Overview

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. However, in the 1970s, the Jesuit theologian (and later martyr) Ignacio Ellacuría conducted the Spiritual Exercises for the whole Central American Province of the Jesuits, taking as a reference point the social reality of Central America, thus giving concrete reference to the meaning of structural sin, Christ’s ministry and passion, and the implications for of discipleship.

In this work, Roger Haight proposes to do the same thing in reference to 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 means in a racist situation.

Roger Haight is a Jesuit priest and theologian and 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 received the Society’s highest honor, the John Courtney Murray Award, in 2023.

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