In this paper I explore what Catholic feminist Ignatian spirituality can contribute to the conversation between faith and culture, conversation that is too often muddied by vague and superficial argument and by an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ attitude driven by extremes to which the majority do not belong. The secular and the religious spring from a common past, though they exist now within the nova effect of spiritualities available today in our modern Western or North Atlantic, “secular 3” world. The 500-year-old Ignatian Exercises can be a coherent voice speaking in the cacophony of the contemporary context especially when a feminist lens is used to expand them in a more comprehensive way by applying classic feminist thought on anthropology, names of God, embodiment, and the ontological centrality of relationship to human existence. This application of a feminist hermeneutic helps us explore human reality more fully – a reality that is “irreducibly plural and not merely hierarchically dualistic.” This, in turn, helps us communicate the Exercises and a truer, deeper Christianity, than contemporary conversation typically allows. I map out the basic structure and purpose of the Exercises and offer examples of a feminist retrieval of a variety of meditations and contemplations from the “weeks” of the Exercises to illustrate how this retrieval does not negate traditional interpretation of scripture but expands it for the benefit of all – Christian and non-Christian alike. The Ignatian Exercises address questions we all ask – they help one to “play the game of the truth of existence” and to reach both inward and then outward toward neighbor and world. The bridge I am attempting to build between faith and culture is made up of the Exercises as a grounded answer to the yearning in this unbelieving world that is, nevertheless, still haunted by belief. The feminist lens is the car that drives us over that bridge.

No description available.

English abstract The present dissertation Spirituality of Presence: the Significance of R. Voillaume s Work focuses on the life and work of R. Voillaume (1905-2003). His work is understood as spirituality of presence , or to be more precise of double presence: presence to God and presence to man. After the introductory part dealing with Voillaume s life, historical context and a survey of his work, the dissertation continues with an analysis of his literary work. The main theme is a relecture of Foucauld s spirituality of Nazareth in the light of the mentioned concept of presence: the hidden and silent presence in the midst of men refers not only to the significance of hidden life in Catholic spirituality, it also points out to the deep openness to the situation of modern man and to the search of an authentic Christian life as a life of presence trying to make the life of faith accessible to a contemporary man in a creative and nonconformist way. The conclusion puts Foucauldian spirituality (whose main interpreter is R. Voillaume) into the context of Catholic spirituality and confronts his spirituality of presence with the findings of biblical theology. Theoretically, the dissertation combines personalistic and systematic approaches. Voillaume s work is understood as a major manifestation of Catholic...