History
In 1960, Father George Ganss, a 55-year-old Jesuit priest and scholar, had an idea but he also had a problem.
Father Ganss was convinced that the intellectual and spiritual tradition that stemmed from the founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius of Loyola, could be a powerful tool in helping shape contemporary culture. The Graeco-Roman tradition had helped make us what we are; why could not the Ignatian one help make us what we ought to be?
The problem, however, was that in its written form the Ignatian tradition existed mostly in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and German. And how exactly do you make something like that available to people in the United States who for the most part know only English?
Simple enough -- theoretically. You translate the Ignatian tradition, or at least a good part of it, into English. And then you have it published and disseminated. Theoretically. Practically, however it is a little harder. Father Ganss thought that he could get that Jesuit source material translated (Jesuit scholars and others could be talked into doing that). But who was going to publish a lot of material that (let's face it) was not going to have a very large audience? Publishers, after all, are in business to make money. And small press runs cost a lot more money that they make.
One way out of this, of course, is to start your own publishing house. And that is precisely what Father Ganss did. He drew up a plan for a small, selective publishing house which would specialize in the Jesuit tradition and he presented that plan to Jesuit officials here in Rome. Out of that plan, the Institute of Jesuit Sources began in 1961. And from the Institute, over the last forty or so years, have emerged more that 80 books, all of them intended to make one or other aspect of the Jesuit spiritual and intellectual tradition available to the English speaking world.
These works include:
- books on Jesuit primary sources in English translation (the Jesuit Constitutions, for instance, or the letters of St. Francis Xavier, or the autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola);
- modern scholarly studies about the Jesuits in English translation (de Guibert's classic on Jesuit spirituality, Dalmases's lives of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Borgia are examples);
- original studies composed in English (Bangert's history of the Society of Jesus, Stanley's work on the Spiritual Exercises, Toner's four books on discernment are some of these);
- more popularly written studies on Jesuit topics (e.g., DeMello's Sadhana or Tetlow's handbook on the 19th-annotation retreat);
- books on prayer (Harter's popular Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits is one of these);
- writings of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the former Jesuit general;
- a group of publications in media other than print, e.g., CD-ROMs and Video Cassettes).
Father Ganss's idea outstripped his problem by quite a bit. If you doubt it, take a look at what the links below will show you!
The
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