Institute of Religion faculty member Associate Professor Dr. Arvin Eballo was recently awarded a fellowship by the Mendel Fellowship Committee
of the Lilly Library in Indiana University, United States of America.
Eballo is currently working on his research titled: “Reconstructing the Ancient Katagalugan Worldview toward Nation-Building by Revisiting the Old Catechetical Manuscripts.”
The research aims to revisit, reflect and reclaim the pre-colonial Katagalugan worldview in order to heal the famously coined ‘damaged culture’ of the Philippines due to the many external influences that came to the country over the last four hundred years. Part of the research objective is to reestablish the long lost uniqueness and originality of
the Filipino identity and culture before the colonial
eras. Thus, the sitting board of the Mendel Committee decided to award the fellowship to Eballo because of the promising output that the research aspires for especially with regard to nation-building.
Aside from the fellowship, Eballo is granted access to the Mendel ollections of the Lilly Library which houses some important and extant Filipino catechetical books, materials and documents that were used by the early missionaries in the Philippines to Christianize the natives. These materials are said to contain essential information in understanding Filipino pre-colonial worldview as the missionaries utilized the language and culture in incorporating doctrinal tenets of the Catholic Faith. These collections were from the different libraries and archives of the major religious orders
in Intramuros which were then looted by the British army
after the Spanish soldiers defeated them in 1764.
