The Spanish Aggiornamento of Ignatian Theology and Spirituality: Axes and Figures

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

See attached letter.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Comments 1: 

Articles: There are no glaring weaknesses in either method or understanding. The category of “experience” is somewhat ambiguous—at times referred to as a “concept” and other times as a “process.” Delineating what the author means, concretely, by the word “experience” would help the reader understand the argument better.

Reviews: The completeness of this is excellent. The various strands of 1) textual/exegetical; 2) historical/contextual; and 3) systematic/dogmatic were thorough and helpful. Having an “experiential” dimension would add to the value of this study.

Overall this article is a very good summary of the “Spanish School” of Ignatian studies but could be augmented by a more refined and careful delineation of the word “experience” and how it will be used in the article in reference to Ignatian spirituality.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comments and for reading the study presented. I will clarify in point 2 the understanding of the term “experience.” However, it is a very broad field that would exceed the scope of this research, since the twentieth-century authors discussed within the Spanish school do not distinguish between the experience of God and religious experience. It is only toward the end of that century that the phenomenology of religious studies begins to address this distinction.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a timely, fascinating, and careful study across a wide-ranging array of scholars and thus makes an important and meaningful contribution to the fields of Christian spirituality, historical theology, and hermeneutical analysis of Ignatian sources.  Because of the author's close engagement with primary texts, there is more Spanish than I am accustomed to seeing in English-speaking journals or collections, which may perhaps prove challenging for some non-specialists or global audiences.  But I have absolutely no reservations in arguing that this submission is of the highest quality and ought to be published as it appears here in this prestigious journal.

Author Response

Comments 1: This is a timely, fascinating, and careful study across a wide-ranging array of scholars and thus makes an important and meaningful contribution to the fields of Christian spirituality, historical theology, and hermeneutical analysis of Ignatian sources.  Because of the author's close engagement with primary texts, there is more Spanish than I am accustomed to seeing in English-speaking journals or collections, which may perhaps prove challenging for some non-specialists or global audiences.  But I have absolutely no reservations in arguing that this submission is of the highest quality and ought to be published as it appears here in this prestigious journal.

Response 1: Sincerely, thank you very much for the time you have devoted and for your assessment.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for a masterful discussion introducing the scope and depth of Spanish Ignatian research to an English audience.

Might you consider substituting "religious experience" for "experience of God." The later term is problematic for theologically informed English audiences as it conflates the German distinction between Erlebnis and Erfahrung.

Might you consider identifying your contributions potential implications for an English Ignatian scholarship, somewhat in parallel with your brief remarks about future engagement of French scholarship?

Again, thank you for a substantive contribution.

Author Response

Comments 1: Might you consider substituting "religious experience" for "experience of God." The later term is problematic for theologically informed English audiences as it conflates the German distinction between Erlebnis and Erfahrung.

Response 1: Sincerely, thanks! I will attempt to clarify the concept of “experience” in point 2 of the research. Although these are Spanish authors who had not yet received the influence of the phenomenology of religious studies—particularly as developed in the Anglo-Saxon context—this reception begins to take place toward the end of the twentieth century.

Comments 2: Might you consider identifying your contributions potential implications for an English Ignatian scholarship, somewhat in parallel with your brief remarks about future engagement of French scholarship?

Response 2: 

Thank you very much! These questions are essential because they place us within the field of reception and hermeneutics, as well as within the interdisciplinary discussion that emerges at the end of the twentieth century and, in particular, during the twenty-first. I have noted this in the conclusions and consider it as part of the study’s limitations for two reasons:

1. To delimit or narrow the object of study so that it does not open up too many additional aspects;

2. To avoid exceeding the intended scope and length of the research.