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Rev.
Joseph Bracken, SJ
 As
I reflect on my career as a teacher and writer, I realize that it
probably would not have turned out so well if I had not chosen to
become a Jesuit and been sent by superiors to do doctoral work after
ordination at the University of Freiburg in then West Germany. That
academic training both at West Baden and in Germany gave me the
mental tools that I needed to start writing for publication. Naturally,
if I had not chosen to become a Jesuit, I might still have chosen
an academic career, but the likelihood of going to Germany for doctoral
work would have been very remote. Furthermore, over the years I
have come to realize that the celibate life has allowed me to focus
on quite sophisticated issues in speculative philosophy and theology
which would have been much more difficult to encompass if I had
chosen to marry and raise a family, with all the pragmatic concerns
and worries inevitably attendant thereon. Hence, probably the single
biggest reason why I have been relatively successful in writing
for publication in philosophy and theology is that the Jesuit life-style
has allowed me to cultivate those intellectual interests which were
still unknown to me at the time of my entrance into the Society
of Jesus. Naturally, I sacrificed other values in not choosing to
become a husband and father. But, given the way things have turned
out, I feel that it was the work of Divine Providence in steering
me into the Society at an early age. Being a Jesuit has allowed
me to cultivate a talent which otherwise might never have been developed
and utilized.
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