Chapter

Spanish Mysticism and Religious Renewal: Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises Ignatian Mysticism? Teresa of Avila Teresa's Opponents and the Jesuits Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle John of the Cross John of the Cross 's “Dark Night” Conclusion References

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Article
A STRIKING PARADOX confronts any attempt to assess the place of the Church in early Ignatian spirituality.* This spirituality has ex-erted an important influence upon the Church over the past centuries, yet paradoxically the reading of the Spiritual Exercises themselves, their meaning and their influence upon Catholic piety, has terminated in very different and mutually exclusive conclusions. Qn the one hand, so perceptive a philosopher of religion as Baron Friedrich von Hügel maintained that among the elements in authentic religion, the Jesuit heritage has placed its greatest weight upon the institutional, with the commensurate emphasis upon authority, submission, and obedience that emerges from such an orientation. 1 On the other hand, so heavily has the individual and the ascetical been accented in the standard commentaries on the Exercises, maintained Burkhart Schneider, that one must take issue with Lilly Zarncke and any number of traditional commentators to protest as a counterthesis that the Exercises are deeply concerned with the Church, that they "are not exclusively con-cerned with the single human being and his or her personal destiny." Schneider pays tribute to Hugo Rahner who "brought back to aware-ness the complete meaning of the Exercises and especially the central place the Church occupies within them." 2 Emphatically institutional or emphatically individualistic or something in between, what is the place occupied by the hierarchical or institutional Church in the Spir-itual Exercises? At a period such as ours, one that celebrates New Age spirituality and witnesses the alienation of so many intellectuals from institu-tional religion, such a question is by no means simply academic nor is its resolution an abstract exercise. Institutions and their use of au- 140-41.
“Ignatian Contemplation and the Contemplative Way.”
  • Demoustier Adrien
“‘Our Lady’ and the Graces of the Fourth Week.”
  • Endean Philip
“The Contemplative Phase of the Ignatian Exercises.”
  • Jalics Franz
“Methods for Sancho Panza: Henri Brémond and the Interpretation of the Ignatian Exercises.”
  • Salin Dominique
Negative Way.” New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality
  • Egan Harvey
Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings
  • Saint Ignatius of Loyola
  • Joseph A. Munitiz
“Quo Vadis? Reflections on the Current Study of Mysticism.”
  • McGinn Bernard
The Vision of St. Ignatius in the Chapel of La Storta
  • Hugo Rahner
  • Robert O. Brennan
A Literary History of Religious Thought in France from the Wars of Religion Down to Our Own Times
  • Henri Brémond
John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood
  • Edward Howells
A Commentary on St. Ignatius' Rules for the Discernment of Spirits
  • Jules J. Toner
“The Limitations of Ignatian Prayer.”
  • Houdek Frank J.
The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross
  • Iain Matthew
“Union with God in the Ignatian Election.”
  • Robert Sylvie
“Finding God in All Things: Christian Contemplation and the Ignatian Exercises.”
  • Sudbrack Josef
“The Concept of Ignatian Mysticism.”
  • Endean Philip