Ignatius of Loyola on the person of Christ

One person in two natures, unconfused and undivided

THE POSITION

The Exercises speak of one Christ in whom divinity and humanity are both at work and distinguishable. In the Incarnation contemplation the Second Person of the Trinity becomes man; in the Third Week the retreatant is asked to consider how, in the Passion, the Divinity hides itself, choosing not to destroy Christ's enemies, and leaves the most sacred Humanity to suffer. The language is devotional rather than conciliar, and the Chalcedonian terms are not used, but the one who suffers is the Second Person made man [102], with power ascribed to "the Divinity" and suffering to "the most sacred Humanity", which is the shape of the two-natures view. Without the conciliar terms the cell leans rather than affirms.

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ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Basque soldier turned pilgrim, founder of the Society of Jesus (1540) and its first superior general. His Spiritual Exercises, begun at Manresa in 1522–23 after his conversion at Loyola in 1521 and approved by Paul III in 1548, are still widely used for retreats; their closing rules for thinking with the Church are his nearest approach to doctrinal statement. This entry rests on the Exercises in Elder Mullan's 1914 translation and the Autobiography in the 1900 English edition by J. F. X. O'Conor.