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Heythrop, Copleston, and the Jesuit Contribution to Philosophy1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2016
Abstract
There has been public outcry from philosophers and others at the prospect of the closure of Heythrop College, University of London; yet the nature and history of Heythrop remain little known. It is apt and timely, therefore, as its likely dissolution approaches, to provide a brief account of its origins and development up to and including the period of its entry into London University under the leadership of the most famous modern historian of philosophy Frederick Copleston. Following on from this, the idea of a distinctive Jesuit intellectual tradition, and more specifically of the Jesuit contribution to philosophy, is explored.
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- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016
Footnotes
1
The present essay derives from a lecture given at Senate House London as part of the celebration of Heythrop's quartocentenary. I am grateful to the then Principal, Michael Holman S.J. for the invitation to contribute to that occasion. I received useful suggestions and comments from Kevin Flannery S.J., Joseph Godfrey S.J. and Patrick Riordan S.J.
References
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4 During 2015 and 2016 the College had extended discussions with two other London universities, St Mary's University, Twickenham, and the University of Roehampton, about the possibility of merging with one or other of these, but it was concluded that no such arrangement was feasible.
5 A. Ainley et al. ‘Philosophers call for Heythrop College to be saved’, Tablet, 25 July 2015.
6 S. Coakley et al, ‘Threat to theology’ The Times, 18 August 2015.
7 A. Assiter et al. ‘Don't Shut Down Heythrop College’ Times Higher, 6 August 2015.
8 See further multi-signatory letters Tablet, 23 and 30 July 2016.
9 In the following section I am indebted to a large number of sources including Joly, M. Cretineau, The Poor Gentlemen of Liege being the History of the Jesuits in England and Ireland for the last Sixty Years, trans. McGhee, R. J. (London: Shaw & Co., 1863)Google Scholar, Taunton, Ethelred L., The History of the Jesuits in England 1580–1773 (London: Methuen, 1901)Google Scholar, Henry Chadwick, S.J. St Omers to Stonyhurst (London: Burns and Oates, 1962)Google Scholar, Francis Edwards, S.J., The Jesuits in England (Tunbridge Wells: Burns and Oates, 1985)Google Scholar, Bernard Bassett, S.J., The English Jesuits from Campion to Martindale (Leominster: Gracewing, 2004)Google Scholar, Walsh, Michael, Heythrop College, op. cit., and Copleston, Frederick C., Memoirs of a Philosopher (Kansas City, MO.: Sheed & Ward 1993 Google Scholar).
10 The word ‘Jesuit’ like ‘Gothic’ was originally used as a pejorative and only later came to be adopted as a simple descriptive.
11 See Carrafielo, Michael L., Robert Parsons and English Catholicism 1580–1610 (London: Associated University Presses, 1998)Google Scholar.
12 Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societas Jesu – ‘Method and system of the studies of the Society of Jesus’.
13 Now considerably enlarged, the Heythrop College collection is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest theological and philosophical libraries in the UK.
14 For accounts of this phase see the extensive discussion in Walsh, op.cit., and the privileged perspective provided in Frederick C. Copleston, Memoirs of a Philosopher op. cit.
15 For its first near quarter century the College was housed in central London behind the neo-Palladian facades of two conjoined buildings in Cavendish Square. In 1993 it moved to Kensington Square, a more spacious and quieter location allowing it to increase student numbers. Both sets of buildings had previously been occupied by Catholic teacher training colleges run by women religious orders: the Sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and the Religious of the Assumption.
16 In personal conversations with the present writer.
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21 Walsh, Heythrop College, 132 quotes from a letter sent privately by Hamlyn to Copleston in 1974 expressing his concerns about the financial plan of the College: ‘It is clear to me that the College was set up in London under serious misapprehensions about the financial consequences and whatever happens those mistakes must be made good. If they are not I shall have no recourse to resign [as chair of governors] and I shall do so in a way that makes clear why I am doing so’ (original letter from Boston College Library, manuscripts collection, Copleston papers, box 11, file 1).
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43 See Darowski, R., ‘John Hay S.J. and the Origins of Philosophy in Lithuania’ Innes Review 31 (1980), 7–15 Google Scholar.
44 See Marcil-Lacoste, Louise, Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid: Two Common-Sense Philosophers (Quebec: McGill-Queens University Press, 1982)Google Scholar.
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47 Copleston also had a longstanding interest in the philosophy of language, specifically the criteria of meaningfulness, likely motivated by concern about challenges to the meaningfulness of religious language. He wrote on these issues over many years from a problematic rather than a historical perspective. See Copleston, , Contemporary Philosophy: Studies in Logical Positivism and Existentialism (London: Burns & Oates, 1956)Google Scholar and other items listed in ‘Frederick C. Copleston: An 80th Birthday Bibliography’ Heythrop Journal 28 (1987), 418–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 Copleston, F. C., ‘The History of Philosophy: Relativism and Recurrence’. The Heythrop Journal 14 (1973), 123–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Copleston, Philosophers and Philosophies (London: Search Press, 1976)Google Scholar.
49 See in particular Philosophers and Philosophies, op. cit., On the History of Philosophy and Other Essays (London: Search Press, 1979)Google Scholar, Philosophies and Cultures (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar, and Religion and the One (Tunbridge Wells: Search Press, 1982)Google Scholar.
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53 Here it is appropriate to note the work of Gerard J. Hughes S.J. who taught in the Department of Philosophy at Heythrop for almost 30 years, before taking up the Mastership of Campion Hall, Oxford. Of particular relevance are Authority in Morals: An Essay in Christian Ethics first published in 1978 in Heythrop Monographs and thereafter by Sheed & Ward, and by Georgetown University Press; The Nature of God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (London: Routledge, 2005)Google Scholar; and Guidebook to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics 2nd edition (London: Routledge, 2013)Google Scholar. The flourishing of philosophy at Heythrop and respect for it elsewhere in the University was largely to do with his work including the chairing of the department there.
54 Loyola, Ignatius, The Spiritual Exercises trans. Seager, C. (London: Dolman, 1847), 1Google Scholar.