Jesuit Heritage

Eliciting Great Desires: A Liberal Education

The desires that first drew Ignatius to serve God led him from the pursuit of worldly fame to a genuine, inner freedom. As a result, Jesuits have always believed that education should likewise liberate students. They endorsed in their first schools the Renaissance notion of a liberal curriculum, and Georgetown's core curriculum today still exposes students to the full range of academic disciplines and modes of inquiry, encouraging them to challenge previously held assumptions and opening their minds to a true, and therefore liberating vision of the world. As the words from the Gospel of John at the entrance to Lauinger Library state, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (8:32).
Ignatius believed that this new vision of the world's goodness and God's work on its behalf would draw forth from us loving appreciation. And it would also reshape our desires. The Ignatian vision raises serious questions: What is my vocation? What are my talents and gifts and the deep desires that accompany them? What kind of work gives me joy and energy? How can I preserve and enhance the goodness and beauty I have discovered around me? The variety of subjects required by a liberal arts education can help students discover for themselves the way of life that draws forth from them their most passionate response, the work to which God is leading them. Because a liberal education, especially one in the Catholic humanist context, celebrates the goodness of the world, it also works to transform the personal ambitions of students into great desires for the promotion of justice and the common good. These great desires can be achieved through embracing Georgetown's conviction that "life is best lived generously, working in the service of others." As a result of its Ignatian vision, Georgetown hopes to graduate "women and men for others."8

Dedication to service, a concern for the common good, and a commitment to promoting justice have always been implicit in the Jesuits' works and world view. In recent decades, Jesuits and their colleagues have made more explicit these dimensions of their shared ministries. At a worldwide meeting in 1975, Jesuit leaders posed the question, "What is it to be a companion of Jesus today?" Their answer echoes on our campus, shaping our priorities in teaching, research, and institutional initiatives: To be a companion of Jesus today "is to engage, under the standard of the Cross, in the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes."9 This assertion continues to reinvigorate Jesuits and those with whom they labor so that all people might participate in the promise of Christ who came that we "may have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Georgetown tries to keep this promise in numerous ways, especially through its primary work of rigorous intellectual reflection on and analysis of the full range of justice-related issues facing people today. Members of the university community also promote justice through many other means, such as the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service; the Center for Intercultural Education and Development; and abundant efforts to reach and improve the lives of disadvantaged and marginalized people in our city and around the world.

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