Preface

In celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, Regis College chose the subject of spirituality in a secular age as the topic for a symposium of scholars held March [20][21] 1981.Those assembled addressed the general issue from within the areas of their expertise by particular attention to the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, whose life and works inspire the tradition of Jesuit scholarship and spirituality of which Regis College is a part.In the course of the discussion during those two days and in answer to questions raised by the audience in attendance, several themes bound the papers together in a manner additional to the logic that gives order to their presentation here in this volume.I wish to explain briefly the interconnection of the essays and allude to additional themes that emerged.While the major textual focus is the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and the tradition and institutions associated with Ignatian spirituality, the two essays dealing specifically with this subject matter are preceded by essays intended to locate the discussion within philosophical and historical perspectives.The paper by Louis Dupre offers reflections on the contemporary search for spiritual life, analyzing the necessity for an interior foundation for belief.In the comments upon both his paper and a second delivered by Placide Gaboury of the University of Sudbury, the importance of the development of interior life as a condition of survival for contemporary believers was clarified with reference to the cultural situation that demands it and to the difficulties the experience of the absence of God presents.The question of the relation of the contemporary believer to past events emerged as a theme which continued in the presentation by David Michael Stanley, S.J. on the relation of the Spiritual Exercises to the Gospels.Given the general problematic established by Dupre, the next set of papers attempts a rereading of the Spiritural Exercises in the light of contemporary scholarship.Ewart Cousins ended the day's discussion by relating Ignatius' text to the Franciscan tradition, focussing on the manner in which the humanity of God in Christ is essential to Christian tradition.This was yet another aspect of the theme that had emerged, namely, the question of whether and how the events of Christ's life can be made present and normative.I attempt to discuss these questions in the introduction to this collection.The second day of the symposium began with Michael Buckley, S.J., presenting the major question of his paper: is there in the orientation and

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