Open AccessJoy and Sadness in Spiritual Life According to St. Ignatius of Loyola: A Hermeneutic Study
Author(s) -
Tomasz Homa
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
perspektywy kultury
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2719-8014
pISSN - 2081-1446
DOI - 10.35765/pk.2020.2801.08
Subject(s) - sadness , emotionality , feeling , psychology , spirituality , reading (process) , psychoanalysis , social psychology , philosophy , anger , linguistics , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to interpret human emotionality as expressed in the experiences of joy and sadness, in view of the precepts of one of the schools of Christian spirituality: Ignatius Loyola’s teachings (1491– 1556). According to this current of spiritual philosophy, which draws on the centuries-old experience of the biblical and Christian understanding of the emotional dimension of our lives, as well as the experiences and thoughts of Ignatius himself, our emotionality—often experienced as a kind of incomprehensible “buzz”—may, in reality, constitute equally emotional, legible “speech.” This “speech” becomes understandable when we can properly “read,” that is, recognize and understand, the emotional experiences we experience in this sphere. The article’s reading feeling is a proposal of commonsensical–sapiential deciphering of both our emotional and emotional–spiritual experiences and joys and sorrows, as well as analyzing and interpreting them in the search for relevant meanings that they often carry or express.