Liberal Arts Education and the Jesuit Catholic Mission: The Case of Sophia University, Japan

Abstract

This chapter aims to delineate the significance of liberal arts education in the context of the Jesuit Catholic mission at Sophia University, Japan, with its long centenarian history. Sophia University’s liberal arts education is based on Christian humanism and Jesuit education. All students of the nine faculties of the university are required to take a class of Christianity and Human Development Studies as part of their graduation requirements, and the Catholic mission is visibly reflected throughout educational programs and research activities. This chapter starts with a discussion of the relationship between Jesuit Catholic education and liberal arts education. It is followed by describing Sophia’s international programs within the Faculty of Liberal Arts, which has a long history of English-medium liberal arts program in Japan, dating back to 1949, and the new programs by Sophia Initiative for Education and Discovery (SIED) and the Center for Global Discovery (CGD). The program’s significance is discussed from a viewpoint of global citizenship education (GCED), one of the goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the increasingly global society. The final section of the chapter deals with challenges and tasks ahead that Sophia’s liberal arts education has to yet to address in the future.