Renewing Theology: Ignatian Spirituality and Karl Rahner, Ignacio Ellacuria, and Pope Francis

This book investigates the role of Ignatian spirituality in the renewal of academic theology by examining the theologies of three prominent Jesuits: Karl Rahner, Ignacio Ellacuría, and Pope Francis. It shows how their responses to the challenges of modernity are uniquely nourished and illuminated by themes constitutive of Ignatian spirituality, offering new avenues into understanding their theologies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 22 July 2022
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press

This extensive study explores the significant contribution of Ignatian spirituality to the renewal of academic theology through the examination of three prominent Jesuits as case studies. Throughout centuries, spirituality has gradually emerged as a distinct field of inquiry, often treated separately from academic theology, as if there was minimal connection between the two. This raises a crucial question for us today: How does spirituality relate to the practice of theology? In Renewing Theology, J. Matthew Ashley offers a comprehensive answer by delving into Ignatian spirituality and its influence on three renowned twentieth-century theologians: Karl Rahner, Ignacio Ellacuría, and Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis.

Ashley begins his exploration by tracing the historical roots of the growing divide between spirituality and academic theology in the Christian West. He provides an initial overview of Ignatian spirituality, highlighting the openness and multidimensionality of Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, presented here as a text that reflects the conditions of modernity that shaped its authors' world, even incipiently.

Next, Ashley presents three case studies to demonstrate how each Jesuit, Rahner, Ellacuría, and Pope Francis, responded to the challenges of modernity in a way that is uniquely nourished and illuminated by themes fundamental to Ignatian spirituality. Through these case studies, Ashley suggests that the theologies of these three individuals exhibit a particular clarity and force when the Ignatian spirituality that animates them is brought to the forefront. This insightful and enlightening book will appeal to scholars and students of systematic theology, as well as readers who are interested in exploring the rich tapestry of theological thought.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780268203177