History of the Jesuit Institute
The Jesuit Institute was founded in 1988 through an endowment from Boston College's Jesuit Community.
The information on this page comes from the directorships of Robert Daly, SJ (1989-1991), Michael Buckley, SJ (1992-2001) and T. Frank Kennedy, SJ. (2002-2014).
- In 1989 Fr. Robert Daly, S.J. was named its first director, a professor in the Theology Department and editor of Theological Studies.
- In 1992, Fr. Michael Buckley, S.J. became its second director. Prior to his appointment, he was a professor of systematic and philosophical theology at the University of Notre Dame. Fr. Buckley also served as rector and professor at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif. from 1969 to 1986, and was a delegate to the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus held in Rome in 1995.
- In 1996 Fr. Buckley became the inaugural holder of the Canisius Chair. Named by the University for the 16th-century Jesuit educator, writer and theologian Peter Canisius, the chair was set to be held by an accomplished scholar whose academic interests and influence would further the institute's efforts to foster the Jesuit and Catholic nature of Boston College.
- During Fr. Buckley鈥檚 tenure the Institute took its actual shape. He sponsored many important events, among them was an international conference held in late May 1997, entitled 鈥淭he Jesuits: Culture, Learning, and the Arts, 1540-1773.鈥� The University of Toronto Press published the proceedings of the conference under the very same title.
On 2002, Fr. T. Frank Kennedy S.J., chair of the Music Department, became the third Jesuit Institute director. In 2006 he was named the second holder of the Peter Canisius Chair. A specialist in the early Baroque period, Fr. Kennedy broadened the international scope of the Institute by bringing visiting scholars from all around the globe and sponsoring international conferences like the ones featured below:
- June 5-9, 2002. "The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773." This international conference drew scholars from all over the world to further understanding of the interaction between religion and culture that took place in the international Jesuit network during 'the age of discovery' and beyond. This cultural interaction involved such diverse disciplines as painting, music, theater, science, history, mathematics, architecture and cartography.
- January 14-15, 2005. "Inculturation and the Church in North America."
This conference discussed issues related to: Young Adult Catholics - Gender and Catholic Political Life - Catholics in American Political Culture - The Impact of Women Theologians - The Participation of the Laity - Business Culture and the Church - Sectarian Threats - "A Truly Local Church" - Collective Identity - US Hispanic Marian Devotion - Challenges for the Future.
Participants: John P. Beal (The Catholic University of America), Nancy A. Dallavalle (Fairfield University), MaryAnn Hinsdale (Boston College), Dean R. Hoge (The Catholic University of America), Natalia M. Imperatori-lee (Notre Dame), Mary Johnson (Emmanuel College), David Hollenbach (Boston College), Mark S. Massa (Fordham University), Peter C. Phan (Georgetown University), Francis Sullivan (Boston College), T. Frank Kennedy (Boston College). - February 26-28, 2009 "Ethics and Sustainability of the Earth," an international conference on ethics and the physical, natural and social sciences to discuss issues related to sustainability from a faith perspective.
Participants:
Keynote speakers: Jeremy Jackson, professor in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego; Dianne Dumanoski, Science Editor of the Boston Globe; and Laurie Zoloth, director of Center for Bioethics, Science and Society and professor of medical humanities & bioethics and religion at Northwestern University.
Boston College faculty members: Canisius Prof. T. Frank Kennedy, SJ, director of the Jesuit Institute and organizer of the conference, Founders Professor of Theology James Keenan, SJ, Assoc. Prof. Gail Kineke, chair of the Geology and Geophysics Department, Prof. Juliet Schor (Sociology), Assoc. Prof. Laura Hake (Biology), Geology and Geophysics faculty Asst. Prof. Amy Frappier, Assoc. Prof. Alan Kafka and Asst. Prof. Noah Snyder.
Visiting scholars giving presentations: Roger S. Gottlieb (Philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute); Michael Northcott (Theology, University of Edinburgh); Jane Bennett (Social Science, Johns Hopkins University); Philip Landrigan, MD (Science, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY); Sister Pushpa Joseph, (Social Science, University of Madras, India) and Willis Jenkins (Ethics, Yale University); John Hart (Ethics, Boston University); Heather Eaton (Ethics, St. Paul University, Ottawa). - April 15, 2009. "Women In The Church: North and South," an interactive videoconference between Boston College and the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro. Keynote speakers: Patricia Cahill, CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives and Maria del Rosario Saavedra, Social Scientist of CINEP; Research Center for Popular Education in Bogota. Respondents: Maria Clara Bingemer, Associate Professor of Theology at the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro and Lisa Sowle Cahill, J. Donald Monan, SJ, Professor of Ethics at the BC Theology Department.
- November 30, 2009. "Memory and its Strength: The Martyrs of El Salvador. A Discussion Between Jon Sobrino, S.J. and Noam Chomsky, Moderated by J. Donald Monan, S.J." Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT, liberation theologian Jon Sobrino, S.J., and Chancellor J. Donald Monan, S.J., relate their personal recollections and share their views regarding the assassination of six Jesuit priests and two staff members at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador on the 20th anniversary of their martyrdom.
- March 24-25, 2010. "Jesuits and the People of the Book. The Society of Jesus, Jews and Muslims (1540/1773)." Keynote speaker: Paul Shore. Participants: Thomas M. Cohen, James W. Reites, Robert A. Maryks, Sabine MacCormack, Maria Ana Valdez, Carmel Cassar, Paul Shore, Emanuele Colombo, Benjamin Braude.
- September 21, 2011. "September 11, Ten Years On." For the 10th anniversary of September 11, four professors, two from BC: Peter Skerry and Jonathan Laurence, Political Science, and two from the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro: Monica Herz, Institute of International Relations, and Paulo Fernando Carneiro, Center of Theology and Human Sciences, reflected on the political, social, and religious repercussions of the fateful event that shaped, and still shapes, the consciousness, lives, and behaviors of modern America.
- April 28-30, 2012. "International Networking in the Society of Jesus. Challenges from a Universal Mission." This conference brought together religious and lay people, academics, and practitioners from apostolic works and from various different levels of Jesuit structures of governance, to initiate a line of reflection on the opportunities and ways to develop international networking in the Ignatian family; given the challenges that globalization poses to the universal body of the Society of Jesus. The main goals of the conference were: a) Identify and analyze the main initiatives that already exist or are developing in the SJ. b) Analyze the key aspects for Jesuit international networking and identify concrete problems and questions that should be addressed. c) Present concrete proposals and recommendations for developing and improving international networking in the Society of Jesus. d) Position BC as a leading university in Jesuit international networking.
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- June 13-14, 2013. "Secularization and the Jesuits, Challenges to the Society of Jesus in a Secularized World." A group of prominent sociologists and Jesuits met at Boston to discuss the challenges of Secularization to the Society of Jesus. The aim of the workshop was to provide the Jesuits a better understanding of Secularization and its challenges and opportunities, and to give social scientists the opportunity to study and discuss the impact of Secularization on this international religious body. The event was sponsored by the Jesuit Institute, The Secretariat for the Service of Faith of the Society of Jesus, and the Sociology Department of Boston College
- June 11-15, 2014 "Jesuit Survival and Restoration, 200th Anniversary Perspectives from Boston and Macau." 2014 marked the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the Society of Jesus, one of the most significant events in nineteenth-century cultural and religious history but also one of the least well-studied. Scholars from across the globe convened at Boston College to look at arguably the three most important engine-rooms of Jesuit activity during this turbulent period: east-central Europe/Russia, China, and the United States. This international conference aimed to shed new light on neglected aspects of this vital subject. The conference also highlighted the exhibitions 鈥溾�� and 鈥溾�� on view at BC's John J. Burns Library.
- July 15-16, 2014. "Listening to Early Modern Catholicism. New Perspectives from Musicology." An international group of musicologists convened at Boston College to discuss the sonic cultures of Early Modern Catholicism (c.1500鈥�1750). Scholars from nine different countries demonstrated the unique insights that can be gained about Early Modern Catholicism from the study of music and sound. Keynote addresses were offered by John O鈥橫alley, S.J. (Georgetown University), and Robert L. Kendrick (The University of Chicago). The conference also featured a round table (chaired by T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.) concerning the role of the Jesuits and their networks in the creation of Catholic soundscapes.听
- On July 1, 2014, Fr. James Keenan S.J., Founders Professor in the Theology department and Director of the Presidential Scholars Program, became the fourth director of the Institute and the third holder of the Canisius chair.
Work Produced and Supported by the Jesuit Institute
In past years, a variety of works, books, films, musical compositions, and exhibitions have been produced or supported by the Jesuit Institute.听Finding God in all Things, comprises the papers given at the inaugural conference of the Jesuit Institute by a variety of distinguished scholars.听Religion and the Arts听began as an interdisciplinary faculty seminar and is now an independent quarterly that "seeks to explore religious and spiritual dimensions in the verbal, visual and performing arts, in the context of contemporary theory and culture." Others have included:
Books
- Ethics and the Golden Rule by Harry J. Gensler, New York and London, Routledge, 2013
- True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium, Minessota, Pueblo Book, 2012
- Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning, by Massimo Faggioli, New York, Paulist Press, 2012
- Geistigkeit, Leben und geschichtliche Welt in der Transzendentalph盲nomenologie Husserls [Trans. Mind, Life an Historical World in Husserl's Transcendental Phenomenology], by Andrea Staiti, Ergon Verlag, W眉rzburg, 2010.
- The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773, by John W. O鈥橫alley, Gauvin Bailey, Steven Harris & T. Frank Kennedy, Eds. University Of Toronto Press, 2006.
- The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773, by John W. O鈥橫alley, Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Steven J. Harris & T. Frank Kennedy, Eds. University of Toronto Press, 1999.
- Inculturation and the Church in North America, by T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., Ed., Crossroads, 2006.
- Religion, Human Rights, and the Gulag, by John J. Michalczyk & Naomi Blumberg Eds. Etolie International Productions, 2006.
- The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540-1773, by John W. O鈥橫alley and Gauvin Alexander Bailey Eds. (Original Italian edited by Giovanni Sale). Saint Joseph鈥檚 University Press, 2005.
- The Dialogue Between Science and Religion: What We Have Learned from One Another, by Patrick H. Byrne, The University of Scranton Press, 2005.
- Catholic Ethicist on HIV/ AIDS Prevention, by James F. Keenan, S.J. Ed. Continuum, 2000.
- Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542-1773, by Gauvin Alexander Bailey, University Of Toronto Press, 1999.
- Seeing into the Life of Things. Essays on Literature and Religious Experience, by John L. Mahoney Ed. Fordham University Press, 1998
- In Ten Thousand Places: Dogma in a Pluralistic Church, by Paul G. Crowley, Crossroad, 1997.
- Medicine, Ethics and the Third Reich, by John J. Michalczyk Ed. Sheed & Ward, 1994.
- Liberating the Caged Dalit Panther, by M. Sebastian, Emerald, 1994.
- Capitalism and the Moral Life, by John Langan S.J.
- Redeeming the Promise: Inquiries into Catholic Higher Education in a Jesuit Idiom, by Michael J. Buckley, S.J.
- , a collection of essays in various disciplines from numerous scholars that pay tribute to the inaugural Canisius chair holder of the Jesuit Institute, by Michael J. Buckley, S.J.
Studies
- "Salvadorian High-risk Youth and Service," by Ren茅 Olate (Graduate School of Social Work)
A study of high-risk youth in youth development programs involving students from Universidad Centroamericana 鈥淛os茅 Sime贸n Ca帽as鈥� and other international Jesuit universities.
Musical Performances
- 2011, October 13. Making History-Making Music: the Jesuit Musical Tradition in Italy and England. Music by Carissimi, Victoria, and William Byrd. Ensemble Plus Ultra (UK). It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Michael Noone, Director - 2011, October 12. Masterworks from the Jesuit German College in Rome: Tom谩s Luis de Victoria and Giacomo Carissimi. Ensemble Plus Ultra (UK). It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Michael Noone, Director - 2009, September 18. East Meets West. Two Jesuit Choreographers, by Robert VerEecke, SJ and Saju George, SJ. Watch it online
- 2009, November 2. 15th Century Chansons for voices and instruments, by Du Fay, Binchois, Ockeghem, Busnoys, Frye and others. It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe, Director - 2008, October 24-25. Judicium Salomonis, by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Producer: T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.
Production Director: Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.
Conductor: John Finney (BC Music Department)
Ensemble Abendmusik - 2007, October 2-11. San Ignacio de Loyola, by Domenico Zipoli. Three performances at Santa Clara, University of San Francisco and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Producer: T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.
Production Director: Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.
Conductor: John Finney (BC Music Department) - 2006, March 24 -25, San Ignacio de Loyola, by Domenico Zipoli. It was performed in Rome in the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Jesus.
Producer: T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.
Production Director: Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.
Conductor: John Finney (BC Music Department) - 2004, October 30-31. Mors Saulis et Jonathae, H403, by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Producer: T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.
Production Director: Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.
Conductor: John Finney (BC Music Department)
Ensemble Abendmusik - 2002, November 23-24. Patientis Christi Memoria, by Johan Bernhard Staudt. It was performed at St Mary鈥檚 Chapel, Boston College.
Producer: T. Frank Kennedy, S.J.
Production Director: Michael A. Zampelli, S.J.
Conductor: John Finney (BC Music Department)
Ensemble Abendmusik
Musical Recordings
Monumenta Musicae Societatis Iesu (Series)
Director: Michael Noone
Organ: Robert Quinney
Ensemble Plus Ultra
Musica Omnia
1. Gradualia (1607), by William Byrd
Ensemble Abendmusik
Dorian Recording.
2. The Jesuit Operas. Operas by Johannes Kapsberger (Apotheosis sive consecratio SS. Ignatii et Francisci Xaverii) and Domenico Zipoli/Martin Schmid/ et al., (San Ignacio).
3. God Here Among Us, a collection of 15 original musical compositions, by Chris Willcock, S.J.
4. Solo and Chamber Works, by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick.
On November 2009, composer and BC assistant professor, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, released a solo CD of four works on the Musica Omnia label. Works include Mysterium doloris quintae (Tropen-Kreuz) for solo piano, Sonata-Mazur (Aus der Ferne...) for violin and piano, Trio for violin, cello and piano, and Glocken-Spiel for piano quartet. Gawlick has received numerous national and international awards and was most recently selected as a 2009 Artist Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
Commissions and Sponsored Works
- XXX Annual Colloquy of the American Weil Society. Title: "Simone Weil: Texts and Contexts." Organized by Tomeu Estelrich.
- "Catholic Renewal and Reform: Four Decades Sharing in the Jesuit Mission in Higher Education" by David O'Brien.
- . Founded in 2008 by Richard Kearney and others, the aim of The Guestbook Project is to welcome the stranger as guest through an innovative and technological investigation of hospitality through text, performance, and digital arts.
- "Mass for the Holy Year 2000" by Thomas Oboe Lee (BC Music Department). First Performance by John Finney and the University Chorale in Trinity Chapel, April 15, 2000. The Mass is divided into nine movements and scored by SATB chorus, chamber orchestra and organ. It follows the entire Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. In between these sections, there are four settings of contemporary poems written in English by Elizabeth Kirschner, Claude McKay, Edith Stein, and Thomas Merton. All these poems reflect and amplify what is already in the Latin text: a veneration for faith and redemption.
Films
- "Writing on the Wall," (2009) co-produced by John J. Michalczyk & Ronald A. Marsh. This documentary, produced for the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in conjunction with the German Embassy鈥檚 national commemoration, not only highlights the principle phases on the reconstruction of democracy and international stability after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also captures the personal narratives of both leaders and citizens caught up in this drama.
- "Unexpected openings: Northern Ireland鈥檚 Prisoners," (2000) by John J. Michalczyk, Raymond Helmick, S.J., and Paul Goudreau. Etoile Productions.
- "Out of the Ashes: Northern Ireland鈥檚 Fragile Peace," (1998) by John J. Michalczyk. Etoile Productions.
- "In the Shadow of the Reich: Nazi Medicine," (1997) by John J. Michalczyk. First Run Features.
- "December鈥檚 Dilemma: The Creche, the Dreidel and the Star," (1997) by John J. Michalczyk. Etoile Productions.
- 鈥淭he Cross and the Star: Jews, Christians and the Holocaust," (1992) by John J. Michalczyk. Etoile Productions.
Exhibitions
- 2011, March 14- September. Binding Friendships: Ricci, China and Jesuit Cultural Learnings.
Curator: Jeremy Clarke SJ - 2006, September 7. Francis Xavier and the Jesuit Missions in the Far East. In the 500th anniversary of the birth of Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the Jesuit Institute and the John J. Burns Library at Boston College offered an exhibition of early printed works relating to his biography and posthumous cult, as well as to the subsequent Jesuit enterprise in the Far East where Xavier labored for ten years and died on a small desolate island off the coast of China. Curator: Franco Mormando.