Ignatian Spirituality as a Foundation for African Theology of Politics

Abstract

In order to get a good insight into any academic discourse, it is always safe to start with some sort of anthropological supposition(s). How does a discourse understand what it means to be human would be lead question? One can actually say that the divisions of academic disciplines are based on different discourses of being human. It is thus that we hear about homo-economicus, homo-politicus, to mean the discourse on humans as agents of economic and political activities. Theology - the discourses on God that is engaged by humans - presupposes that humans are beyond the factual bodies and activities. Based on this claim, theology asserts that spiritual (metaphysical) realm does have an influence in the physical manifestation of personal and societal life. Theological anthropological discourse could be considered an effort to publicly acknowledge the “fact” of this influence, and tease out how things fit in. Such anthropological presupposition underlines and underwrites this article. It is my belief that while there are distinctions in discourse between human beings acting and living in the political and spiritual arenas, the distinctions in discourse do not warrant division in influence. In fact, mutual influence is desirable when one looks at the run-away situation of the political life in Africa which seems to be heading towards unnecessary political aporia. This paper modestly seeks to draw attention to this desir-able influence, and suggest its urgency nowadays in the political life of the continent. The use of Christian theology and Ignatian Spirituality is indicative of the possibility of this mutual influence. The arguments, its manner of deployment and its cogency are indicative of the plausibility of the influence. The disciplines of Spirituality and political theology provide the context for this essay. In all, the objective is to enable humans live a holistic life.