Exercícios espirituais de Inácio de Loyola: uma revisitação do texto em diálogo com Roland Barthes

Abstract

The goal of this work is to examine Spiritual Exercises, a short book by Ignatius of Loyola writen 500 years ago, from today s perspective. However, it does not intend to demonstrate that this work by Loyola is still relevant nowadays. We know it is, given that it has been continuously used since it was written. Neither does this work aim at explaining the spiritual exercises themselves, for they are self-explanatory in being realized within a person. I will rather bring up some aspects that may allow one to get to know Loyola in his context, his life, and his paths. It is in this common man of his time Iñigo that a transformation happened, which can also happen to any human being (including in our present time). Supporting this transformation are the spiritual exercises, an initiation method whose goal is a type of knowledge that does not result from education or science, but rather a type of knowledge that amounts to search for illumination and intimate contact with God. In order to present the content of Spiritual Exercises, we first show its making up, the influences it received, its internal structure, and specific subparts. We show that Iñigo s socio-historical context and the different types of influence he received contributed to the writing of Spiritual Exercises. To highlight its relevance at the present time, we resort to the reading Roland Barthes made of it, which enables us to understand why it can lead to the construction of a specific language that delimits one s subjectivity, thus allowing us more autonomy due to deeper self-knowledge. The present work is justified by the contemporary people s own quests for selfknowledge and something that transcend them, helping them to get out of that massification network that consumption society nourishes