Issue Home Volume 11: Issue 4

Teaching the Jesuit Way
Peter W. Salsich, Jr.
McDonnell Professor of Justice
Saint Louis University School of Law

How would St. Ignatius approach the teaching of law? My sense is that his approach would not be that much different from his approach to biology, history or mathematics. Math Professor Chris Petersen Black describes Ignatian pedagogy as seeking to develop “the process of clear and level-headed thinking” (Conversations, Spring 2005 17, 20). St. Ignatius would engage the minds of his students – possibly with the Socratic technique of pushing students to think about how law is applied by a series of hypothetical questions designed to test the boundaries of a particular legal principle.

But I suspect he would do it in a gentler manner than the famous Prof. Kingsfield of One L fame. Respect for the whole person, one of the tenets of Jesuit education, would lead him to soften the edges of his questions and allow a student to crawl back off a limb before he sawed off that limb and the student fell to the ground in embarrassment.

St. Ignatius also would look for opportunities to incorporate current issues of justice in his discussion of legal principles, as well as examples of ethical and professionalism questions that can arise in the practice of law. As Law Professor Gregory Kalscheur, S.J. notes, “[l]aw is not just about rules, and justice isn’t purely an intellectual problem” (Conversations, Spring 2009, 21-22). While loyalty to one’s client is a fundamental premise of our system of law, seeking to do the “right” thing is a necessary component of justice. Winning isn’t everything is a lesson St. Ignatius would emphasize.

Last updated 04.28.09