Loyola's God and Descartes's Method: The Role of the Spiritual Exercises in Modernity and Secularization
This article contrasts Saint Augustine's role in the creation of the Church's theological dogma to Loyola's modern gesture of independence vis-à-vis the Church. It then traces Loyola's method to the core that grounds Descartes' philosophical works. This core, I claim, is der...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
Philosophy Documentation Center
2022
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In: |
Philosophy & theology
Year: 2022, Volume: 34, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 3-28 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ignacio, de Loyola 1491-1556, Exercitia spiritualia
/ Reception
/ Descartes, René 1596-1650
/ Method
/ Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint 354-430
/ Secularization
/ The Modern
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IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality CH Christianity and Society KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history VA Philosophy |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | This article contrasts Saint Augustine's role in the creation of the Church's theological dogma to Loyola's modern gesture of independence vis-à-vis the Church. It then traces Loyola's method to the core that grounds Descartes' philosophical works. This core, I claim, is derived from Descartes' understanding and imitation of the Spiritual Exercises. The Exercises obviate the Church by making it redundant, unnecessary. From this disavowal and distancing, Loyola gives the exercitant the psychological tools to emerge from the Exercises with a strong, new sense of self that with time will transform the institution from within. In Descartes' case, the moral subject capable of responding to the question of what God wants (the product of the Exercises) is displaced by the epistemological certainty necessary to create a new "Method" to study and understand the world. |
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ISSN: | 2153-828X |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Philosophy & theology
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/philtheol2023321154 |