{"id":4324,"date":"2025-01-29T11:47:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T11:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/?p=4324"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:23:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:23:21","slug":"st-ignatius-the-spiritual-exercises-and-the-social-sin-of-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/?p=4324","title":{"rendered":"St. Ignatius, the Spiritual Exercises and the social sin of racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The insulting jokes and comments directed by participants in Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on the 27th of October toward Puerto Rico and toward people of color<\/a> made it clear that racism remains a prominent problem in the United States. That these jokes could be made in such a public forum\u2014and greeted with approval by many attendees\u2014shows we still have much work to do to combat racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How might an Ignatian-inflected view of the Gospel help social activists in their confrontation with racism? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My reflections on racial matters in the United States come as a Christian theologian rather than a social activist. My familiarity with the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola prompts me to use them as a way of applying the Gospel message of Jesus to a social situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the size of the topic, it might be helpful to make some distinctions that can make the discussion possible. Defining racism as a prejudicial understanding and behavior toward other people because of perceived differences, I focus here on white prejudice against Black people. But I do not treat racism in the personal or subjective terms of one person or group despising another. I rather address cultural and social racism in its more objective forms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culturally, this refers to ideas, values, feelings and connotations that are contained in vocabulary learned in the processes of socialization from family, friends, schools and media. Socially, this objective perspective refers to patterns of behavior in all spheres: in education, housing, work, religion, geographical location and politics. This racism subsists in the setup of society in which all participate. Thus, we can say that while the United States is not a society of racists, it is a racist society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at racism in this objective way provides a step toward opening up conversation across the divides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian spirituality is intrinsically hostile to racism. Authentic Christianity both forbids racism and fuels a spirituality, a way of life, that militates against it. The spirituality contained in the Exercises is evangelical in the root sense; it mirrors the essence of Christianity because it directly appeals to the Gospel narratives as motivation to live spiritually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confronting the reality of racism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Racism is an objective dimension of American culture and society. I learned much about this racism through \u201cThe 1619 Project<\/a>,\u201d published in 2019, in which a large number of authors contributed articles that chart different aspects of racism over America\u2019s 400-year history. Just as after slavery, racism took new forms in both the South and the North, so too after World War II and again during the civil rights movement, racism has again taken on new forms, some of them legitimated by law.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the absolute center of American racism is the ideology of white supremacy. This may exist as a doctrine that people cling to as a matter of identity, or a feeling that guides people\u2019s perceptions and reactions without them actually thinking about it. It is one of the aspects of racism that makes it invisible for some and yet operative in the formation of opinion and spontaneous action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So long has racism been with us, and so deep are its roots in social life, that one has to say that racism points to a structural dimension of America into which people are socialized. White over and against Black existed before the nation; it is written into the Constitution in the indirect ways of compromise, and it characterizes life in America in a variety of forms and intensities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structure of the ‚Spiritual Exercises‘<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola have a structure which forms a counterpoint to racism. They form a program of meditation and reflection designed to stretch over a month, using mostly but not exclusively the Gospel stories of the New Testament as subject matter. Their design reflects Ignatius\u2019 narrative and experience as he moved from being a servant of the Spanish crown to an ardent disciple of Jesus. I follow an interpretation that sees the deep structure of the Exercises as having three intertwined dimensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first element is recognition of sin within the self, discovered by an extensive examination of one\u2019s past and flanked by God\u2019s love and forgiveness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second dimension of the Exercises turns to Jesus of Nazareth as the historical revealer of God and simultaneously the paradigm of faithful human existence. The Christian looks to him as both the revelation of God and the criterion of life lived before the face of God.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third element\u2014and the apogee of the Exercises\u2014resides in the call for a decision to change one\u2019s life. The Exercises find their resolution when one forms a life-decision that concretizes one\u2019s relationship with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sum, by intending to evoke a turn from evil toward good, the inner logic of the Spiritual Exercises is uncannily similar to what the theologian Edward Schillebeeckx called a \u201cnegative experience of contrast.\u201d One recognizes the sin in one\u2019s life; that recognition urges a turn to Jesus, who exemplifies how human life should be led, and one resolves to change one\u2019s life so that it comes closer to its ideal form before God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sin of racism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Racism can be integrated into the Spiritual Exercises when it is considered to be structural sin. The notion of \u201cstructural\u201d sin is subtle, if not paradoxical. The idea of \u201csin\u201d includes responsibility and guilt, but individuals are not personally responsible for the conditions into which they are born. At the same time, however, discernible racist patterns of behavior cannot exist apart from their human carriers. Structural sin refers more directly to social<\/em> awareness and responsibility. Participation in racist behaviors, therefore, includes a range of consciousness that extends from ignorance to indifference to knowing acceptance. This generates the strange result of racism being both \u201cin your face\u201d and ignored at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When racism is thought of as structural sin, it finds a ready place in the logic of the Spiritual Exercises where Ignatius fixates on sin. This does not substitute for a broader personal examination of conscience, but it can serve as a lens that reorients the Exercises in order to allow the Gospel to shine its light on racism. The shift calls forth a larger and often hidden layer of social responsibility. Even though individual white people are not personally responsible for the existence of racism, we participate in it. Just by living in a society and culture saturated with racial bias, we contribute to its existence and bear some social (rather than individual) responsibility for it. As the author Michelle Alexander says<\/a>, most people participate in racism by indifference to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism and the rule of God<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Racism is pertinent, too, to the second dimension of the Exercises, in which the Christian looks to Jesus as both the revelation of God and the criterion of life lived in God\u2019s presence. Ignatius followed the intrinsic structure of Christian faith when, during his protracted conversion, he turned not to the catechism to learn about Jesus but to the stories in the Gospels to encounter him personally. For the Christian, Jesus is the revelation of God and of God\u2019s will for human existence. To the blunt question of how Jesus of Nazareth revealed God, the answer appears in the Gospel stories themselves: Jesus revealed God by his ministry, by his teaching and his behavior as prophet and healer of those infected by evil spirits. Jesus channeled God\u2019s presence by the way he lived.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put a finer point on this, New Testament exegetes say that Jesus revealed God by communicating the rule of God. \u201cThe rule of God\u201d is another more active phrasing of the term \u201cthe kingdom of God.\u201d It is not a place; it is not in the past, present or future, but all of these together. In my reckoning, the New Testament\u2019s best definition of the rule of God appears in Matthew\u2019s version of the prayer that Jesus taught: \u201cThy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth\u201d (Mt 6:10). It includes a social sensibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rule of God is wherever human beings live according to the intention of the creator. The second dimension of the Exercises consists of meditation on the ministry of Jesus in order to understand how life should be lived under God\u2019s rule as revealed in Jesus\u2019 ministry\u2014in response to racism or any other institutions that impede \u201cthe rule of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-racism and discipleship<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The third element of the structure of the Spiritual Exercises consists of leading a person to appropriate the rule of God into his or her life. This happens when, at some time during their course of considering Jesus\u2019 ministry, those doing the Exercises are invited to make a decision about their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that Jesus gathered disciples who traveled around with him. These disciples were active followers who were also his assistants, helpers, collaborators and the ones whom he was especially teaching\u2014and who were even sent out on their own for a period. The disciples are of interest to the one making the Exercises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contemplating the Gospel stories, the people doing the Exercises are asked to relate to Jesus as disciples\u2014as people who are learning to do as he did. Jesus appealed to all people, but Ignatius focused attention more particularly on those people who wanted to accompany Jesus as disciples. Disciples absorb in a more intentional way how Jesus points the direction of their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads to what may be called the goal of the Exercises, where those doing them commit to reorganize their personal lives in accordance to the criteria laid down by Jesus\u2019 ministry. That can only be done on the basis of one\u2019s identity and situation, but Ignatius wants it to be done decisively, in a life-decision. With regard to racism, people answer the question of how Jesus\u2019 revelation shapes their lives on matters of race with a decision. When one\u2019s identity of being a Christian coincides with a sense of discipleship, the active spirituality promoted by the Spiritual Exercises merges anti-racist action and union with God. Anti-racist action unites one with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism and the \u2018Contemplation to Attain Divine Love\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final meditation of Ignatius\u2019 Spiritual Exercises, the \u201cContemplation to Attain Love,\u201d offers a recapitulation of the program with three basic Ignatian principles for the spiritual life. A preliminary observation before the meditation states bluntly that \u201cLove ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words.\u201d This phrase was not a clich\u00e9 for the ex-military and still-militant Ignatius; it defined a way of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second point of the meditation says that God can be found in all things. It is not stated thus but appears in beautiful short descriptions of how God the creator is present to and active in all things. God creating turns the whole world into a gift (grace) that should elicit gratitude and a response of love in action.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third point states that our lives should be led as by one who is a contemplative in action. This combination of contemplation and action weds two terms often seen as competing into a single responding activity. The issue has a long tradition of interpretations. One, fitting for the Exercises, draws from the Parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable answers the question of a lawyer, \u201cWho is my neighbor?\u201d by implying that \u201cyou have to create your neighbors, and all people are your candidates, even your enemies.\u201d You create your neighbors by your action, and you cement your union with God especially by loving your neighbors who are God\u2019s friends in distress (Lk 10:25-37). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are these pertinent to our duty to be anti-racist? \u201cThe Contemplation to Attain Love\u201d concludes the consideration of the three-part structure of the Spiritual Exercises in response to the social sin of racism. That sin, extended over four centuries, carries a potential scandal analogous to the Holocaust. The rule of God, mediated by Jesus confronts a negative historical force with an alternative vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignatius\u2019 response consists of internalizing the liberating vision of Jesus and decisively converting the energy of God\u2019s rule into an actual movement in history. Although this anti-racist summons is drawn from Christian sources, its humanism calls all Americans to participate in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Haight recently published the following book: „Facing Race. The Gospel in an Ignatian Key,“ Maryknoll: Orbis (2024). Later this year, the JRaT series will publish a collection of contributions from Roger Haight and mostly European theologians entitled: „Breaking Boundaries in Theology: In Conversation with Roger Haight.“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This text was originally published by „America. The Jesuit Review“<\/a>. We thank „America“ and the author for the permission to republish it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RaT-Blog Nr. 3\/2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photocredits<\/strong>: Portrait provided by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Haight<\/b>\u2019s theology has always been in a critical dialogue with how contemporary Westerners experience reality, while giving his theology a liberationist bent. This might be the reason for his more recent interest in facing racism, one of the painful scars of US-American history. A scar that seems to be torn open again by the announced policies of the current administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169,2,3,137,154,146,158,143,136,149],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[404],"class_list":["post-4324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soziale-medien","category-articles-in-english","category-beitraege","category-christentum","category-ethik","category-gesellschaft","category-migration","category-politik","category-religion","category-transformation","eq-blocks"],"authors":[{"term_id":404,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"roger-haight","display_name":"Roger Haight SJ \u2020","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","user_url":"","last_name":"Haight SJ \u2020","first_name":"Roger","job_title":"","description":"Roger Haight SJ \u2020 (1936-2025) was one of the leading Roman-Catholic theologians in the US. After studies in the Philippines and the US (a PhD from the University of Chicago), Haight taught at various prestigious institutions in Canada and the US but also in places that are considered to be on the fringes of the Western world (Manila, Nairobi, Lima)."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4324"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4576,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions\/4576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rat-blog.univie.ac.at\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}