Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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FATHER JOHN J. SCANLAN, S. J. is well known to thirteen years of Loyola grad- uates as a book-laden figure coming down to psychology and theology classes; as a teacher with the presence, memory, and timing of the veteran performer; as an understanding and inspiring priest with time to listen to their problems.

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DEDICATION u r- A im r Scam. an belongs on the stage,” muttered the day-old Lw senior as he climbed up from psychology class. A satisfied, but further indescribable, sound indicated agreement with his point from those with him. They had all entered this class ex- pecting a boring introductory monologue— after all, there had to be some reason why this course was required. What they had gotten was a monologue, but far from boring. It’s Monday morning, September 19, 1960. The sun is shining, the sky blue, the track fast and clear. The weather forecast for tomor- row is much the same. The top ten tunes in the nation, according to one survey, are . . .” The information came flooding out, more and more pertinent as the sentences flowed on. The rapid pace and the dry wit became a trademark of psychology and theology classes both, and courses which had not been expected with utmost eagerness were thoroughly enjoyed. The source of all this fact and humor is Father John J. Scanlan, S. J., ' who has already completed a run of 676 weeks at Loyola and is currently booked for another season. Father got his start by answering questions in a Jesuit classroom at St. Joseph’s High School in Phila- delphia. He went on the road to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (the Jesuit Nov- itiate) and Woodstock, Md. (the Philosophate) . His first opportunity to ask questions of others came at Georgetown University, where he teas billed as a Regent. After completing his theological studies at Woodstock and taking the degree of Master of Arts at Fordham Uni- versity, Father came to Loyola in 1948, where, since 1952, he has had star billing as Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology. But Father Scanlan is more than a performer. He is also a consci- entious teacher and a dedicated priest. Although he does not press his students unduly, he does show them where they may profitably under- take extensive work in his course if they wish. Almost every class begins with a brief description of the load of books he has carried into class. He exhorts the students to -read widely for wisdom’s sake (and offers ‘‘bonus points” if they do) . The scope of Father’s teaching and priestly work extends far beyond the classroom. When a student of his, past or present, finds himself con- fronted with a problem of almost any variety, he is likely to think of Father Scanlan before any other as the man to help him solve it. The academic treatment of the sacrament of matrimony finds its intensely practical application in the Pre-Cana and Cana Conferences held at Loyola each year. Father really does enter the theater to be moderator of the dramatic society on campus and to organize the annual ‘‘Loyola Nite” variety show. This past year also saw him as technical adviser for a television program on Loyola College. Add to all the institutional duties which Father Scanlan performs the hours which he devotes to those who do, in fact, seek his help, and you see a man deep in the press of business. Analyze the prodigious volume of words which all this work produces, and you will find that being constantly engaged with others has not cost him the depth of religious understanding proper to his vocation, nor has his vocation kept him from maintaining a close personal touch with the world and the people around him. 6

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LIBERAL ARTS AND THE GRADUATE When high school seniors of 1957 read in the Loyola College catalog that it was a college of liberal arts, a frequent enough reaction was, “That’s all right; I don’t mind.’’ Now, as graduates of Loyola College, it seems that they do mind. by Walter F. Truszkowski T oday, the whole world is on a technological kick. Science has not only broached the microcosm of the atom but has sent satellites to probe the ver macrocosm of space, giving to man a superiority over nature never before experienced. Keeping in mind the accomplishments of empiri- cist thought and method, and turning one’s attention to the controversial field of education, the question might rise: What is the value or need of a liberal arts system of education? The persistence of those many educators who extol this system can best be appreci- ated when one has just completed a long stay in halls proudly dedicated to the pursuit of the liberal arts. I write personally of the value of a liberal educa- tion, as befits one whose training has been to be a person; yet, I do not write egotistically, as if the rec- ognition of these values were exclusive to myself. Rather, in the flush of new realization at the time of departing from the care of teachers and guides, I set down what, from conversations with other members ol the class of 1961 of Loyola College, I know to be thoughts widely enough held, but too soon to be for- gotten. As years slip by and the fruit of our education becomes more habitual and less explicit, we may relish the opportunity to look back at the way we felt at the time of commencement about what was past, yet was in large measure to determine our future. O ur own familiarity with liberal arts education was restricted to the particular form indigenous to a small part of North Baltimore from 1957 to 1961, but the tradition had been flourishing for long before our lour years’ contact with it and in places far re- mote from the Chesapeake and Patapsco. I he idea of liberal arts has its origins in Greece. It evolved from the teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. According to Plato, there were five liberal arts: grammar, geometry, astronomy, music, and phi- losophy. 1 his list remained fairly constant until, in the first century b. c;., Varro, a Roman scholar, re- vised and enlarged the list somewhat to include gram- mar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, music, architecture, and medicine. Again, in the fourth century a. d., the list was revised by Capella, who omitted architecture and medicine. The im- portant position that the liberal arts idea had in medieval schools, however, is due to the monk Cassi- odorus, whose treatise De art i bus et disciplinis liber- aliurn served as the guiding light in the education of monks and later shaped the system of education in the monastic and cathedral schools. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the list of Capella as per- petuated by Cassiodorus reached its most prominent application in the European universities. L iberal education derives its name from the fact that in republican Rome, tutelage stressing the disci- plines I have mentioned was offered only to the liberi or free-born. In the modern republic, however, the term has acquired a new connotation; indeed, it would be considered an insult to the bulk of the citizens of a free society for a few to claim for them- selves the privilege of the “free-born.” Today, we characterize as “liberal” an education based primarily on the humanities and whose object is not the trained technician but the mature human person, intellectu- ally alert, with mental horizons so broadened as to en- dow him with the greatest possible freedom in the choice of a subsequent career in life and the promise of excellence therein. Where lies the intrinsic value of such a system of education? This question can be answered only after a reflection upon the complexity of man and the yearning of man that all his needs and appetites be satisfied. Basically, man is social, political, and religious. When we say that man is by nature social, we mean that he has not only the need but also the desire and capability to communicate with his fellow men. To foster this linkage among men, he develops language to tie together all human experiences. He is political in that he relies upon political society to safeguard his natural familial aspirations and to help satisfy his need for freedom, both intellectual and physical, and to help him afford all the necessities ol social life. He is religious in that, if he gives himself to true in- 8