A Message from the President
The heart of Jesuit education
By Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.
GonzagaUniversity President
Inasmuch as the heart liberates the mind and the mindliberates the heart, Jesuit education is committed to theconcurrent liberation of both. Thus, we cannot be singularlyfocused on the mind; we must probe the depths of the heart,understand its influence on the mind, and the mind's influence onit.
Inan educational culture where "heart" is generally identified with"The chambered muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood . ..," it is difficult to assign reality to the nonphysical meaningsof "heart." Most people today view the emotional connotations of"heart" as merely metaphorical because the physical definitionseems to exhaust the full range of reality.
Iwould submit, however, that the term "heart" also can signify avery real set of desires, intuitions, and related emotionsthat have been connected to soul or spirit throughout intellectualhistory. Though this "spiritual heart" can make the physical heartgo faster or slower or even feel as if it is "warm" or "aching," itis quite distinct from the physical heart, and should be viewed ashaving a reality of its own (whether one associates this realitywith brain physiology alone or with a soul orspirit).
Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th centurymathematician, exclaimed, "The heart has its reasons, which reasondoes not know. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that theheart naturally loves the Universal Being . . . ." St. IgnatiusLoyola wrote about the centrality of the heart, making itsconversion the point of his Spiritual Exercises. He even called thefinal stage of Jesuit formation "the school of the affect." Sincethat time, the mutual liberation of reason's reasons and theheart's reasons has been the raison d'etre of Jesuiteducation.
Thenotion of "spiritual heart" has its origins in antiquity and waswell known to Old and New Testament authors. In the Old Testament,the heart is associated with the source of psychic activity ingeneral (thoughts, desires and deeds-- Deuteronomy 15:9). OldTestament authors did not therefore make a distinction betweenreason's reasons and the heart's reasons. Though the New Testamentholds to the Old Testament's general characterization of psychicactivity, it frequently refines the meaning of "heart" to the placewhere God acts, transforms, and dwells (e.g., "God's love has beenpoured into our hearts through the Holy Sprit..." Romans 5:5, seealso Galatians 4:6 and Ephesians 3:17). St. Paul specifies it evenfurther by associating the "spiritual heart" with conscience,freedom, choice, and the unwritten Law-- Romans 2:15. For thisreason, the heart was associated with the five transcendentals inthe Neoplatonic tradition: Truth, Love, Goodness/Justice/Fairness,Beauty, and Being/the One.
Ifthis Neoplatonic contention is correct, than we possess a power orfaculty that has the desire for and awareness of perfect andunconditional Truth, Love, Goodness, Beauty, and Being. The"spiritual heart" would therefore be the most transcendent andextensive of all human powers. Indeed, Plato thought that it wasthe proof of human immortality.
Forthis reason, the Jesuit educational tradition has placed not onlythe "spiritual heart," but also the five transcendentals, at itscenter. Thus, we are interested in truth in literature, history,the social sciences and the natural sciences, as well as TruthItself in philosophy and theology. We are interested in logic,evidence, rigorous methodology, careful research, and articulationin areas ranging from the smallest fields of human endeavor to theultimate grounds and causes of metaphysics.
Weare concomitantly interested in love and empathy as found in humanrelationships as well as a relationship with Unconditional LoveItself. We are interested in the good as it manifests itself inhuman conscience, the pursuit of virtue, the understanding ofprinciples in practical applications of ethics, and even in the"unwritten law" of the heart (what St. Thomas Aquinas called thenatural law).
Weare interested in the beautiful, in the visual, musical, andperforming arts, in the appreciation of harmony and form, the studyof aesthetics, and even in the awe-inspiring majesty ofUnconditional Beauty Itself. Above all, we are interested inUnconditional Being Itself (what the ancients termed "the One" ) asthe unity of truth, love, goodness, and beauty, as the source ofall finite being, and as the perfect, ultimate, spiritualHome for which we yearn as our completion andpeace.
Iwill devote the next few issues of GONZAGA to a discussionof the five transcendentals, their interrelationship, and theirunity in God-- the heart of Jesuit education.
