Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This paper asserts that the primary source for opinions in the contemporary age is derived from unmediated access to popular culture we develop our first premise: that the contemporary religious student takes in facts in a fundamentally esoteric setting. An American secondary school may contribute to the fundamental and grounding elements that eventually make possible John Henry Newman’s idea of a university education, but religious, political, and literary opinions are now composed principally of ideas gleaned from the internet or social media: In a country which does not profess the faith, it (the educational institution) at once runs, if allowed, into skepticism or infidelity; but even within the pale of the Church, and with the most unqualified profession of her Creed, it acts, if left to itself, as an element of corruption and debility. If many norms established in contemporary American culture are not principled in a Jesuit manner, or faithful in the traditional sense, and if students are more pluralistic in direct proportion to growing student bodies and societal norms, then Jesuit institutions find themselves in the situation described above. The externality of ends to which a contemporary student is being fashioned is strikingly contradictory to her purpose according to John Newman and Jesuit principles of Cura Personalis. This paper seeks to establish the most effective modern pedagogical method of Eloquentia Perfecta in the tradition of educating the whole student and heart speaking to heart or Cor ad Cor Loquitor by drawing on Newman’s historical rhetorical curriculum.