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Book: A Modern Scriptural Approach to the Spiritual Exercises Author: David M. Stanley, S.J. Loyola Press, Chicago, pp.358 Excerpt from Introduction: The purpose of this book may appear to be a fairly grandiose one: to provide some exemplification of the way in which the twentieth century achievements of biblical scholarship may be pressed into service in giving the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to men of the present day. The work of the Form critics, the valid insights operative in Rudolf Bultman’s attempts at “demythologizing” the Gospels, and the more theological preoccupations of the Redaktionsgeschichtliche school are all laid under contribution. Yet, this project has been undertaken not as any mere tour de force, but rather out of the conviction that, if the Spiritual Exercises are to fulfill the formative role in the spirituality of contemporary man which they certainly exercised upon countless Renaissance men, they should become instinct with that spirit of aggiornamento which Pope John has made the touchstone of modern Catholic orthodoxy. Excerpt from Book: From the biblical view, nothing can exist without a name. Accordingly in the opening chapter of the book of Genesis, the sacred writer represents his God, the God of Israel, as naming the various elements in the universe that they might begin to exist. Later, God was to call Jacob “Israel,” since he was destined to become the eponymic ancestor of God’s people, giving his name to them. By this act of changing the name of Jacob, which meant “cheat” to Israel, God was simply summoning the patriarch — and through him, his people — to be human. What does it mean to be a human being? It means, first of all, that I know and — still more important — that I accept myself; that I have a good relationship with myself. This is what the child learns by being called by its name by mother and father. To be human means to be happy — not necessarily smiling, not merely “nice,” but possessing basically a healthy relationship with other human beings, accepting their humanity and their inhumanity, not feeling threatened by the excellence of others. To be human also means to be responsible, to accept responsibility in making decisions, to have enough courage to be right and wrong. For as Isaiah goes on to suggest, human life contains an ineluctable element of risk. “If you pass through the waters, I will be with you, through the rivers, they shall not engulf you. If you walk through fire, you shall not be scorched, through the flame, it will not burn you; for I Yahweh, your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior.” Table of Contents: 1. Dimensions of Israel’s Election by Yahweh 2. Initial Attitudes to Prayer 3. The Prayer of the Creature 4. Faith Faces the Human Situation 5. Love What You Find 6. The Biblical View of Sin 7. Deeper Knowledge of God Through Repented Sin 8. Jesus’s Messianic Entry into Jerusalem 9. Preface to the Contemplation of the Second Week 10. Contemplation of the Incarnation 11. The Problem of Infancy Narratives 12. The Good News of Christmas 13. Jesus’ Baptism: Eschatological Dimension of History 14. Matthew’s Reconstruction of Jesus’ Temptations. 15. “Simul in Actione Contemplativus 16. Sermon on the Mount: Prayer of Petition 17. The Twelve: Institution and Mission 18. Jesus Feeds the Multitude 19. Our Lady in the Life of the Apostolic Church 20. Jesus “The Way” to the Father 21. The Last Supper: Christ in the Priest’s Life 22. The New Commandment 23. The Mass: School for the Religious 24. The Liturgy of Holy Thursday 25. Gethsemani: Dramatization of Christian Prayer 26. The Passion According to St. John 27. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus 28. The Contemplation of the Fourth Week 29. The Last Adam 30. The Church, Body of the Risen Christ 31. “The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” 32. Contemplation for Obtaining Love |