Daniel S. HENDRICKSON, SJ. Jesuit Higher Education in a Secular Age: A Response to Charles Taylor and the Crisis of Fullness. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2022. pp. 187. ISBN 9781647122331. Reviewed by Anthony M. STEVENS-ARROYO, Professor Emeritus Brooklyn College.

            As promised in its title, this book’s major focus is upon the educational theory of Charles Taylor concerning the teaching of the humanities at the university-level. Be warned that unfamiliarity with Taylor’s work presents a major obstacle to reading this slender volume. Because it is filled with well-informed references to academic debate about secularization and religious commitments, as well as about science and the humanities, readers outside this specialized field will encounter hard going in the first half of the book. Happily, the volume concludes with three less technical chapters of historical reflection on the evolution of a course of studies (Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum) for the Society of Jesus.

Father Hendrickson explores Taylors provocative discussions about the philosophy of knowledge. The focus is upon the question of whether the acquisition of facts through rigorous application of science has negated the need for humanistic concerns. Hendrickson likes the response of Taylor that all education requires “fullness.” In his own robust philosophical reflection about the role of religious belief, Hendrickson argues that scientific knowledge without humanistic perspective is incomplete. Study of classic and religious sources of knowledge, on the other hand, supply a vital fullness to the applications of modern science. A student must not only know the facts about the world but ought also to acquire appreciation for how education can be put at the service of the common good.  This conclusion about the humanistic purposes of higher education is then shown to have been the essential incubator of Jesuit higher education.

Members of the SSSR may be flattered by the attention Hendrickson lavishes on the diagnosis of secularization from former SSSR President, José Casanova. This reviewer himself was grateful for attention to the theory of education from the 20th century Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset, whose perceptive analysis often goes neglected by academicians writing in English.

The bibliography is extensive and there is a much to be appreciated index here. I suspect the book is a product of reflection on previously written and/or delivered academic papers, although I saw no such acknowledgement. Of course, there is nothing objectionable about a book whose chapters have been marinated by its author over a period of years. However, there are passages in some chapters that repeat items discussed in others and scant editorial connection between the two. The names and vital citations come perhaps a bit too frequently, asking the reader to recognize the opus of scholars as diverse as Hans Gadamer, Louis Dupré, Anders Nygen, Bernard Lonergan, John Dewey, Jacques Maritain, Hanan Alexander, Karl Hostetler, José Casanova, Robert Bellah, and John Milbank.

The best of the historical chapters on Jesuits is entitled, “The Tradition of Jesuit Education.” It leans heavily on the work of the late John W. O’Malley, SJ. Here the stitching together the array of philosophic reflections produces a powerful analysis of Jesuit education. Amen.