I. Promoting Institution
Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy and Theology – FAJE
The Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy and Theology – FAJE, which unites the Ecclesiastical Faculties of Philosophy, established in 1941 in Nova Friburgo, RJ, and Theology, established in 1949 in São Leopoldo, RS, was founded in 1982, then called the Higher Studies Center of the Society of Jesus (CES). In 2005, with the new designation, it was officially recognized through Ordinance No. 3,383 of October 17, 2005 (Official Gazette of October 18, 2005). It educates Jesuits and students from diocesan clergy, religious congregations, and laypeople of both sexes and from various countries, offering bachelor’s, teaching, and master’s degrees in philosophy, and bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in theology. FAJE also provides specialization courses (Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Guidance; Theology for laypeople; Youth in the Contemporary World), in addition to various extension activities.
The Department of Theology can award both ecclesiastical and civil diplomas at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The main areas of research focus are Christian Praxis and Systematic Theology. The Department also publishes the journal Perspectiva Teológica.
II. Partner Institutions
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
The Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio, was founded in 1941 by Dom Sebastião Leme and Father Leonel Franca, SJ, and was officially recognized by Decree 8,681 of January 15, 1946. The Vatican Congregation for Seminaries conferred upon the university the title of Pontifical on January 20, 1947. It is a private, confessional institution inspired by the humanistic-Christian tradition of the Catholic Church, but it also has a community character, as it operates as a private, non-profit entity primarily focused on the production and transmission of knowledge, based on respect for human values and Christian ethics, aiming above all at benefiting society. It is an institution dedicated to teaching, research, and extension.
Within PUC-Rio, the Department of Theology (https://www.puc-rio.br/ensinopesq/ccg/teologia.html) serves as a center for critical reflection in service of the theological understanding of reality perceived through Christian faith. The studies are divided into two sections: Section A – Theology (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral); and Section B – Religious Culture (undergraduate). The Department also offers, at the extension level, the course Theological Initiation at a Distance, and is responsible for editing the journal Atualidade Teológica, which disseminates academic research.
Catholic University of Pernambuco
The Catholic University of Pernambuco – UNICAP (https://www.unicap.br/home/) began with the creation of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters Manoel da Nóbrega on April 18, 1943, and was formalized as a university on September 27, 1951. Located in the urban center of Recife, in the Boa Vista neighborhood, the university’s educational complex offers courses from elementary education to postgraduate stricto sensu studies. As a community-based, non-profit institution, its mission is to preserve, develop, and transmit knowledge, aiming to train individuals for constructive engagement in their community and region. This mission is achieved through the inseparability of teaching, research, and extension.
UNICAP is a regional theological reference through the activities of its Theology course (https://www.unicap.br/graduacao/pages/?page_id=231), whether in Teaching (Undergraduate) and Research, through various individual and team projects of the faculty in biblical, practical, and systematic areas, or in extension, with courses in Christian formation for laypeople, the hosting of Theological Study Weeks, and partnerships with the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife and other dioceses involving biblical-theological training projects.
University of the Sinos Valley
Founded in 1969, the University of the Sinos Valley – Unisinos – (https://www.unisinos.br/) is a Jesuit, private university headquartered in São Leopoldo, RS, with a presence in the three states of Southern Brazil, with campuses in São Leopoldo and Porto Alegre, and units in Caxias do Sul, Bento Gonçalves, Florianópolis, Rio Grande, and São Paulo, as well as EAD centers in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná. Maintained by the Antônio Vieira Association (ASAV), the university embraces the Jesuit educational project, aiming through teaching and research to benefit the human being in all dimensions, in an emancipatory process, through knowledge and dialogue, also characterized by the capacity to respond to the real needs of society.
Among its academic initiatives, the University hosts the Humanitas Unisinos Institute (IHU), a transdisciplinary body aimed at raising new questions and seeking answers to the great challenges of our time, from the perspective of Christian social humanism, participating actively and boldly in the cultural debate shaping the society of the future. Founded in September 2001, the IHU develops its reflection and action from five guiding areas: ethics, work, sustainable society, women: socio-cultural subject, and public theology. Through various activities such as symposia, colloquia, and transdisciplinary publications (printed and online), IHU aims to contribute to Unisinos’s mission of advancing the Society of Jesus’s mission of faith ministry, the promotion of justice, and the dialogue of cultural and inter-religious understanding. The IHU participates in the contemporary theological debate through the Public Theology Program, proposing a theology engaged in the debates developing in the public sphere of society and the university, open to dialogue with the sciences, culture, and religions. The program includes hosting events and publishing the Public Theology Notebooks, as well as interviews and news on the IHU website www.ihu.unisinos.br