This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors is designed to be an exploration into primary and secondary sources in the African American religious experience in an effort to uncover the spirituality of the people of Africa and how that spirituality was tied into the religious experience of the slaves who were brought to America, resulting in a distinctively African American spiritual formation tradition. The course will consider specific primary African American spiritual formation genres – slave narratives, as well as the lives and works of selected African American spiritual leaders.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors provides an overview of the history of the Church from the time of the Apostles, through the Reformation into the Counter-Reformation and Modern Church. The course is designed to provide the student with a broad understanding of the theological controversies and resolutions that defined much of the history of the Early Church and the World. It also introduces the major individuals involved and discusses the political and institutional trends within both the Church and the culture during this time frame (Charlemagne, Martin Luther, Ignatius, etc.). Although the broad spectrum of church traditions will be addressed, the primary focus of this course will be the history of the Western (or Catholic) Church.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors asks students to reflect on environmental and social challenges that are facing “our common home,” challenges that range from global climate change to local water and incinerator issues. The course invites students to consider how environmental decisions often impact poor communities and then fashion a response that demonstrates a commitment to justice. Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, serves as the primary text for this course and is supplemented with other Jesuit resources and guest speakers from the community.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors introduces students to the articulation and understanding of gender, sexuality and religion, focusing on current issues and debates surrounding gender and sexuality as they are expressed within religious theologies, communities, and society. Students will consider the different meanings and significances of the terms gender and sexuality and the ways they are understood within religious traditions, especially the Catholic Church. Students will develop a deeper understanding of how gender, sexuality, and culture influence images of God and a person’s relationship with, and position within, the Church. Students will also delve deeply into the continuous evils of gender and sexual discrimination and inequality. Students will learn how compassionate dialogue and understanding is the first step to realize and live Pope Francis’ teaching that “Human dignity is the same for all human beings: when I trample on the dignity of another, I am trampling on my own.”

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors introduces students to prayer in the Christian tradition focusing on the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, as a pathway to meditation, contemplation, wisdom, self-awareness, knowledge, discernment, and service to others (service that is done out of love for, and in imitation of, the Holy Trinity, who sent God the Son, incarnate in Jesus Christ, to serve, not to be served). It does this by way of learning the history, science, and practice of meditation, contemplation, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and his mysticism of service.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors utilizes the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as its centerpiece to delve deeper into St Ignatius and the Jesuits from the perspectives of history, spirituality, and the arts. The course explores how students can continue on with a life inspired by St. Ignatius in their adult life including Jesuit Universities, Jesuit Vocations, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and Jesuit retreat houses. Students are also introduced to Jesuit organizations such as the Ignatian Solidarity Network, Jesuit Refugee Services, and Christian Life Communities.

This independent study elective course for rising juniors prepares students for the summer immersion trip to Spain, Rome, and Lourdes walking in the footsteps of St. Ignatius. Coursework will be completed online between February and June with a final exam and project due upon return to the United States. This independent study is in collaboration with St. Ignatius Cleveland.

This course is available to students in the Class of 2020 only.

This independent study elective course for rising juniors prepares students for the summer immersion trip to Northern Ireland. This online course uses readings, lectures, and compositions related to history, literature, politics and Catholic social teaching applied to the Irish Peace Process. While in Belfast, Northern Ireland, students participate in a service-learning program during which they learn the dynamics of conflict and peace-building from the key architects of the Irish Peace Process. The program utilizes the Ignatian pedagogical method of context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation. This independent study is in collaboration with Walsh Jesuit and St. Ignatius Cleveland.

This course is available to students in the Class of 2020 only.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors offers students the opportunity to critically examine our nation’s criminal Justice system. The course is born out of Christ’s call to love the ‘other’ without exception - a radical compassion. The course challenges students to open their eyes, minds and hearts to the ‘other’ and to respond. The course invites students to research and openly critique issues surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex. Students will probe into prison conditions and solitary confinement; racial discrimination and disparity; the drug war and drug policy; female incarceration and sexual abuse; criminalization of poverty; mental illness and addiction; juvenile detention and the school-to-prison pipeline; cash bail system and legal representation; probation, parole and recidivism; mandatory minimum sentencing; collateral penalties; wrongful convictions; and capital punishment. The course concludes with the students identifying solutions resulting in criminal justice reform in response to the Catholic Church’s call for justice within the criminal justice system, particularly its demand to respect the rights, life and dignity of every human person.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors offers students the opportunity to examine domains of Western Philosophy including the questions and arguments regarding human nature, knowledge, freedom, the nature of reality, the problem of evil, and the existence of God. The course focuses attention on major figures including the Classical Philosophies of Socrates, Plato, an Aristotle and their influence on the Christian Philosophies of Aquinas and Augustine. Throughout the course, students excogitate the meaning of happiness and the good life and apply it to the Jesuit teachings of AMDG, Men and Women for and with Others, and the Magis.

This one-semester elective course for seniors endeavors to fill in the gaps in the student's knowledge of the history of the western philosophical tradition so that the student will gain the ability to recognize the great thinkers and ideas that have impacted civilization. Philosophy II will also be a forum for discussions in which the students can explore new ideas and practice their skills in intellectual

Prerequisite - Philosophy I

Course Fee $25

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors explores sacred/religious symbols used as visual expressions in art, architecture and religious imagery. Students study various faith traditions to gather an understanding of praise older than language and the written word to “see God in all things.” In this integrated approach to learning about culture, religion and the arts, each student creates major art pieces that represent the faith traditions studied and their own original works that express an understanding of the creative process allowing them to embrace the universal call of the Beloved to us, His instruments, and our response – an expression of praise. Students gain an ability to understand the role of the creative spark in their lives.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors encourages students to realize that part of being human is the fundamental and ubiquitous quest for knowledge and understanding of the world that transcends scientific or religious restraints. Both science and religion seek to answer those questions regarding faith and reason. The aim of the multi-faceted approach in this course is through four lenses of the relationship between Science & Religion: opposition, independence/separation, dialogue, and cooperation. The course explores the relationship between science and religion from antiquity to contemporary views taking into account historical, sociological, and philosophical perspectives. Students explore the contributions of scientists and philosophers including Jesuits: Matteo Ricci, SJ, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, George Coyne, SJ, Guy Consolmagno, SJ.

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors explores biographical and autobiographical narrative as the lens through which we can reflect on God’s grace working in human lives in ways that are sometimes dramatic, often ordinary, usually circuitous, but always revealing. The course will include a study of the lives of great Jesuits ranging from St. Ignatius to Alfred Delp SJ to Daniel Berrigan SJ and will cover a broad span of subjects ranging from the medieval mystics to Malcolm X. Students will study the lives of poets, prophets, and peacemakers. The perplexed and the persecuted. Dreamers and drunkards. Philosophers and holy fools. Students will listen to the stores that give us a glimpse into the human heart’s search for spiritual meaning in the midst of this complex, messy and beautiful journey called life. Students will write their own spiritual autobiographies, focusing on relationships, turning points, and key moments in their own lives, recalling the claim made by Karl Rahner, SJ that “the personal history of the experience of self is the personal experience of the history of God.”

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors will examine violence, both internal and external, and explore the roots of violence that express themselves in our daily lives (the micro level) and in social systems and structures (macro level), with a focus on war. The course will be grounded in the Gospel call to active peacemaking, Catholic Social Teaching, the teachings of Pope Francis, Dom Helder Camara’s Spiral of Violence, and the principles of nonviolence as expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr. The class will ask hard questions: Are humans innately violent? How do we define violence? Nonviolence? Power? Is war inevitable? Is violence necessary? Why do countries go to war? Can war be abolished? Is it moral to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons? What is the difference between passivity and active nonviolence? What is the just war theory? What is the role of conscience related to issues of war and peace? What does the Church teach about war and peace? What does it mean to be a conscientious objector? What is PTSD and how to we help people who have experienced violence heal? How do we recognize and address internal violence? Cultural violence? Violence in our local communities? What is nonviolent civil resistance? Does it work? Who are some of the people who have worked to end violence?

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors investigates experiences and beliefs about wealth, poverty, social class, and economic inequality. Readings, videos, discussions, and simulations address historical roots, consequences of imperialism and globalization, and current data and policy options for America and the world. A crucial goal of the course is to deepen students’ commitment to a “faith that does justice” with a focus on Pope Francis’ teachings on economics and a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable.

World Religions: Violence and Nonviolence in the World’s Religions

This one-semester elective course for juniors and seniors introduces students to the history, beliefs and practices of the world’s major religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Such a study should help students enlarge their understanding of God in a rapidly-shrinking world where knowledge of the world’s religions is imperative to our Christian vocation to “make peace among individuals and nations” (The Challenge and Possibility of Peace). The course will focus on violence and nonviolence in each of the world’s religions and will examine the ways in which religion has inspired both the best and the worst in humanity throughout history and in our world today.