EARLY MODERN
 SPIRITUALITY
16th-18th Centuries
 

 Karlskirche, Vienna

Sacred Heart & Jesuits

EARLY MODERN SPIRITUALITY spans the period from the Reformation to the French Revolution.  There are roughly four emphases, some of which provide  with both heretical and orthodox manifestations

 1. CONTINUATION of
            MEDIEVAL ASCETICAL PRACTICES

JANSENISM; TRAPPISTS;
MAURISTS and BOLLANDISTS on ACADEMIC ASCETICISM

 2. DEVELOPMENT and POPULARIZATION
            of CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY

CARMELITE (John, Teresa);

QUIETISM
(Molinos; Guyon; Fenelon)

 3. SPIRITUAL EXERCISES (BIBLICAL/FORMAL)

GERTRUDE/CISNEROS/JESUIT SPIRITUALITY
and other formal EXERCISES (Salesian, etc.)

 

 4. AFFECTIVE MEDITATION

a) SACRED HEART

Medieval Origins - Gertrude/Mechtild/Bonaventure
John Eudes and Margaret Mary

b) EUCHARISTIC Devotions

c) Francis de Sales/Br. Lawrence

 

 

TWO CONTRASTING 17th and 18th CENTURY
APPROACHES to SPIRITUALITY
and MORAL THEOLOGY

IGNATIAN
SPIRITUALITY

Mental visualization of Biblical Scenes

Step-by-step reflection leading to discernment

Examen concerning sin required throughout life

 


QUIETISM

 

Non-discursive meditation

Resting in the presence of God

Sin “impossible” in highest stages

[Molinos condemned by Innocent XI in Coelestis Pastor - 19 Nov. 1687]

 

PROBABILISM
(“LAXITY”)

Penitents given “benefit of the doubt”

Lesser-held opinion may nonetheless be “probable”

[condemned by Pope Alexander VII (1666, 1667) and more forcefully by Pope Innocent XI (1679)]

 

MORAL RIGORISM

Strict ethical standards and requirement of repentance/penance:

Confessor acts solely on what is certain – always in favor of precept of law

Strict rigorism (“tutiorism” condemned by Pope Alexander VIII in 1690 (Denzinger 2303)

 

FREEDOM
of the WILL

The soul cooperates with God

(Pelagianism condemned by Augustine)

PREDESTINATION

God has predestined both the elect and the damned.
Without grace, no meritorious act is possible 

(Double predestination condemned in Trent Decree on Justification, canons 15 and 17)

ENGAGEMENT
with “THE WORLD”

Missionary Activity

Education

WITHDRAWAL
from “THE WORLD”


Monastic Enclosure

 

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