professions.
Loyola University: Catholic and Jesuit
Jesuit: The Society of Jesus
• 18,000-plus Catholic priests and brothers who live in
community inspired by Ignatian spirituality and
work in missions of the religious order.
• Work as teachers, administrators, pastors, chaplains,
but also doctors, lawyers, astronomers.
• Work with lay colleagues in high-schools, colleges
and universities in Jesuit institutions, but also
parishes, retreat houses and refugee centers around
the globe.
The Difficulties and Cultural Reductionism
about things “Catholic”
There are things not to celebrate about being Catholic:
• Sexual abuse scandal among its leadership.
• Periods of intellectual narrowness and resistance to ideas
worthy of consideration.
• A tradition that is too often experienced as alienating to
women and persons of same-sex orientation.
There are cultural reductionisms about Catholicism that
exist in academia:
• Only interested in contraception, abortion, and same sex
marriage.
• Stands opposed to science and reason.
• It is a dying discourse of modernity.
The Strengths of Catholic Intellectual Heritage
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An affirmation of an objective reality of the human will, human reason, truth, morality,
beauty, dignity and goodness.
A profound and articulated concern for human well-being, the creation and
maintenance of just societies, a concern for the common good, human rights, the poor,
the marginalized and the oppressed—all concerns that nurture the idealism of our
students. Here one sees the concern for “social justice” that is a cornerstone of Jesuit
Catholic education.
A commitment to the idea that faith and reason are mutually informing rather than
antagonistic. One can be intelligent about one’s religious beliefs. Questions and
commitments of faith are of real importance to the university and that interest reaches
beyond the study of theology.
An embrace of the symbolic, interpretive, and meaning-creating aspects of the human
species. The Catholic intellectual tradition is rich in music, literature and poetry,
architecture and art. It is inclined toward a full embrace of a Christian humanism that
sees nothing in the world as alien to or distant from God. This is what is described as a
“sacramental imagination.”
A “Jesuit” or “Ignatian” style of education has flourished for 450 years.
The Jesuit and Catholic
Educational Piece at Loyola
From the Transformative Education in the Jesuit Tradition
document, Loyola’s understanding of its mission:
All of Loyola’s undertakings—its teaching, research and service—are
infused with a conviction regarding the sacred character of reality, the
dignity of every human person, the mutually informing dynamic between
faith and reason, and the responsibility to care for those who are suffering
most in our world. Loyola’s pedagogy is informed by the conviction that
faith, knowledge and the promotion of justice are intrinsically related.
A 21st century Core: Transformative
Education in the Jesuit Tradition
A must read for all search committees!!
http://www.luc.edu/transformativeed/
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A hunger for Integrated Knowledge
A hunger for a Moral Compass
A hunger for Civic Participation
A hunger for a Global Paradigm
A hunger for an Adult Spirituality
Mission Hiring Option 1: Sifting
Sifting: We advertise and wait for people to come.
•Vet curriculum vitae and search for teaching and/or publications
that demonstrate a sensitivity to:
– Large human questions of purpose and meaning.
– Religious sensitivity and embrace of
religious/transcendent questions.
– Engagement with any aspect of the Catholic
intellectual tradition.
– Concern for questions of ethics and justice.
•Interview candidates with explicit mention of the school’s
Jesuit heritage and its Catholic identity as a resource
for pedagogical success, scholarly conversation and
research.
Mission Hiring Option 2: Search
Search/Targeted Hire: Engage in an active recruitment
of persons that a chair should invite to apply.
• Personal knowledge of colleagues in your field is the best way
of recruiting such candidates.
• Information gleaned at professional conferences in
conversations or hearing papers and presentations on topics
that mesh with the Jesuit, Catholic dimension of our mission.
• Promising graduate students from the institutions at which you
trained or from institutions known for their sense of mission,
who may be interested in working particularly for us because
of who we are as a Jesuit and Catholic university.
• Scholarship, teaching, or service that engages
moral/ethical questions within their field?
• Scholarship, teaching, or service that engages
humanistic questions?
• A commitment to teaching that is not an
afterthought to one’s commitment to research?
• A commitment to teaching that includes
mentorship and an interest in intellectual and
moral formation, service, and care of the
student as a person?
• A personal stake in questions of the
transcendent and what it means for how we
think of one’s life and work?
What
Could
You
Look
For?
Practical Considerations
• Helpful to designate a person—the person most friendly toward and
knowledgeable of these questions—responsible for making sure that
mission questions are asked and discussed in a way that moves past the
perfunctory and can frame this as a strength of the institution.
– Not a gateway that well-qualified candidates have to pass through.
– Needs to be a conversation, not a litmus test.
• Helpful to make sure that we communicate that such a conversation is
actually welcome; some applicants will be reluctant to speak about these
issues for fear that it could hurt their candidacy. We need to encourage
them to see this as part of the process at Loyola.
• Helpful to consider requesting an essay in response to something like the
Transformative Education document in which faculty would be invited to
articulate how and where they see themselves contributing concretely to
this dimension of the university’s mission.
Concluding Thoughts
• Candidates’ scholarly and research agenda is the threshold issue.
• We are interested in seeking candidates who are drawn to us on account of
the Jesuit, Catholic dimension of our mission and identity, not simply
tolerant of it and certainly not hostile to it. This may show up in their
teaching, research, extra-curricular commitments, or conversation.
• We are interested in finding candidates who are interested in being
participants in the life of the university rather than delimiting their
allegiance and obligations to their field and guild. This is a necessary
component for preserving and strengthening our sense of being an
intellectual community.
• Hiring for the Jesuit, Catholic dimension of the university is an exercise in
diversity insofar as it contributes to intellectual diversity in higher
education.
What we are being asked to consider in
participating in a Jesuit institution:
• To understand, respect, and foster the notion that
corporate religion and personal spirituality often
inspire us to become human agents for just living.
• To find a vision of teaching and colleagueship that
fosters a common horizon of the good, the true, and
the beautiful—terms that, in the Christian faith, are
names for God, but are ideas that can be
comprehended and affirmed beyond religion.