Jesuit Education and the
“foreclosure.”
Cultivation of Virtue
Careerism
● Not necessarily career
● It’s not bad to have a career since
you have to make a living
● When does it become careerism?
○ It becomes careerism when
the means become the end
○ When power, prestige and
wealth become the primary
motivator
● Even the most notable profession
is capable of becoming careerism
What Drives Careerism?
● Driven by excess self-interest
● Uncritical acceptance of
family/social expectations in the
face of economic, political, social,
cultural and religious environments
● Driven by fear
What’s Wrong About Careerism?
● Anxiety, confusion and fear over
the possibility of not getting the
right job; financial success and
security as paramount priorities --
often manifested in grade
consciousness
● Lack of critical examination of
career choices and alternatives --
unethical and rigid acceptance of a
template or career path imposed
by society
● E. Erikson: careerism as an
overcommitments to an
incomplete identity which leads to
● Moral relativism resulting in
excessive self-focus makes
careerism anti-Christian
“When work is viewed as being only the
purpose of personal needs and unrelated
to spiritual and communal life is destined
to be hollow and unfulfilling.”
● You will never be satisfied. You
will need more to receive the same
level of satisfaction. Materials
things are insufficient.
● Careerism is death
Vocation
● What kind of person do you desire
to become?
Biblical Understanding
● A calling from God
● “I have called you by your name
and you are mine”
● There are numerous narratives
● A call to live Christ: “I live no
longer, but Christ lives in me.”
According to Brueggermann,
● Modern temptation of self-
groundedness: illusion that life
springs from us.
● Human life is grounded in another
Medieval Understanding
● Removing one’s self from the
concerns of the world. God calls
people into the religious life
 ● Worldly careers, such as trade,
were seen to be unholy
● Business was a usual suspect
since one can easily be tempted
More on Vocation
● There is a primary or universal
type of vocation towards God
● Secondary - specific; marriage
and/or career
Protestantism
● God calls people to practice faith in
definite areas of life
● Vocation as a calling to the
everyday world
Pope John Paul II
● Work involves the call to be fully a
person
● Primary basis of the value of work
is the worker himself/herself
(subjective dimension) over and
above the objective nature of that
work
● Work is not just about earning
money, they must be able to
identify themselves with it
● Main reason to work is to realize
their humanity
● “Work is for man, man is not for
work”
Social Dimension of Work
● Not only to family, but to the
common good
● Common good: sum of social
conditions which allows society to
reach fulfillment more fully
● People exist with and for others
More on Vocation
● Primary: God’s transcendent call
towards the union with God
● Secondary: towards self-
realization in one’s work and state
of life
● Social: towards the common good
How do you discern God’s vocation for
you?
● “The place where God calls you is
the place where your deep
gladness and the world’s deep
hunger meets.”
● According to Donahue, Jesuit
institutions need to be in all their
manifestations, institutions of
vocal inquiry
The “Way” of Jesuit Education
1. Give students advantages for
practical living
● Give tips for summary the
real world
2. Contribute to the right government
of public affairs
● Ethics
3. Give ornament, splendor and
perfection to the rational nature of
humanity
● Science is still important to
Jesuits
4. Be a bulwark of religion and to
guide man surely and easily to the
achievement for his land
 ● Teach well about religious
faith

Modern Definition of the Way

of Jesuit Education
1. Be practical by providing
important knowledge and skills
2. Educate to be men and women for
others/to be good leaders,
concerned with the common good
3. Celebrates full range of human
reason
4. Places everything within a
Christian vision

Total Formation -> Men & Women for

Others -> Reason & Faith as Ways to
Truth -> AMDG

Cura Personalis
● Care for the individual person
● Learning is centered on the person
on the subject matter
● Cares more for the students

The First Way: Total Formation

● OBJECTIVE OF JESUIT
EDUCATION: assist in the fullest
possible development of all the
God-given talents of each
individual person
● Expressed in core curriculum:
scientific, humanistic, religious that
encourages critical thinking,
creativity and imagination
● The school