Evangelizing Culture

Evangelizing Culture is a term referred to in excerpts of a correspondance letter on apostolic priorities from Stephan A. Privett, S.J., President of the University of San Francisco, to the California Provincial Fr. Thomas H. Smolich, S.J.

'Evangelizing Culture'

"This is perhaps the priority that is least well understood by my colleagues and me. Our current thinking is directed toward engaging contemporary culture in a conversation that allows us to hear whatever is "gospel" in our culture, as well as find opportunities for challenging culture to recognize "gospel" in our tradition of teaching, learning, and scholarship. Our model is dialogic rather than mono-directional. We are initiating a lecture series in which prominent Church persons speak to contemporary issues, with allowance for a follow-up seminar with a select group of faculty and students."...

"If one looks at this goal on a more macro level, the obvious but much more difficult challenge for USF is to effectively institutionalize the values and traditions of a Jesuit Catholic university, so that they permeate the total campus environment and shape the students' living and learning experiences. If successful, this would offer students the experience of a somewhat "counter cultural community" that, in turn, offers them a critical perspective from which they could creatively engage those aspects of culture which are in conflict with human values and affirm those that support a humane way of being together in the world. This is clearly the overarching challenge for all of us in higher education, but one that may be lost sight of when we talk exclusives in terms of "strategic goals" that are too narrowly framed. Basically, to be a Jesuit Catholic University is to evangelize culture."

Mark Ravizza Tom Lucas