St. Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuit Society

St. Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuit Society

Roughly one hundred years after the Renaissance religion counter attacked by rapidly adapting to the times. Christianity was forced to reevaluate their position and needs within society. One of these reformations was the internal restructuring and new perspective of Christian philosophies proposed by St. Ignatius Loyola, in 1540, which ultimately evolved into the Jesuits, or more accurately the Society of Jesus. This new system and special branch of the papacy was responsible for introducing and maintaining religion. It was upheld on a foundation of four main principals; preaching, hearing confessions, missionary work, and teaching.
The pillar of teaching in a secular manner was what led them to circumvent millennia of adaptations. The advent of the Jesuits rose after people became comfortable with their individualism. The Plague had demoralized cultures and people took to looking towards education and the lasting, finite, elements of life. Education became a prominent aspect in the demarcations of power and frailty, money and destitution, fastidiousness and industrialism, political correctness and marginalization. Many of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States are among the top schools within our nation. Some of the better known Jesuit institutions are Georgetown University, Boston College, Fordham University, and Loyola University.
The Jesuits are the largest Catholic religious order with over 25,000 members worldwide. Innovative from the start, the Jesuits emphasized flexibility and education and developed a reputation for scholarship that earned them great influence in the Church. Jesuits have made significant contributions in atomic theory, optics, non-Euclidian geometry, and astronomy. There are several craters on the Moon named after Jesuits.
The Jesuit Universities require you to take basic theology courses, but their rationale for this requirement is that religion is a strong force behind human history and culture. Even if a student is not religious and has no desire to change, an understanding of religion is important to an understanding of humanity. This viewpoint is expanded on at Georgetown University's website. "[The University] neither wishes nor expects all its members to be Catholic, but it does assume that all of them share a basic, widely accepted view of humankind. . . . It imposes no religious creed on any faculty member or any student, but it expects them to respect the religious convictions of each person." It is a Jesuit university, and has a firm commitment to Catholicism, but there is an impressive diversity among the students and faculty. The scores of active student organizations on Georgetown's campus include the Jewish Student Association, Native American Student Association, Women's Empowerment League, Black Student Alliance, and Right to Life.
There are over one million alumni of Jesuit universities in the United States alone." Bill Rancic, of the Apprentice, was chosen by Donald Trump for his openness to creativity and ability to remain respectful during trivial arguments. He claims to have learned this trait here at Loyola University Chicago. The medical School and hospital also maintains the religious standards that were established for the order. They were more than happy to record lectures for students who have religious obligations that conflict with classes, as well as rearrange clinical and lab times.
This unique ability to remain the thrust of our society’s elite for hundreds of years is what makes the Jesuits the most important contribution.