The Coyne Column: Peter McDonough writes "Why do you study Jesuits?"



The Coyne Column: Peter McDonough writes "Why do you study Jesuits?"

The Coyne Column: "Why do you study Jesuits?"

John P. Coyne

Peter McDonough is a Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Arizona State University and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) from 1961 to 1963. Read this excerpt from his essay about Jesuits that will appear in the Spring issue of 'Studies in the Spirituality of the Jesuits,' a quarterly published by the Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality. I think you will enjoy it.

"Tell me, Professor McDonough," the dean asked from behind her desk, "why do you study Jesuits?"

It had been a long day. The members of the search committee wanted to hear about my work in Brazil and Spain. Instead I gave a talk about a study of the Society of Jesus I hoped to get started. They made a few inquiries. None of my answers were very convincing, even to myself.

I paused for a moment. "Because if I didn’t study the Jesuits," I replied, "I think I would break out in a rash."

"Oh, my," the dean said (she was English), salting alarm with drollery. "Don’t do that."

Britannic composure one, Irish impulsiveness zero. I didn’t get the job. A few years later my first book on the Jesuits appeared-"Peter’s midlife crisis book," a colleague observed. Then, ten years later, another book, written with Gene Bianchi, came out, this one comparing Jesuits and former Jesuits.

I’m still not sure why I study Jesuits. Two things come to mind, however. One is that I attended Jesuit schools for a total of nine years. I graduated from Brooklyn Prep (now Medgar Evers Community College) with the class of ’57, from Saint Louis University in 1961, followed, after a couple of years in the Peace Corps, by a one-year stint of graduate study at Georgetown. These nine years are a treasure house. Dan Berrigan brought me to downtown Manhattan to meet Dorothy Day and shoot hoops with the Puerto Rican kids. When Dylan Thomas and the Beats were the rage, Walter Ong urged me to pay attention to the metaphysical poets. "Walter has a hundred ideas a day," the brethren used to say of him, "and ninety-nine of them are crap. But one is usually a humdinger." And so on.

In the second place, a good deal of my professional life has been devoted to studying authoritarian regimes and their undoing. It would be misleading to suppose that there is a straightforward connection between the Catholic condition and authoritarian politics, just as it would be odd to equate what the church has been going through since Vatican II with democratization. But there are some parallels. These rough analogies, together with re-entry into the Jesuit world after a long absence, produced a shock of recognition.

Transitologists customarily look at dual regime transformations. How do you get from non-democratic to democratic politics? And, in the case of communist regimes, how do you get from command to market economies? Alongside these political and economic shifts, there is a third dynamic, less commonly studied, having to do with cultural upheavals. These are sea-changes in values and beliefs that condition the prospects of the more clearly tangible transitions. This is the sort of metamorphosis that attracted me to research on Catholicism and, because I had some experience with them, to the Jesuits in particular.

Peter McDonough (East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1961–63)

John Coyne is the Editor of the Peace Corps Writers web site.

Hugh Pickens contributed the visual design.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

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Crisis Corps arrives in Thailand After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia last December, Peace Corps issued an appeal for Crisis Corps Volunteers and over 200 RPCVs responded. The first team of 8 Crisis Corps volunteers departed for Thailand on March 18 to join RPCVs who are already supporting relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and India with other agencies and NGO's.

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This Month's Feature Stories - only on PCOL Dream Come True - Revisiting India after 34 years The Coyne Column: Read Winning Vanity Fair PCV Essay Tomas Belsky's paintings inspired by service in Brazil RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years RPCV reviews "Los Heraldos Negros" by Cesar Vallejo Photo Essay: Taking it to the Streets

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March 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories PCVs in Kyrgyz Republic Are Safe 25 Mar The Coyne Column: A Good Friday Message 25 Mar Frederic Zenhausern developing "biometric bodysuits" 24 Mar Robert Blackwill calls for US co-operation with India 23 Mar Margaret Krome promotes alternate crops 23 Mar Al Kamen says allies disappointed in World Bank 23 Mar Ambassador Randall L. Tobias speaks at PC 22 Mar Becky Binns helps organize 30-hour fast 22 Mar Fred Poses meets with Vice-Premier in China 22 Mar John Hoff unionizes substitute teachers in Hawaii 21 Mar Bill Moyers takes time to "sit and vegetate" 21 Mar Tony Hall says Ethiopia may need more food aid 21 Mar Taylor Hackford's 'Ray' wins four NAACP Image Awards 21 Mar PCV seeks tap shoes for students in Moldova 20 Mar Adam Donaldson learns to believe in Baltimore 20 Mar Allen Andersson builds libraries in Central America 19 Mar Senator Sarbanes' quiet leadership will be missed 15 Mar

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March 26, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News Houston RPCVs sponsor "Around the World in a Day"on April 6 25 Mar Minnesota RPCVs need Photos for Exhibition 24 Mar Vasquez to visit DePaul University on April 6 22 Mar New Jersey RPCVs host exhibit in Maplewood on April 2 20 Mar Maryland RPCVs eat crab cakes in Annapolis 17 Mar Connecticut RPCVs held fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

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Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

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