Facing Race: The Gospel in an Ignatian Key

By: Roger Haight

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Overview

“In this work, Jesuit Roger Haight deftly and trenchantly surveys and probes the complex historical, social, religious, and cultural context within which we would-be disciples of Jesus live and strive to appropriate our Christian faith. While acknowledging that the structural social sin of racism lies both outside and within an individual’s exercise of human freedom, Haight argues for a reorientation of Christian consciousness, conscience, and human living in order to reform our society and our church to reflect the will and rule of God as modeled in the life and ministry of Jesus.”ꟷM. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita of theology, Boston College

“With characteristic precision and theological clarity, Roger Haight finds in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius the revelatory seeds for enlarging our personal and collective consciousness and releasing human freedom toward the transformation of a racist society. While ‘we are in it, and it is in us,’ Facing Race offers a powerful new framework for insisting that we do not have to live this way.”ꟷChristopher Pramuk, Regis University, author, Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters across the Color Line

A noted Jesuit theologian offers a new lens for all Christians to see, acknowledge, and oppose racism.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a foundational tool in the formation of Jesuits, has become widely popular as the basis for spiritual direction and discernment among Christians of many sorts. In a sequence of meditations on the life, mission, and passion of Christ, the Exercises direct a person to engage in a process of self-examination and ongoing conversion to the Gospel. This involves a focus on one’s personal sin and desire for repentance. In this reading of the Exercises, Roger Haight takes as a reference point the social sin of racism. This approach not only offers a Christological lens for understanding the reality of racism in America, but outlines a socially-informed understanding of what conversion and discipleship mean in a racist situation.

Roger Haight is a Jesuit priest and theologian and the author of numerous Orbis books, including Jesus Symbol of God, Dynamics of Theology, Christian Spirituality for Seekers, and The Nature of Theology. A past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, he last year received the Society’s highest honor, the John Courtney Murray Award.

Cover design: Michael Clemente

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Click Here For The Table Of Contents

Click Here For The Preface