The Study of Rizal:

Historical – Critical
Approach
 Taking up Rizal course for credits, like reading
Shakespeare to get by in English courses, can be
tiresome business for the youth. If reading and
discussing the texts cannot be fun but boring. Rizal
will be nothing more than a label for beds,
matches, cements, and corporations.

Cristobal, Adrian
Redacting Rizal: 2004
 Giveinstances that will show
how you can manifest your
love for your country?
 Rizal: Human and Hero
 Reverence without understanding is for deities, not
flesh and blood heroes like Rizal. Hero-worship must be
both historical-critical.” (Ocampo: 1969)
 We must view Rizal as an evolving personality within an
evolving historical period.
 Rizal was capable of unraveling the myths that were
woven by the oppressors of his time, but he would have
been at a loss to see through the more sophisticated
myths and recognize the subtle techniques of present-
day colonialist, given the state of his knowledge and
experience at that time.
 Rizal: Human and Hero
 Many of his social criticisms are still valid today
because certain aspect of out life is still carry-over of
the feudal and colonial society of his time.
 To be able to appreciate a hero for that matter, we
must be able to to learn more about him – not
merely his acts but the thoughts behind his acts, his
reasons, the situation he found himself in as well as
his motivations.
 “If Rizal is treated like God, he becomes unattainable
and his accomplishments inhuman.” (Cristobal, 2004)
State the best sacrifice that
you have done or can do for
your family
Rizal: An example of Sacrifice
 Our national hero was a man of peace with a
vision.
 Rizal suffered as much as his countrymen.
 He was the spark that gave birth to Philippine
pride for one’s country and people.
 Yet all he wanted for his people was that they
educate themselves so that they could stand as
free men and face the world with head held
high.
“Whatever our condition might be then, let
us love our country always and let us wish
nothing but her welfare. Thus we shall labor
in conformity with the purpose of humanity
dictated by God which is the harmony and
universal peace of His creations”
Letter of Rizal to Dr. Ferdinand
Blumentritt
“Rizal Ideas are responses in
the challenges of the new
millennium”

- Ambassador Edmundo Libid

Rizal: A Modern Day Hero
by Cornelius Mondoy
(1997)
Give three reasons why Rizal
is considered a modern-day
hero
 According to Nick Joaquin, Rizal was
greatly aggrieved by his physique.
 It is his feelings of inadequacy that made
him dynamic and he continually looked for
ways to be better than others.
 Rizal's determination to excel in as many
fields as possible was to show the world
that he was capable, that he was as tall as
the next man.
 “There is a need for a rededication to the
ideals of freedom and nationalism for our
heroes who lived and died.”
 From a weak, frail child, Jose Rizal rose to
become one of the tallest men in history.
Give at least three virtues
of Jose Rizal which are
worth emulating.