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Kean University Fordham University Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education RLGR 6872/8872: History of the Jesuits Summer 2017 Dr. C. Bellitto [email protected] www.kean.edu/~cbellitt OFFICE HOURS: Please contact me via email. We can set up a time to speak individually by phone or skype, too. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam Course description and objectives This online course offers an intensive look at the founding and progress of the Society of Jesus. We will first explore the religious reformations that provided the context for Ignatius of Loyola’s conversion story and the direction of a new religious order laid by him and his first companions. The Jesuit adaptation to diverse cultures forms a large part of our study of missionary activity, followed by the tragic and stirring story of the Society’s suppression and restoration. Finally, we will encounter the so-called second founding of the Society under Pedro Arrupe SJ in the latter half of the 20th century. Along the way, we will encounter key aspects of Jesuit spirituality and apostolates: Spiritual Exercises, Ratio studiorum, magis, being a person for others and a contemplative in action who finds God in all things, and cura personalis. Throughout we will focus on primary sources and scholarly interpretations (historiography). GSRRE Student Learning Goals: Common Goals Students will articulate a well rounded knowledge and critical appropriation of Jesuit Spirituality and the Catholic Intellectual tradition. o This goal will be pursued especially in the discussion boards. Students will use tools of literary, cultural, historical, and social analysis in the interpretation of various cultures and their relationship to the Christian tradition. o This goal will be pursued especially in the essay and research paper. Course materials: We are using books, chapters, articles, and online resources that combine examination of primary sources with interpretations, often conflicting, which we call secondary sources or historiography. These two books are required: Greer, Allan, ed. The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth- Century North America. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000: ISBN 0312167075 Worcester, Thomas, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits. Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press, 2008: ISBN9780521673969 --denoted on syllabus as Worcester. There are also scans for some chapters/articles and links to online resources posted on the BBD site; details are on the schedule below and embedded in the BBD assignments. 2 We will especially rely on selections from John W. O’Malley. Saints or Devils Incarnate? Studies in Jesuit History (Leiden: Brill, 2013) This is a collection of his essays; original publication information is found in the first footnote of each chapter. denoted on syllabus as Saints or Devils Important issues Plagiarism will not be tolerated. I expect you to conform to the highest standards of academic conduct as described in Fordham’s Standards of Academic Integrity policy, to which you will be held accountable. Note on Disabilities: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all students, with or without disabilities, are entitled to equal access to the programs and activities of Fordham University. If you believe that you have a disabling condition that may interfere with your ability to participate in the act ivities, course work, or assessment of the object of this course, you may be entitled to accommodations. Please schedule an appointment to speak with someone at the Office of Disability Services (Rose Hill - O’Hare Hall, Lower Level, x0655 or at Lincoln Center –Room 207, x6282). o Please keep me informed. Course website: We are using Blackboard (BBD). For aid, please go to: help.blackboard.com For information about using Blackboard for this Fordham course, please see the clear “how to” steps in Appendix One at the end of this syllabus. My advice is that you write your assignment as a Word document and then run it through a spell/grammar checker. Access Blackboard, go to the Home Page, and find the following on the left-hand menu. Learning Space is where you will find week-by-week assignments, readings, web resources, and BBD links to post your essay and research paper. Discussion Boards is where you will find Boards to post your thoughts on the readings and your response to another student’s post. You can also access the Boards via each weekly assignment. Copy and paste your work from a Word document into the submission box: click the assignment, then click “Writ e S u b mis sion , ” paste, then Submit. o Don’t attach/upload a document, please. o Make sure you keep a copy of the assignment for backup. o Log out and then log back in again to be sure your work appears. o If you have trouble opening the syllabus or other features, there is a pop-up blocker issue, so allow pop-ups from the BBD site. o If you are having trouble with BBD, try another browser. Assignments are designed to cultivate analytical skills. All assignments must be posted by the due date and time. 3 For the discussion boards and the essay, do NOT use any outside material: print or web-based. I am looking for you to demonstrate that you have read, thought about, and appropriated the material from the sources I have selected. Therefore, I am looking for specific evidence that you have, in fact, done the reading. If you quote, do so precisely within quotation marks, but your response should not simply be a linking together of quotations or one paraphrase after another. Be sure to make specific reference to relevant maps, figures, illustrations, primary source documents, etc. The more you demonstrate that you understand this material and can offer informed analysis based on particular pieces of historical evidence, the higher your grade. For the essay and research paper, please use for footnotes (or endnotes) and bibliography following the Chicago Manual of Style (also known as Turabian). o For help with citations: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citation guide.html Assignments: I will post your grades with some comments and advice in the Blackboard gradebook, which only you can see, almost certainly within 48 hours of the due date and time. I know the days of the week on which assignments are due move around, but we are working with a semester that starts Memorial Day week and ends July 4 week. There are are 5 discussion boards: 55 pts total 10 pts per board (apart from the last, which is 15pts) o 6pts for your post: about two long paragraphs o 4pts for your response to one other student’s post: about one paragraph o Your response to another student must be a respectful, specific engagement with another person’s observation. Course Q&A: due W 5/24 10pm Note that this is an ungraded but mandatory board. You need only introduce yourself as you wish and then post your questions, but check back several times to see your classmates’ questions, which may raise and answer items that hadn’t occurred to you. Board 1: due T 5/30 10pm Preconceptions and initial insights Board 2: due Th 6/15 10pm Missions: inculturation Board 3: due Th 6/22 10pm Suppression and restoration Board 4: due Th 6/29 10pm the Society today Board 5: due F 7/7 10pm Final exam = film exercise with preconceptions revisited 4 This last Board is worth 15pts: 10 pts for your post (about three long paragraphs) and 5 pts for your response to two other students’ posts (about one paragraph each). Essay: due Th 6/8 10pm 15pts: 4-5pp paper discussing Ratio studiorum in its origins and developments based on assigned readings. Provide analysis that examines the roots of the Ratio and how they were adapted and applied successfully (or not) to women and American schools by reading O’Malley, Saints or Devils, ch. 12 and Worcester, chs. 7 and 16. Research paper: M 7/10 10pm 30pts: 10-15pp for MA students; 15-20pp for doctoral students You will choose one of the areas where Jesuits have established missions over the centuries and analyze the attempt to inculturate the faith. o You cannot choose 17th c. North America, since this will be the subject of one of our units. o For guidance on the kind of analysis you should strive to produce, see Worcester chs. 8-13. o For context, see Saints or Devils, chs. 2 and 13. See the Research Paper Resources page for starting points and suggestions to get your research going. o After some initial digging, please contact me via email and we can set up a skype conversation to discuss your chosen topic individually. o I expect that you will read and analyze both primary and secondary sources for this assignment. o For guidance and context of where your topic fits into the broader historiography on Jesuit history, read O’Malley, Saints or Devils ch. 1. There he reviews what historians have had to say about the Jesuits over time. Provide an analysis that is about half narrative (what happened, what were the unique challenges, who were the key players, how were obstacles overcome) and about half analysis (what do you and historians have to say about how successful or not these Jesuits were in inculturating the faith in this area: what succeeded, what failed, why). This paper requires footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography. TO REPEAT: Apart from the research paper, for all other assignments do NOT use any outside material: print or web-based. I am looking for you to demonstrate that you have read, thought about, and appropriated the material from the sources I have selected.
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