Fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center

The Dynamism of Desire:
Bernard Lonergan sj on the Spiritual Exercises
of St Ignatius Loyola

Institute of Jesuit Sources, Saint Louis (Missouri) 2007, 492 pages

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola have been continuously in print for 450 years. How to explain, in human terms, the secret of its remarkable success? Father Bernard J. F. Lonergan SJ, one of the foremost Catholic theologians and philosophers of the twentieth century, once cryptically remarked, 'Thoroughly understand understanding, and you... will understand the broad lines of all that is to be understood.' Now, Saint Ignatius was a mystic who was also a master psychologist. This book contends that applying Lonergan's 'understanding of understanding' reveals how Ignatius hit upon the inbuilt dynamism of the human spirit toward authenticity and self transcendence when he suggested ways to respond to God's loving initiative. The book of the Exercises is, in Lonergan's words, a practical manual providing a method of cooperating with grace. The strategic method of 'exercises' provides, not a set of rules to be blindly followed, but rather a framework for creativity. Indeed, the Spiritual Exercises promote a creative (attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible) acceptance of the gift of God's love poured out in the human heart by the Holy Spirit.