The Experience of Mystery in a Secularized Society: An Approach from the Ignatian Tradition

Abstract

The Experience of Mystery in a Secularized Society:An Approach from the Ignatian Tradition1 Rossano Zas Friz De Col (bio) In his A Secular Age,2 Charles Taylor states that something once evident in Western societies' social imagination of 500 years ago has been lost: the Christian sense of meta-historical transcendence and the efficacy of inner transformation arising from a personal relationship with God within an eschatological horizon of interpreting one's individual and social existence. In facing this situation, although not a Christian, Zygmunt Bauman considered that Western societies are suffering from a "moral delay" which is why he proposes educating our contemporaries in the ability to make decisions with a strong sense of social responsibility based on a critical attitude towards consumeristic society. In this way, citizens can take an active part in the public life of their cities and countries, and above all, they can keep a meta-hope alive, that is, a hope that can make the "bold" act of hoping possible.3 Bauman's proposal coincides with one of the primary objectives in Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises: making decisions—in his case, in order to follow God's will. Although we are dealing with two different universes of reference, there is no doubt that the centrality of knowing how to make decisions is essential both at a human and a Christian level, not only for this life but also for eternal life. In our secularized situation, David Tacey states that we are experiencing a historical shift because we are becoming a post-Enlightenment society, and that the problem is that most of our institutions are built up in the paradigm of the Enlightenment, which is why they have great difficulty in responding to today's challenges.4 Tacey recognizes that one of this new situation's challenges is the separation between religious practice and spiritual life. Religion is perceived as detached from everyday life and personal intimacy. In contrast, in spiritual experience, transcendence is considered in relation to a deeper dimension of the human condition and reality, which is knowable through a special ability to see, feel, and understand what is behind our everyday perceptions.5 Tacey is convinced that our age "is destined to discover the divine as a dimension of the human."6 The reflection that follows intends to orient us in this direction, interpreting our current socio-historical condition from the situation stated in the brief overview just presented in order to show, from a perspective [End Page 193] of the Ignatian Tradition, the good possibilities that this new historical situation has to offer Christian believers. The reflection is developed in three points. First, I will show the implications of what secularization means today by comparing the socio-religious context of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Sigmund Freud. This analysis will help develop the second point, establishing a relationship between these two socioreligious contexts by highlighting the importance of decision-making from an anthropological horizon. The third and final point will be dedicated to the characterization of a Christian/Ignatian way of decision-making identifying what it has to offer contemporary Christian believers. THE PROCESS OF THE SECULARIZATION OF GOD'S MYSTERY: FROM SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA TO SIGMUND FREUD7 During the time period between Ignatius and Freud, a change took place that can be characterized as the secularization of the experience of mystery because of, according to Taylor, the secularization of the conditions of belief. The shift to secularity in this sense consists, among other things, of a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others, and frequently not the easiest to embrace. In this meaning . . . at least many milieux in the United States are secularized, and I would argue that the United States as a whole is.8 The specific examples of Ignatius and Freud can be of help in framing the secularization of the experience of mystery. The following section examines how such experience informed their understandings of what it means to be human. Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, two months and...