The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies now welcomes applications to A History of the Jesuits, a new online course. An application is available online. With questions, please contact the Institute (iajs@bc.edu). The course beings on January 14, and the first round of applications closes on January 11. Contact the Institute with questions or to request an application extension (iajs@bc.edu)
A History of the Jesuits offers an introductory survey to some of the men who made the Society of Jesus one of the most successful and, at times, most controversial religious orders in the Catholic Church. It explores this rich and varied past with particular attention, following the Jesuits’ suppression in 1773, to various enterprises and enterprisers in the Americas. The course seeks to answer these questions: What have been the characteristics of the Society of Jesus and its associated works? And how and why have those characteristics remained the same or changed? Complementing the other courses in the Certificate program, the course traces the development, expansion, suppression, restoration, and recent developments of the Society of Jesus by closely examining the historical contributions of significant Jesuits.
The course begins on January 14, 2019. It consists of 13 weekly modules, ending the week of April 22 (there are no modules the weeks of March 4 and April 15). The course features regular engagement between the professor and students with brief video lectures and small group discussions, via online discussion and video. A History of the Jesuits is a three-credit course.
The course is taught by Seth Meehan, Ph.D., the associate director at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. Meehan received his bachelor’s degree in theology from Georgetown University and his master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Boston College. His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Catholic Historical Review, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, Theological Studies, and Boston College Magazine, where he is a contributing editor. His scholarship has been recognized with awards from the American Catholic Historical Association, the Catholic Library Association, and other organizations. Currently, he is writing a biography of a nineteenth-century Jesuit, John McElroy, and editing a volume on a second, Salvatore Brandi.