Coordination: Gianfranco Ferraro

Presentation

The forms of current globalization make the importance of spirituality increasingly evident, as a phenomenon which encompasses different areas, such as religion, politics, ethics and the training of new generations. The understanding of many global phenomena in our era, only partly governed by forms of secularized rationalism, increasingly implies the need for an interdisciplinary and comparative field of study, focused on the analysis of the modes of value production and structuring of life conducts.

From a comparative and genealogical perspective, this line of research in Global Studies aims to analyse the roots and impact of Jesuit pedagogy on modern culture and the contemporary world, whether from the point of view of educational models construction, the definition of architectural and urban planning models or even explicitly political ones, as is the case of attempts to realise utopian projects in South America.

To genealogically understand the history of Jesuit pedagogy implies, in fact, to approach the birth and development of one of the most decisive spiritual and educational paradigms of Modernity, a “global” paradigm in its own conception, starting from the foundation, in 1548, of the “Primum ac prototypum collegium Societatis Iesu” in the Sicilian city of Messina, prototype and archetype of the colleges and universities founded by the Society of Jesus in different parts of the globe. Moreover, the analysis of the Jesuit global model also allows us to historically and theoretically address the birth and the opposition, in the Modern Age, of other global pedagogical archetypes, including the university models that, within nation-states, then at the planetary level, and today through increasingly standardized assessment paradigms, have defined and define the ways of building values and guiding the life conduct of the new generations.

Taking into account Max Weber’s studies on comparative sociology of religion, Michel Foucault’s and Pierre Hadot’s philosophy of life conducts, Karl Rahner’s and Urs von Balthasar’s theology, Father Manuel Antunes’ research, as well as the most recent international research on Jesuit practices (Franco, Fabre, Guijon, Prosperi), this Line of Research will attempt to assess Jesuitism as a global spiritual, pedagogical and architectural model, opening the way to an interdisciplinary and comparative investigation of forms of spirituality in contemporary globalization, as well as into the global breath of current pedagogical models.

 

Objectives

• To systematize, in the context of Human and Social Sciences, a model of comparative analysis of global spiritual phenomena in Modern and Contemporary times.
• To enhance, within the Humanities and Social Sciences, the critical analysis and the broad understanding of the different pedagogical models with global aspiration that were faced in the past and are faced in the current era.
• To contextualize the Jesuit pedagogical model in its different components (historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, architectural and literary).
• To promote a pedagogical culture, open to interdisciplinarity and attentive to the intersection of global models and local contexts.
• To foster the diffusion of a research praxis adequate to the challenges posed by the current globalization, through the multidisciplinary use of sources and theoretical instruments.
• To sensitize and train towards a complex understanding of globalization as a phenomenon based on models of value construction and production and life conducts.
• To stimulate the study of Jesuit techniques of life, in order to develop an intellectual dimension open to the understanding of contemporary spiritual forms, which favours inter-religious dialogues and forms of critical citizenship.
• To encourage a model for lifelong learning and knowledge through the use of specific courses for adults and open source digital environments.

 

Projects and initiatives

Collegium Globale – An open access platform, whose interface is built according to the prototype of the first Jesuit college, with the inclusion of its 3D reconstruction, as well as the map of the spread of the Jesuit movement globally. In addition to an encyclopaedic component, built according to a wiki computer model, and a restricted component that allows (according to the UAb model) the meeting between researchers and the archiving of contemporary research on the topic, this online platform will allow to experience, thanks to a specific interactive software, in different environments, the Jesuit life techniques (the spiritual exercises), the life techniques that inspired the Jesuit movement (the examination of conscience, the stoic meditatio malorum…), as well as spiritual techniques from different religions, according to the historical model of encounter, mediation and adaptation of the Jesuit movement.

History of global pedagogies – Thematic work and historical perspective on the different pedagogical models of inspiration or global impact, which will attempt to carry out a comparative and genealogical study of the training modalities that preceded the Jesuit prototype (the medieval universities) or that followed it (the different types of modern universities), up to the contemporary diffusion of the pedagogical logic of the “network”.

A global prototype – An interdisciplinary study of the relationship between Jesuit pedagogy and architecture and its diffusion at the global level.

A contemporary and global photographic exhibition on Jesuit architecture in different places where there has historically been a Jesuit presence (supported by the Vatican Apostolic Library and the International Society of Jesuit Studies). The promotion of this dissemination activity will encourage, in each place, an understanding of the global and local impact of the Jesuit movement, as well as an encounter between researchers, local historians and the wider public.

Manuals on Spirituality – A critical collection, promoted by CEG-UAb, of learning manuals on spirituality, religious and philosophical, from antiquity to contemporary times.

Autobiographies and Confessions – A thematic work of historical and philosophical perspective, elaborated through the paradigm of the “techniques of life”, on another individual and global prototype that characterized the Jesuit movement, influencing, by this means, the entire modernity: that of autobiography.

Handbook for Children – An outreach handbook for children featuring the stories of the Portuguese Jesuits in the early modern globalization era and the illustrated edition of some of Father Antonio Vieira’s sermons.

Projects of Ignatian pedagogical renewal – Pierre Faure’s personalized and communitarian education, models of the colleges of Barcelona and of the colleges of Colombia and their impacts in Portugal.

Adult courses – short, face-to-face and online, weekly or bi-weekly courses aimed at adults, according to the lifelong learning model.

Promoting scientific events, such as seminars and conferences, as well as actions of wide dissemination on forms of spirituality and contemporary pedagogical models with global reach.