Following the closure of Heythrop College at the end of this academic year, the Jesuit-run college library is to be relocated to the University of London’s Senate House Library.
Under an agreement between the Jesuits in Britain and the University of London, Heythrop’s collection of more than 250,000 books and bound volumes of periodicals, widely regarded as one of the finest collections of theology and philosophy in the UK, will be accessible onsite and, for the first time, online, for members of the Senate Library from October 2018.
The books, currently located in Kensington Square, are being transferred to a depository in Ruislip used by Senate House Library to ensure the collection is properly housed and conserved as a whole.
Fr Damian Howard SJ, Jesuit provincial, said on 2 July: “I am delighted that the University of London, an institution with which Heythrop College has had a long and happy partnership, is able to accommodate this significant collection. The Library will be maintained as a valuable and up-to-date resource accessible to members of the Church and of the academy.” A small proportion of rare books will, after September 2018, be located at Campion Hall, the Jesuit permanent private hall of the University of Oxford.
Campion Hall is also to house a new research institute called the Laudato Si’ Institute (LSI), Jesuits in Britain announced on 2 July.
The LSI, due to be formally opened in September 2019, will aim to foster interdisciplinary research arising out of the intellectual challenges presented by Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, while remaining faithful to Ignatian traditions and reflective practice. Professor Celia Deane-Drummond, Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing at the University of Notre Dame, USA, will be the inaugural Director.
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