This refreshing re-evaluation of the so-called autobiography of Ignatius Loyola (c. 1491-1556) situates Ignatius's Acts against the backgrounds of the spiritual geography of Luke's New Testament writings and the culture of Renaissance humanism. Ignatius Loyola's So-Called Autobiography builds upon recent scholarly consensus, examines the language of the text that Ignatius Loyola dictated as his legacy to fellow Jesuits late in life, and discusses relevant elements of the social, historical, and religious contexts in which the text came to birth. Recent monographs by Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle and John W. O'Malley have characterized Ignatius's Acts as a mirror of vainglory and of apostolic religious life, respectively. In this study, John M. McManamon, S.J., persuasively argues that an appreciation of the two Lukan New Testament writings likewise helps interpret the theological perspectives of Ignatius. The geography of Luke's two writings and the theology that undergirds Luke's redactional innovation assisted Ignatius in remembering and understanding the crucial acts of God in his own life. This eloquent, lucidly written new book is essential reading for anyone interested in Ignatius, the early Jesuits, sixteenth-century religious life, and the history of early modern Europe.

This refreshing re-evaluation of the so-called autobiography of Ignatius Loyola (c. 1491-1556) situates Ignatius's Acts against the backgrounds of the spiritual geography of Luke's New Testament writings and the culture of Renaissance humanism. Ignatius Loyola's So-Called Autobiography builds upon recent scholarly consensus, examines the language of the text that Ignatius Loyola dictated as his legacy to fellow Jesuits late in life, and discusses relevant elements of the social, historical, and religious contexts in which the text came to birth. Recent monographs by Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle and John W. O'Malley have characterized Ignatius's Acts as a mirror of vainglory and of apostolic religious life, respectively. In this study, John M. McManamon, S.J., persuasively argues that an appreciation of the two Lukan New Testament writings likewise helps interpret the theological perspectives of Ignatius. The geography of Luke's two writings and the theology that undergirds Luke's redactional innovation assisted Ignatius in remembering and understanding the crucial acts of God in his own life. This eloquent, lucidly written new book is essential reading for anyone interested in Ignatius, the early Jesuits, sixteenth-century religious life, and the history of early modern Europe.

The Companion to Ignatius of Loyola aims at placing Loyola’s life, his writings, and spirituality in a broader context of important late medieval and early modern movements and processes that have been appreciated too little by historians who explored Ignatius more as the colossal icon of the so-called Counterreformation than as a man influenced by the dramatic and revolutionary period in which he lived. One book will be never able to cover all aspects of such rich and controversial a figure as Ignatius of Loyola but the fifteen chapters of this volume indicate important directions of current scholarship that reassesses the previous scholarship and suggests new angles of studies on this pivotal figure of early modern period. An interview with editor Robert A. Maryks about this Companion is available on YouTube.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola was a man who saw above and beyond his century, a man of vision and calm hope, who could step comfortably into our era and the Church of our time and show us how to draw closer to Christ. Ignatius' autobiography spans eighteen very important years of this saint's 65-year life...from his wounding at Pamplona (1521) through his conversion, his university studies and his journey to Rome in order to place his followers and himself at the disposal of the Pope. These critical years reveal the incredible transformation and spiritual growth in the soul of a great saint and the events that helped to bring about that change in his life. This classic work merits a long life. Apart from providing a splendid translation of the saint's original text, Father Tylenda has included an informative commentary which enables the modern reader to grasp various allusions in the text-and to gain a better view of a saintly man baring his soul.

In this first in-depth and wide-ranging history of Christian conversion, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach and engaging recent methods and theories in conversion studies, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Although conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming), when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest.

This book aims to explore what pilgrimage has to teach about God, the faithful, and the Church, thereby challenging and enriching theology.