Abstract

Devotion and knowledge, pietas and eruditio, form a binomial idea which belongs to the tradition of the Society of Jesus. This idea was already important at the University of Paris when Ignatius and his companions studiedthere. Nevertheless, they gave an original interpretation to pietas in line with what Ignatius had already discovered in his own existence: devotion is not only a purely interior attitude but also a deeply apostolic one. From the binomial idea pietas-eruditio, and from its subsequent more precise articulation, the study of theology in the Society draws out particular conclusions which are faithful to tradition and at the same time attentive to the new issues of a complex world requiring highly qualified and competent teaching. Theology in the Society is itself an apostolic enterprise