Joy and Sadness in Spiritual Life According to St. Ignatius of Loyola

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

Anger · Emotionality · Feeling · Linguistics · Psychoanalysis · Sadness · Spirituality · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious, Philosophical, and Educational Studies · Social Psychology