The Role of the Imagination in Whole Person Education: Creativity, Empowerment, and Transformation

This paper makes a case for expanding the role of the imagination in whole person education. Imagination, grounded in faith, serves the promotion of justice. The paper explains why creativity and personal empowerment are important for ethics education. It then describes some strategies for and outcomes of cultivating creativity and empowerment in business ethics classes. These strategies evolved over time to deepen an authentically Ignatian approach to ethics education. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the value and potential for applying the uniquely Ignatian imagination to ethics education at a Jesuit university. The Ignatian imagination originates in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius and may harmonize with Catholic Social Teaching in “the service of faith and the promotion of justice (GC 32).” The very structure of the paper exhibits an application of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm to the author’s own learning as a teacher.