The Dialectic of the Spiritual Exercisesof St. Ignatius of Loyola

✍ Scribed by Gaston Fessard S.J.

• Publisher: Jesuit Studies
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 411
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Gaston Fessard, S.J. (1897-1978), was a major mid-twentieth century French intellectual. He was a Hegel expert, but also wrote on issues of the day ranging from the Vichy regime to Christian-Marxist dialogue. The product of several decades of reflection, Fessard's work on the Dialectic of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola is the only one of its kind, a careful and penetrating study into the structure and tension of life-changing choices that Ignatius had in mind in his four week spiritual exercises. The Exercises insist on the way of making a spiritual Election, or choice in keeping with God's will for oneself and for the Christian community at a particular moment in one's existence"--

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Thoughts on the Dialectic of the Spiritual Exercises
Figures
Preface
Postscript to the Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Division of the Exercises
1 How to Make the Four Weeks Coincide with the Three Ways?
2 Deduction of the Divisions of the Exercises
Part 1 Before the Act of Freedom
Chapter 2 Positing Non-being: Week One
Chapter 3 Negation of the Positing of Non-being: Week Two
1 The Three Degrees of Humility
Part 2 Passage from the Before to the After
Introduction to Part 2
Chapter 4 The Election
1 Preamble to the Election
2 Introduction concerning the Things about Which Election Must Be Made
3 The Three Times of the Election
3.1 First Time
3.2 Second Time
3.3 Third Time
4 Two Ways of Making Election in the Third Time (Numbers 178–188)
4.1 First Way (Numbers 178–183)
4.2 Second Way (Numbers 184–188)
5 For the Amendment and Reform of One’s Own Life and Condition (Number 189)
Part 3 After the Act of Freedom
Introduction to Part 3
Chapter 5 Exclusion of All Non-being: Third Week
1 The Growth of the Exclusion of Non-being
2 Passage from the Third to the Fourth Moment: Triduum Mortis
3 Application to the Act of Freedom
Chapter 6 Positing of Being: Fourth Week
1 Application to the Act of Freedom
2 Growth of the Positing of the Being
3 The Disappearance of the Positing of Being: Ascension
Conclusion The Contemplatio Ad Amorem Obtinendum
1 First Point
2 Second Point
3 Third Point
4 Fourth Point
5 Suscipe
Circularity of the Exercises and Circularity of Absolute Knowledge: From Ignatius to Hegel through Hölderlin
Afterword
1 Essay on Constructing a Geometrical Scheme of the Exercises
1.1 Fundamental Images
1.2 Design of the Four Weeks
1.3 Design of the Contemplation ad Amorem
1.4 Ignatian Mysticism and Intellectualist Mysticisms
2 Division of the Exercises
3 Perspectives
Appendix Rules for the Discernment of Spirits
1 Rules for the First Week (Numbers 313–327)
1.1 Rules 1 and 2: The Double Existential Situation of the Self (Numbers 314 and 315)
1.2 Rules 2 and 3: Definition of Consolation and Desolation (Numbers 315 and 316)
1.3 Rules 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9: Tactic to Follow in Desolation
1.4 Rules 10 and 11: Tactic to Follow in Consolation
1.5 Rules 12, 13, and 14: The Devil’s Tactic (Numbers 325, 326, and 327)
2 Rules for the Second Week (Numbers 328–336)
2.1 Rule 1: Specifications about Consolation (Number 329)
2.2 Rule 2: Consolation without Prior Cause (Number 330)
2.3 Rule 3: Consolation Caused by Spirits (Number 331)
2.4 Rule 4: False Consolation (Number 332)
2.5 Rule 5: Discernment of False Consolation (Number 333)
2.6 Rule 6: After the Discernment of False Consolation (Number 334)
2.7 Rule 7: Contrary Modes of Action of the Spirits (Number 335)
2.8 Rule 8: The Time That Follows Consolation without Cause (Number 336)
Further Study of the Ignatian Maxim
Haec sit prima agendorum regula: sic Deo fide, quasi rerum successus omnis a te, nihil a Deo penderet; ita tamen iis omnem operam admove, quasi tu nihil, Deus omnia solus sit facturus
Section 1: Sources of the Traditional Maxim
Section 2: Structure of Maxim Number 2
2.1 Point of Departure of the Objections
2.2 Incoherent Propositions or Dialectical Propositions?
2.3 Formula B and the Kieckens Translation
2.4 Dialectical Structure and the Role of Quasi
2.5 Critique of Formula B: Role of Sic and Ita
2.6 Placement of the Imperative and Order of the Subordinate Clause
2.7 Formula C and the Meaning of Subordinate Clauses
2.8 Formula A and the Proof by Negativity
2.9 Conclusion: The Traditional Maxim and the Exercises
Section 3: The Objections against the Traditional Maxim
Section 4: The Secret of These Objections
Figures
Figures 1–10
Figures 14–19
Figures 20–29
Elogium Sepulcrale
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Terms