Jesuit Education and Science in the Spanish Imperial Context, 1859-1898: a talk by Dr. Aitor Anduaga of University of the Basque Country

The Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC)
School of Social Sciences
cordially invites you to a lecture on

Jesuit Education and Science in the Spanish Imperial Context, 1859-1898

by

Dr. Aitor Anduaga
University of the Basque Country Leioa, Spain
Visiting Research Associate, IPC

on

February 13, 2012 (Monday)
4:30 to 6:00pm
IPC Conference Room
Rm 203, Frank Lynch Hall
Social Development Complex

*Please call local 4651 or e-mail ipc@admu.edu.ph for inquiries.

Abstract

Although the Royal Decree of 1852 by the Spanish Queen Isabel II  assigned to the Jesuits a strictly missionary function (i.e., to  evangelize the pagan tribes of Mindanao and Jolo), activities soon  extended to education and science. The history of this development is  well known. In 1859, Jesuits took charge of the ?Escuela Municipal.  In 1865, they extended primary education to the secondary one, and  turned the Escuela into a private school, the Ateneo Municipal de  Manila?. That year, they found the Meteorological Observatory as an  auxiliary centre for teaching. Twenty years later, it became the most   important geophysical Observatory in the Far East.

Many historians have placed those achievements within the framework of apostolic spirituality. The ideological structure of the Society of  Jesus would house a spirituality at its core whose values of  diligence, learning, etc. would explain the legitimacy of this study  of empirical sciences. Reality, however, is much more complex. In this  lecture, we shall examine the institutional (not the ideological)  structure of the Society in the educational field, and the influence  that it exerted on the promotion of science. We shall also see that
there was strong interaction between religious and socioeconomic  factors that help to understand those achievements. Last but not  least, the Jesuit experiences in the Spanish dominions of Cuba and  Puerto Rico will help us to better understand the Philippine reality.