Kawanaka Hitoshi

Number 99 : 2 of the Autobiography states that Ignatius composed the Spiritual Exercises not 'in a single stroke' (tutti in una volta), but over an extended period of time during which the work was edited. The process of composition of the Spiritual Exercises began with his reading of Ludolf von Sachsen's Vita Jesu Christi and Jacopo da Varazze's Flos Sanctorum oder Legenda aurea at Loyola (1521). However the edition of the Spiritual Exercises continued from the time of his residence at Loyola and Manresa (1521-23) throughout his study period, until papal approval was granted for the Exercises (July 31, 1548). In fact, the process continued for almost a quarter of a century. Accordingly, the Spiritual Exercises are based not just on Ignatius' original experience undergone during the earliest stage of their composition at Loyola and Manresa, but also on the experiences he underwent in the later stages of its composition. Consequently, not just his fundamental experience at Loyola and Manresa but the entire process of composition of the Exercises should be viewed as a process of communication between himself and God. Hence, on the basis of this innate feature of the Exercises involving synchronic communication between the human and divine via intersubjective dialogue, and also the diachronic elements that caused it to extend over a period of time, the composition of the Exercises can be termed a synchro-diachronic communication process between Ignatius and God.

The four weeks of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola have been understood traditionally on the basis of annotation no. 10 (SpEx 10 : 2-3) by the classical scheme of the "three ways (tres viae)" in Christian spirituality, that is, (1) the "way of purification (via purgativa)", (2) the "way of illumination (via illuminativa)", and (3) the "way of unity (via unitiva)". However, annotation no. 10, which handles the rules for the discernment of Spirits in the first and the second week, says nothing about the third and the fourth week of the Spiritual Exercises. In addition, as the Spiritual Exercises are fundamentally based on the Trinitarian-Christocentric experience of Ignatius himself in Manresa, the "three ways" and the Trinitarian-Christocentric four-weeks of the Spiritual Exercises do not completely correspond to each other. As opposed to this traditional understanding of the Spiritual Exercises by the scheme of the "three ways", the dominant understanding of the Spiritual Exercises in the 20^<th> century was the one which regards the election at the end of the second week (SpEx 169-189) as the purpose and the center of the Spiritual Exercises. However, it is questionable whether the four-weeks process of the Spiritual Exercises can be divided by the election into two parts, that is, the former part (the first and the second week) and the latter part (the third and the fourth week) and, furthermore, whether the election can be regarded as the purpose of the Spiritual Exercises. The article analyses three understandings of the Spiritual Exercises : (1) the traditional understanding of the Spiritual Exercises by the scheme of the "three ways" ; (2) Gaston Fessard, who represents the election-centered understanding of the Spiritual Exercises ; and (3) Javier Melloni, who proposes the mystagogic understanding of the Spiritual Exercises, which integrates the traditional understanding, the election-centered understanding and the Christocentric understanding of the Spiritual Exercises. The four-weeks process of the Spiritual Exercises should thus be understood first and foremost by the Ignatian Trinitarian-Christocentric model of communication.

This study on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) shows that the Four-Weeks-process of the Exercises should be fundamentally understood as an event of the intersubjective communication between God and the exercitant (cf. SpEx 15: 3,4, 231: 1). The concept "communication" should be interpreted by a special ignatinan meaning, which is indicated through an historical investigation on the communication in the life of Ignatius, especially in the ignatian experience of God in Manresa (1522-23) and in La Storta (1537), as Trinitarian-christocentric, in ignatian terms "placed with Christ (puesto con Cristo)" (Autobiog 96: 4). Based on its Trinitarian-christocentric character, the process of the Exercises should be understood not only as a dialogic event with Jesus Christ, but also as a communitarian event with the Trinitarian God. The process of the Exercises is directed towards the aim that the exercitant is accepted through a narrative communication with Jesus Christ into the Trinitarian community. However attention should be paid to the horizontal range of the communitarian dimension of the Exercises as well. The process of the Exercises is directed on the one hand vertically towards the formation of the community with the Trinitarian God, and on the other hand horizontally towards the formation of the community with people in the world. Thus the vertical formation of the community with the Trinitarian God is accomplished in the horizontal formation of the community of people, and vice versa.

Through varied ways and means of communication and concrete encounters with distinct religious traditions, Christianity has now come to confront a situation of religious pluralism. How then in this state of religious diversity can it understand itself and proclaim the Gospel of Christ? Face to face with such multiplicity, it is a matter of primary importance for it to maintain an attitude of magnanimity towards these other religious traditions, an openness to the presence of God and Christ that discards any facade of dominance or exclusiveness. Yet at the same time, as a rejection of all forms of relativism, it is called upon to uphold the universality of Jesus Christ as the sole mediator, and the necessity of the Church as the body of Christ, indissolubly linked to Him as the "Head" of the Church.