Traditions of Eloquence: The Jesuits and Modern Rhetorical Studies

by Cinthia Gannett (Editor), John Brereton (Editor)

Overview

The first book to address the long and significant history—and future—of Jesuit rhetoric as the core of a liberal arts education.

This groundbreaking collection explores the important ways Jesuits have employed rhetoric, the ancient art of persuasion and the current art of communications, from the sixteenth century to the present. Much of the history of how Jesuit traditions contributed to the development of rhetorical theory and pedagogy has been lost, effaced, or dispersed. As a result, those interested in Jesuit education and higher education in the United States, as well as scholars and teachers of rhetoric, are often unaware of this living 450-year-old tradition. Written by highly regarded scholars of rhetoric, composition, education, philosophy, and history, many based at Jesuit colleges and universities, the essays in this volume explore the tradition of Jesuit rhetorical education-that is, constructing "a more usable past" and a viable future for eloquentia perfecta, the Jesuits' chief aim for the liberal arts. Intended to foster eloquence across the curriculum and into the world beyond, Jesuit rhetoric integrates intellectual rigor, broad knowledge, civic action, and spiritual discernment as the chief goals of the educational experience.

Consummate scholars and rhetors, the early Jesuits employed all the intellectual and language arts as "contemplatives in action," preaching and undertaking missionary, educational, and charitable works in the world. The study, pedagogy, and practice of classical grammar and rhetoric, adapted to Christian humanism, naturally provided a central focus of this powerful educational system as part of the Jesuit commitment to the Ministries of the Word. This book traces the development of Jesuit rhetoric in Renaissance Europe, follows its expansion to the United States, and documents its reemergence on campuses and in scholarly discussions across America in the twenty-first century.

Traditions of Eloquence provides a wellspring of insight into the past, present, and future of Jesuit rhetorical traditions. In a period of ongoing reformulations and applications of Jesuit educational mission and identity, this collection of compelling essays helps provide historical context, a sense of continuity in current practice, and a platform for creating future curricula and pedagogy. Moreover it is a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding a core aspect of the Jesuit educational heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823264520
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	05/25/2016
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Cinthia Gannett is Associate Professor of English at Fairfield University, where she directs the Core Writing Program.

John C. Brereton is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Table of Contents

Foreword by John O'Malley, S.J.
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Looking Backward, Moving Forward
Cinthia Gannett and John Brereton

Part I. Historical Sites and Scenes of Jesuit Rhetorical Practice, Scholarship, and Pedagogy

Historical Notes on Rhetoric in Jesuit Education
Patricia Bizzell

Rhetorical Veri-similitudo: Cicero, Probabilism, and Jesuit Casuistry
Robert Maryks

Loyola's Literacy Narrative: Writing and Rhetoric in The Autobiography of Saint Ignatius Loyola
Thomas Deans

Ladder of Contemplation vs. A Pilgrim's Staff: The Rhetoric of Agency and Emotional Eloquence in St. Ignatius' The Spiritual Exercises
Maureen A.J. Fitzsimmons

St. Francis de Sales and Jesuit Rhetorical Education
Thomas Worcester, S.J.

Black Robes/Good Habits: Jesuits and Early Women's Education in North America
Carol Mattingly

The Changing Practice of Liberal Education and Rhetoric in Jesuit Education: 1600-2000
David Leigh, S.J.

Part II. Post-Suppression Jesuit Rhetorical Education in the US: Loss and Renewal in the Modern Era

The Jesuits and Rhetorical Studies in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century America
John Brereton

Rhetorical Ways of Proceeding: Eloquentia Perfecta in American Jesuit Colleges
Steven Mailloux

Jesuit Rhetorical Education in Professional Writing in 19th and 20th Century American Jesuit Colleges
Katherine H. Adams

Walter Ong, S.J.: A Jesuit Rhetorical Scholar and Interdisciplinary Educator
Janice Lauer Rice

Edward P. J. Corbett, the Revival of Classical Rhetoric, and the Jesuit Tradition
Gerald Nelms

Bernard Lonergan's Rhetorical Resonances: A Preliminary Inquiry
Paula Mathieu

Paulo Freire and the Jesuit Tradition: The Relationship between Jesuit Rhetoric and Freirean Pedagogy
Thomas Pace

Part III. Jesuit Rhetoric and Ignatian Pedagogy: Applications, Innovations, and Challenges

Eloquentia Imperfecta: The Unfinished Business of Eloquentia Perfecta in Twenty-First Jesuit Higher Education
Cinthia Gannett

The New Eloquentia Perfecta Curriculum at Fordham
Anne Fernald and Kate M. Nash

Jesuit Rhetoric and the Core Curriculum at Loyola Marymount University
K.J. Peters

Jesuit Ethos, Faculty-Owned Assessment, and the Organic Development of Rhetoric Across the Curriculum at Seattle University
John C. Bean, Larry C. Nichols, and Jeffrey S. Philpott

Cura Personalis in Practice: Rhetoric's Modern Legacy
Karen Surman Paley

Service-Learning and the Rhetoric of Discernment: Reality Working Through Resistance
Ann E. Green

Networking Rhetoric for Jesuit Education in a New World
Jenn Fishman and Rebecca S. Nowacek

What We Talk about When We Talk about Voice: Reintegrating the Oral in the Current Writing Classroom
Vincent Casaregola

Reflection: Echoes of Jesuit Principles in Rhetorical Theories, Pedagogies, and Praxes
Krista Ratcliffe

Afterword: Technology, Diversity, and the Impression of Mission
Joseph Janangelo

Editorial Reviews

"There is a treasure trove of conceptual, historical, and curricular gems embedded in this collection."—James Murphy S.J., Professor Emeritus of English, University of California, Davis

"Gannett and Brereton have crafted a volume that will be useful to anyone who cares about student literacies and the ways in we teach students to be effective rhetors—and writers. Not merely for those directly involved in studying the Jesuit rhetorical tradition or for those teaching at Jesuit-affiliated institutions, Traditions of Eloquence will educate many scholar-teachers in composition and rhetoric, as well as their graduate students, about a practicable and richly significant heritage to which we all can lay claim."—Deborah Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago

"The phrase 'Jesuit education' has long connoted intellectual rigor and social justice. Perhaps less well known is the Jesuits' interest in the pursuit of eloquence. From their earliest beginnings, the Society of Jesus placed rhetoric at the center of work as teachers, preachers, and confessors. Traditions of Eloquence reminds us of this heritage and reveals it to be alive and well in the twenty-first century. This collection will prove crucial both for those who wish to understand the 'Ministries of the Word,' and—even more importantly—for those who wish to practice and perfect them."—Paul L. Lynch, St. Louis University

"This study probes the heritage of eloquentia perfecta and the Jesuit ratio studiorum with clear, careful, focused essays-rewarding reading for all engaged with the education and formation of undergraduates."-Christian Higher Education

"This volume is admirable on many counts, especially for the editors' appreciation of Jesuit pedagogy over the ages, their perceptive introductions to each of the volume's three parts, their thoughtful arrangement of these diverse essays in a way that lays out clearly the Jesuits' four-hundred-year rhetorical tradition, probes its riches and legacies, frankly assesses the enormous challenges today in defining what a Jesuit college or university is, and takes us into the trenches, as it were, where the work of rhetorical education goes on today. Everyone involved in the educational enterprise at Jesuit institutions-and certainly many others as well-should find these essays singularly beneficial for recovering an incomparable value that has nearly been lost and is most worthy of renewal."—Journal of Jesuit Studies

"In the aftermath of what was perhaps the least eloquent election in U.S. history, it is difficult not to read to this collection of essays without a certain longing, bordering on nostalgia, for the eloquentia perfecta that was so cherished and propagated in Jesuit higher education."—International Journal of Communication

"The essays form a wondrous cacophony of ideas and individual styles... It is worth the effort to engage with this work and to consider what the next steps in such scholarship might be. After all, these skilled rhetoricians have cultivated in their own writing, and in their work with their students, eloquence."—Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education

From the Publisher

“The phrase ‘Jesuit education’ has long connoted intellectual rigor and social justice. Perhaps less well known is the Jesuits’ interest in the pursuit of eloquence. From their earliest beginnings, the Society of Jesus placed rhetoric at the center of work as teachers, preachers, and confessors. Traditions of Eloquence reminds us of this heritage and reveals it to be alive and well in the twenty-first century. This collection will prove crucial both for those who wish to understand the ‘Ministries of the Word,’ and—even more importantly—for those who wish to practice and perfect them.

St. Louis University - Paul L. Lynch

“There is a treasure trove of conceptual, historical, and curricular gems embedded in this collection.

Professor Emeritus of English, University of California, Davis - James Murphy

Gannett and Brereton have crafted a volume that will be useful to anyone who cares about student literacies and the ways in we teach students to be effective rhetors—and writers. Not merely for those directly involved in studying the Jesuit rhetorical tradition or for those teaching at Jesuit-affiliated institutions, Traditions of Eloquence will educate many scholar-teachers in composition and rhetoric, as well as their graduate students, about a practicable and richly significant heritage to which we all can lay claim.

Columbia College Chicago - Deborah Holdstein

“This volume is admirable on many counts, especially for the editors’ appreciation of Jesuit pedagogy over the ages, their perceptive introductions to each of the volume’s three parts, their thoughtful arrangement of these diverse essays in a way that lays out clearly the Jesuits’ four-hundred-year rhetorical tradition, probes its riches and legacies, frankly assesses the enormous challenges today in defining what a Jesuit college or university is, and takes us into the trenches, as it were, where the work of rhetorical education goes on today. Everyone involved in the educational enterprise at Jesuit institutions—and certainly many others as well—should find these essays singularly beneficial for recovering an incomparable value that has nearly been lost and is most worthy of renewal.

Journal of Jesuit Studies

“In the aftermath of what was perhaps the least eloquent election in U.S. history, it is difficult not to read to this collection of essays without a certain longing, bordering on nostalgia, for the eloquentia perfecta that was so cherished and propagated in Jesuit higher education.

International Journal of Communication

“The essays form a wondrous cacophony of ideas and individual styles… It is worth the effort to engage with this work and to consider what the next steps in such scholarship might be. After all, these skilled rhetoricians have cultivated in their own writing, and in their work with their students, eloquence.

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education

“This study probes the heritage of eloquentia perfecta and the Jesuit ratio studiorum with clear, careful, focused essays—rewarding reading for all engaged with the education and formation of undergraduates.

Christian Higher Education