Friedrich Spee: The Real Jesuit - Essay Example

? Friedrich Spee: The Real Jesuit (Add (Add (Add Introduction The Jesuit tradition reflects the values of spiritual, emotional, physical, and intellectual life of the Jesuit society. It greatly encourages individuals’ spiritual development, intellectual life based on Catholic values and leadership traits. Like any other Catholic missionary group, the Jesuits greatly focus on providing service to others. This paper will study the achievements of the Jesuit father Friedrich Spee and evaluate to what extent he has met the values of Jesuit tradition. Values of Jesuit tradition According to Ignatian spirituality or Jesuit spirituality (as cited in Modras, 2004, pp. 37-49), centeredness on a Christ with a mission, Trinitarian sweep, liberality of grace, faith as trust, service in the world, and praying with discernment are the major values of Jesuit tradition. “Ignatian Christ is a person on the move”; and Ignatian spirituality is mainly focused on the words, “come, follow me” (Mk 10:21) (cited in Modras, 2004, p.38). The Jesuit tradition holds the view that every individual is called by God to complete a specific mission. This mission may be different from person to person and it will be revealed by God at various stages over a person’s life period. Similarly, there exists a Trinitarian sweet to Ignatian spirituality. According to this view, God is not only the person who created the universe, but he is also the one who reconciles the universe through Christ. As Modras (2004, p.40) reflects, the Christ is considered as the mediator between humans and the Father and he is responsible for accomplishing the God’s master plan. In addition, grace is one of the most distinctive and central values of Jesuit tradition. The Jesuit spirituality says that there should not be any restriction on to what extent grace shall be shown to others. According to the Ignatian view, such restriction would limit the liberality of grace. Like grace, faith is also central to Christian life as well as Jesuit tradition. The Jesuit spirituality points to the Gospels that make grace a requisite for obtaining entry into God’s reign. The Christ states that neither discipleship nor healing can be possible without faith. The Jesuit tradition disapproves the argument that major objective of spiritual exercises or human services is self-salvation. Service is the core concept of Ignatian spirituality and Ignatius has repeatedly emphasised the term ‘helping souls’ in his writings. As stated in Modras (2004, p. 47), contemplative in action is considered as a slogan of the Jesuit tradition. The main feature of the Ignatian prayers is that it heavily teems with images. Friedrich Spee Friedrich Spee (1591-1635) was a German Jesuit and poet famous for his movements against trials for witchcraft. Therefore, Spee’s mission was specifically centered on fighting torture. He strongly spoke against torture in general. Spee gave some powerful arguments why torture should not be a method of getting truth from someone under custody. He argues that the process of torture includes many painful practices and hence torture should not be trivialized. The Jesuit father argued that the alleged witch must obtain the support of a lawyer and/or legal defense. He pointed out the danger that torture would force even innocents to confess in order to get relieved of the pain. He claimed that torture is not likely to produce truth every time since those who are tortured may say lies or truth to end their own suffering. By strongly protesting against torture, he tries to promote the Jesuit spirituality notion - liberality of grace. While analyzing the features of the era in which Spee lived, it seems that witches had been widely hunted and killed all over the Western Europe as it was commonly believed that witches had dealings with the Devil. Although Spee had declared the existence of real witches, he noticed the fact that innocent people were also being tortured and killed. He also identified that many people confess before authorities simply to avoid pain of severe torture. The scream of victims who were burned alive gave him sleepless nights. This horrible social situation persuaded Spee to strongly protest against trials for witchcraft. In 1631, Spee wrote a book entitled Cautio Criminals strongly criticizing witch trials even though he did not reveal himself as the author of the book (New Advent, 2009). The priest worked hard to comfort accused women and taught them about God’s boundless mercy. Through his protests against torture, Spee greatly served the humanity as a whole. His services to the society are really praiseworthy while coming to the fact that churchmen in his time were reluctant to substantial attention to hunting, torture, and burning women alive allegedly for witchcraft. In addition, church people tolerated evils and often took part in mass judicial murder. Hence, Spee got little support from his counterparts. In addition, epidemic infection and the impacts of the Thirty Years’ War were also causing troubles to people. In order to give hope for people who were struggling with life difficulties, he wrote some poems praising the splendor of creation. He taught people to strongly believe in God in times of difficulties and vehemently pray for human wellbeing. His teachings and movements against witch hunting and torture made rulers and other churchmen really angry and they together tried to harm Spee in many ways. Even though an assassination attempt was made against Spee in 1629, he survived it and resumed his activities. Friedrich Spee died in 1635 suffering from an infection. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that Friedrich Spee completely followed Ignatian values and promoted the Jesuit tradition till the end of his life. He lived in a difficult social situation and specifically worked to eliminate the evils of torture and poverty. He argued that torture is not an effective method to produce truth because people often say lies to end pain of torture. He was very compassionate toward the women accused for witchcraft even though he had not got any support from his counterparts. He wrote books and poems to convince those women of God’s boundless mercy. In total, he was a great humanitarian who strictly followed the Jesuit tradition and values. References Modras, R. E. (2004). Ignitian Humanism:A Dynamic Spirituality for the 21st Century. Chicago: Loyola Press. New Advent. (2009). Friedrich Von Spee. Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14213b.htm Read More