Thinking Faith: St Paul and St Ignatius

I have not been keeping up with recent articles appearing on the Jesuit on-line journal Thinking Faith. I had a quick look at a couple of articles this morning, though.

The first is entitled "Who was St Paul?",and was published to mark the start of the Year of St Paul. It is an essentially academic article, giving a very useful introduction to the writings of St Paul in the light of scholarship about their origin and authorship. I found it very useful for "locating" the different letters of St Paul, in their relation to the account of St Paul contained in the Acts of the Apostles. A useful read, though perhaps to be used for preparation rather than directly in parish catechesis. The paragraph that caught my eye, and which I think conveys a fair impression of the whole, was the following:

We begin with Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, commonly dated around the year 50 A.D., which gives it the distinction of being the first New Testament book to be written. And this makes ‘Paul’ the first word of the New Testament! As we read through the four pages of this letter, we realise that Paul’s first priority in his apostolate was the personal visit. If this was impossible, then he would send his delegate, in this case Timothy. Only as a third possibility would he write a letter. This was something new for him and a risk. To minimise the risk, he gave an order, the only one in this letter, that the letter be read out to the whole community (1 Thessalonians 5:27). The experiment must have been successful, because this became the first of a series of letters which were written over the next ten years.

In the age of electronic communication, the suggestion of a priority for personal visiting in the apostolate is interesting. Or perhaps we might think that St Paul, in writing letters, was the first century equivalent of today's Catholic blogger and that, if the New Testament was being written today, it would appear first in the blogosphere ...

There is also an article on St Ignatius Loyola, "Will the real Ignatius please stand up?". I did not find this as useful as I found the article about St Paul. It does prompt me in two directions. It will be interesting to study the decrees of the recent General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, which are, I believe, an attempt to define the direction of the Society for the future. It will also be interesting to look at the Magis08 project undertaken by the Society in preparation for and as part of their contribution to the recent World Youth Day. What little I have been able to see of this wide ranging and international project suggests that it rooted itself in the Spiritual Exercises.

The Thinking Faith website carries a three part interview with the newly elected Jesuit General, undertaken after the General Congregation.