Freedom in the Spirit

This work offers a theological and pastoral discussion of key Pauline texts and topics, arranged in a format for an 8-day retreat along the lines of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. While the format is that of two talks a day for eight days of retreat, the collection is designed to serve as an introduction to Paul's theology and spirituality more generally, with a particular focus upon those aspects that appear to be matched and stressed in Ignatian spirituality, as currently understood and practiced. Notable emphases include: Paul's sense of the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus as the outreach of divine self-sacrificial love to the world; the sense of Christ as New Adam, inaugurating in a graced "new creation" the original divine plan for human beings and the other-than-human world; the rich Pauline sense of as "life in the body," including the Eucharistic body, in all its aspects both individual and communal; the transition from the limitations (spiritual and pastoral) of "life under the law" to freedom and responsibility "in the Spirit"; the hope for the future of humanity and the world represented by the resurrection of Jesus and the triumph of grace and self-sacrificial love. While designed in first instance for individual instruction and reflection, the talks would also serve for communal reading and discussion. Each is concluded by a series of questions designed, in either context, to promote this end.