Intellectual Virtues and Ignatian Pedagogy at LMU

LMU is comprehensive Catholic National University sponsored by the Society of Jesus (and the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange). From its original sponsorship by the Jesuits, and in its ongoing commitment to a Jesuit model, it has placed consistent emphasis on character formation in its educational vision. Our project aims to extend and deepen the Ignatian vision by empowering a new and integrated focus on intellectual character formation at our university.

There are powerful impulses within the Jesuit educational model that make a sharp focus on the cultivation of intellectual virtues especially welcome at LMU. First of all, intellectual character formation is a natural extension of the forms of moral formation that LMU already prizes. St. Ignatius took up the issue of education, first and foremost, with a view to developing the moral character of students. This is to say, among other things, that the Jesuit model is a virtue-theoretic one—one in which the telos of education is the cultivation of stable dispositions in the student to respond well to moral reality. At LMU, then, there is no initial hurdle to get over of persuading our educational community to care about the structure of each student's will as it is habituated toward virtues.

As a second point, the Jesuit educational vision both implicitly and explicitly emphasizes the distinctive importance of intellectual character formation. Because human personhood has a rational dimension, Ignatius recognized that what it is to be formed well as a person is to cultivate good habits of mind; namely, intellectual virtues. Indeed, he emphasized that we cannot be "for others" or for the common good competently or responsibly unless we are disposed to think and learn well. Thus, intellectual character formation is central to the epistemic and moral aims of education as conceived of in the Jesuit tradition.

In this spirit, we are inspired by the following reflections by Fr. Kolvenbach, 29th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (from "The Characteristics of Jesuit Education"):

"The pursuit of each student's intellectual development to the full measure of God-given talents rightly remains a prominent goal of Jesuit education. Its aim, however, has never been simply to amass a store of information or preparation for a profession, though these are important in themselves and useful to emerging Christian leaders. The ultimate aim of Jesuit education is, rather, that full growth of the person which leads to action; action, especially, that is suffused with the spirit and presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the man for others. This goal of action, based on sound understanding and enlivened by contemplation, urges students to self-discipline and initiative, to integrity and accuracy. At the same time, it judges slip-shod or superficial ways of thinking unworthy of the individual and, more important, dangerous to the world he or she is called to serve."

To underscore these points from the perspective of LMU's own Jesuit community, and with direct connection to our present social context, here is a recent comment in a campus publication from Fr. Dorian Llewellyn who oversees LMU's Center for Ignatian Spirituality:

"…Ignatius wrote that we should be more inclined to interpret other people's words and actions positively than negatively. I wish that DNA strand were better known and practiced. After this bruising election, half the country is elated and half is deeply dejected and worried. Both sides are suspicious of the other. In academia, we hold our convictions passionately – and we are not shy about sharing them. The principle of assuming good will, especially when people disagree, is practical and helpful. (It is also, by the way, truly hard work, a real workout for the mind and heart)."

The natural synergies between our project and the Ignatian vision of education as expressed above by both Fr. Kolvenbach and Fr. Llewellyn are clear. The "full growth of the person" essentially involves the development of the intellect—not merely the bare cognitive capacities but also the personal excellences that give the intellect its motivations and dispositions. And the intellectual virtues are precisely those personal characteristics that allow us to make the crucial connection in stable ways between heart and mind. Becoming open-minded and intellectually humble is hard work, indeed; but, as Fr. Llewellyn emphasizes in the spirit of Ignatius, it also promises to impact the common good.