THE WAY a Review of Christian Spirituality Published by the British Jesuits

THE WAY a review of Christian spirituality published by the British Jesuits July 2004 Volume 43, Number 3 MOVEMENTS OF THE SPIRITS Satan Tempting Christ to Change Stones into Bread by Rembrandt THE WAY July 2004 The Office of Consoling 7-18 José A. García For Ignatius, the risen Christ ‘consoles’ his friends. José García explores the links between Ignatian consolation and the Easter experience of the first disciples. Spiritual Desolation in Today's World 19-34 Jesús Corella An overview of what Ignatius says about desolation, followed by some reflections on how desolation influences our contemporary culture. What We Learn From Desolation 35-48 Antonio Guillén A commentary on the ninth of Ignatius’ First Week Discernment Rules, exploring the various good things that can come from desolation. From the Ignatian Tradition On Consolation 49-55 Jerónimo Nadal One of Ignatius’ closest confidants on consolation, on ministry and on discernment. Spiritual Consolation and Envy 57-69 Ignacio Iglesias Consolation can easily be disrupted in good people, and one frequent manifestation of such disruption is envy, a besetting sin of religious establishments. Ignacio Iglesias charts this process, and also the possibilities for new regeneration. Angels of Light and Darkness 71-79 Ignatius Jesudasan Ignatius’ rhetoric of light and darkness is dualist, and as such problematic. Angels as the ‘voice of God’ may be nothing more than the internalised voice of the prevailing social order. THE WAY July 2004 The Spirit in Contemporary Culture Religious Symbols in State Institutions 80-93 Anthony Carroll Is it right that crucifixes may be displayed in schools funded by the State? Is it appropriate for Muslim women who are civil employees to wear the headscarf on duty? Such issues have recently led to conflict in a number of countries. Tony Carroll here explores how a balance can be struck between tolerance and social cohesion. Reducing Yourself to Zero: Jean Sulivan’s Anticipate 95-105 Every Goodbye Eamon Maher As France became a fully secular society, the discovery of God came to be a marginal, fragmentary affair. Eamon Maher explores how these changes are reflected in the work of Jean Sulivan (1913-1980), the French priest and writer. Theological Trends Without Justification? The Catholic-Lutheran Joint 106-118 Declaration and its Protestant Critics Iain Taylor In 1999, the Catholic and Lutheran Churches published a Joint Declaration proclaiming considerable convergence on the doctrine of justification, commonly thought to be the central point of dispute at the Reformation. But many Lutheran theologians have felt that the Declaration fails to do justice to Protestant concerns. Book Reviews Elizabeth Liebert on Jerónimo Nadal and engravings of gospel scenes Frances Makower on Patrick Purnell’s new collection of poems, Imagine Clarence Gallagher on official Roman Catholic teaching regarding homosexuality John O’Donnell on an important new book about contemplative prayer William Hewett on James Alison’s new collection of Girardian essays THE WAY July 2004 William Harmless on Evagrius of Pontus, a great figure from early Christianity Paul Nicholson looking at some Irish essays on social spirituality Tim Curtis on parish priests, and their needs and aspiriations Margaret Benefiel on a new study of group spirituality Martin Poulsom on the Salesian tradition Bonnie Thurston on how Mary Magdalene was marginalised in early Christianity John Moffatt on interpreting the Bible Christopher Viscardi on the seminal Puritan figure, Jonathan Edwards Brian Daley on John of Damascus Valerie A. Lesniak on ecology and transformation Philip Endean on a study of holiness by John Webster, the eminent Protestant theologian FOR AUTHORS The Way warmly invites readers to submit articles with a view to publication. They should normally be about 4,000 words long, and be in keeping with the journal’s aims. The Editor is always ready to discuss possible ideas. Further details can be found on The Way’s website, www.theway.org.uk. The Special Number for 2005, marking the centenary of the theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1980), will be entitled Spirituality, Tradition and Beauty. Contributions around that title will be especially welcome. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The articles by José A. García, Jesús Corella, Antonio Guillén and Ignacio Iglesias were all first published in Manresa, and are presented here by kind permission of the editors. Translations: Philip Endean SJ. Illustrations: www.visipix.com (pp.12,23,28,33,63,72,75,113); Peter Brook SJ (pp.37,38,91); the Institute of Jesuit Sources (p.51); l’Association des amis de Jean Sulivan (p.98). FOREWORD EDITATION ON GOD’S WORD now seems so central to Christianity Mthat we can easily forget how much that practice depends on an invention of early modernity: the printing press. Ignatius and the classical Reformers lived in the first generation for whom the printed word was an everyday reality. Perhaps it is no coincidence that they both now appear as harbingers of a new form of religious consciousness. Both discovered in the printed text a divine Word, confronting their guilt and ambiguities with an experience of grace as wholly other, as undeserved, as beyond our control. One effect of their discoveries was a split within Western Christianity over how this experience was to be understood and over what it implied about the relationship between the individual and Church authority. But one factor was common: a sharpened sense of the self as somehow essentially dialogical, essentially in confrontation: It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) Ignatius called this kind of experience of the sheer grace of God ‘consolation’, and constrasted it with the ‘desolation’ that results from self-obsession and self-absorption. This issue of The Way centres on four acclaimed articles first published last year in Spanish by our sister journal, Manresa, and here reproduced in slightly adapted form.1 They explore how people today experience consolation and desolation, in a society and in a Church far different from anything that Ignatius could imagine. They bring out the links in Ignatius’ mind between consolation and the disciples’ Easter experience, and they remind us that desolation, too, can lead to growth and to new life. Alongside these four pieces from Spain, we have a provocative piece from Ignatius Jesudasan, noted for his Gandhian theology of liberation, pointing to the limitations of Ignatius’ dualist ways of thinking. We also 1 It goes without saying that we are most grateful to the Editors for their kind permission to produce this English version, and to the authors for their help with the translation and adaptation process. The Way, 43/3 (July 2004), 5-6 2 Foreword have some testimony from Jerónimo Nadal, one of Ignatius’ closest collaborators, about his own experience of consolation. José A. García’s article ends by reminding us that the joy and integrity characteristic of consolation can be found far beyond what we conventionally regard as spiritual. Thus it is fitting that this issue also carries two spiritual explorations of contemporary society. Eamon Maher introduces us to the work of the French priest and novelist Jean Sulivan, which is marked by a sharp sensitivity to the realities of secularisation. Tony Carroll brings us up to date with some of the current debates about the presence of religious symbols in public institutions, and suggests some helpful ways forward. Our final article, however, again has a sixteenth-century focus. Iain Taylor explains why not all Protestant theologians share the view that the debates about grace and justification at the Reformation are a thing of the past. As we listen respectfully to that perhaps uncomfortable reminder, we can also be struck by convergences. Eberhard Jüngel insists that justification, the two-edged confrontation of the self with the free grace of God, is not just one doctrine among others, but rather the foundation of all Christianity and all theology. We are not far here from the conviction of our Spanish authors: consolation is a free gift to be freely handed on, and any attempt to arrogate it for ourselves perverts our whole commitment. Perhaps a spirituality centred on the experience of the wholly other God is in the end a spirituality specific to modernity. Feminism, ecological awareness, sensitivity to the grace of God outside Christianity—all these factors may be leading us decisively beyond the spiritualities inaugurated in the sixteenth century. Just as the printing press led to one revolution in religious consciousness, perhaps telecommunications and the internet are provoking another, and our spiritual future is indeed radically different. Yet even if that claim is true, there is more to this number of The Way than idle nostalgia. If we are to reconceive our discipleship decisively, an awareness of our past is the first step towards freedom from it. But then again, perhaps it is not a question of abolition but of fulfilment. Perhaps the spirituality for a postmodern world will not, after all, set aside what we have inherited both from Ignatius and (in their way) from the great Reformers. Perhaps, rather, it will set religious modernity’s sense of the spirits’ movements within richer, more inclusive contexts. Philip Endean SJ THE OFFICE OF CONSOLING José A. García Look at the office of consoling which Christ our Lord sustains, and comparing how friends normally console each other. (Exx 224) MONG THE ‘MOST HOLY EFFECTS’ (Exx 223) that the Risen Christ A brings about in his disciples is a central Ignatian reality: consolation. Ignatius seems to see a continuity between the effect of the Risen Christ on his disciples, as he restores their sense of joy, vocation and mission after the disaster of the cross, and the movement of the Spirit in any retreat.

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