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Contents

Roger Dawson and Nicholas Austin

The Consolation of Character Strength in Ignatian Spirituality and Positive Psychology

The rediscovery of individual retreat direction in the 1970s owed much to contemporary developments in non-directive counselling. Here, Roger Dawson and Nicholas Austin argue that Ignatian spirituality today might similarly benefit from looking at work now being done in the field of positive psychology.

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Janet Ruffing

A Contemporary Experience with the Rules for Almsgiving

Towards the end of his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius includes a number of sets of practical guidelines that can be applied in everyday life after the retreat. One of these, the Rules for Almsgiving, is often overlooked. Janet Ruffing describes how she accompanied someone who was working intensively with these, and his experience of consolation in being drawn to share with those who have less than he himself does.

Nicolas Standaert

What Ignatius Did Not Know about Making Decisions

One of the key moments in making the Spiritual Exercises can be that of the ‘election’, or choice of a way of life. Nicolas Standaert shows here how this process is necessarily more complex that it was in the sixteenth century, when Ignatius wrote. In response to this complexity, he offers a range of insights from current psychological research on decision-making.

Chikere Ugwuanyi

Adaptations of the Spiritual Exercises: An Example from Africa

The July 2013 special issue of The Way considered the topic of African Spirituality, presenting papers from a conference held in South Africa. In another contribution from that conference, Chikere Ugwuyani shows how the cultures and even the landscapes of Africa can and often should shape the experience of the Spiritual Exercises as they are presented on that continent.

Kathleen Fischer

Steadfast Kindness: Ignatian Spirituality for Caregivers

Many people will find themselves, at some period in their lives, caring for family members or friends who, through age or illness, are unable to fend for themselves. The question of how such care-givers can best be supported has become an urgent one. Kathleen Fischer describes resources to be found in Ignatian spirituality that have much to offer here.

Eric Jensen

The Spanish Autograph or The Latin Vulgate? A Return to the Sources of the Spiritual Exercises

Eric Jensen compares two early versions of the text of the Spiritual Exercises. Rather than favouring one at the expense of the other, he suggests that the two can best be seen as complementary, and that Ignatius himself employed them in this way. Contemporary spiritual directors would therefore do well to be familiar with both.

Richard J. Wolff

Ignatian Spirituality and the Order Of Malta

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, a group more familiarly known as the Knights of Malta, is a unique religious lay order with its roots in the eleventh century. Its spirituality has always been eclectic, drawing on Augustinian, Benedictine, and other traditions. Richard Wolff suggests that Ignatius’s own military background means that his spirituality may have something important for the Order today.

Ignacio Iglesias

In Time of Consolation One Should Make Change: The Underlying Message of the Fifth Rule fortThe Discernment of Spirits

Ignacio Iglesias, who died in 2009, was one of the key figures in the development of Ignatian spirituality in the second half of the twentieth century. Here we present a translation of an article, first published in Manresa, concerning Ignatius’s teaching on times when it is good to make, and to avoid making, a decision.

Joseph A. Munitiz

Ignacio Iglesias: An Ignatian Enthusiast

Here Joseph Munitiz, a member of The Way’s editorial board, reviews a recently-published collection of essays by Ignacio Iglesias, and in doing so puts Iglesias’s own article in context. Munitiz presents Iglesias as the one chiefly responsible for launching the whole current revival in the study of the Exercises in Spain, which has resulted in the authoritative Diccionario de la Espiritualidad Ignaciana.

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THE WAY IGNATIAN BOOK SERVICE

Nicholas King SJ, The Helplessness of God

Many people are uncomfortable with the way in which leadership has been exercised within Christianity, and in this book Nicholas King looks at what the Bible tells us about the exercise of authority. The message is that human beings, with the exception of Jesus, always get it wrong, unless they are prepared to ‘lead by listening’ or exercise authority as an act of loving service. For the only absolute authority is God. Why speak of ‘the helplessness of God’? Because God is voluntarily dependent on our response, helpless until we make our decision, and will not force us to choose our own good. God’s love is never tyrannical, always utterly respectful of human freedom. That must be the way ahead for authority in the Church. Price: £14.99 ISBN: 978 1 8486 7715 9

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