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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Valle, Ivonne del (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Philosophy Documentation Center 2022
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
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
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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.
ISSN:2153-828X
Contains:Enthalten in: Philosophy & theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5840/philtheol2023321154