Pilgrimage and the Spirit of the Church: Between Movement and Synodality

2024 Jesuit Lecture with Rev. André Brouillette, SJ, PhD/STD

  • Andre Brouillette

  • March 20, 2024 - 7:00 PM

    Theatre 100, St. Paul's College

    Fr. André Brouillette, is a Jesuit from Rivière-du-Loup (Québec), who earned graduate degrees in philosophy, history, and theology in France, Canada, and the United States, completing a dual doctorate degree from the Institut Catholique de Paris and the Université Laval (Québec). He joined the faculty of the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry in 2014, where he is currently Associate Professor of Systematic and Spiritual Theology. An expert on St. Teresa of Avila, he specializes in 16th and 17th century spiritual theology and history, and pilgrimage studies. His first book, Le lieu du salut: Une pneumatologie d’incarnation chez Thérèse d’Ávila, was translated in English under the title, Teresa of Avila, the Holy Spirit, and the Place of Salvation. His second monograph, The Pilgrim Paradigm: Faith in Motion, explores the theology of pilgrimage. He is also the co-editor of Pilgrimage as Spiritual Practice: A Handbook for Teachers, Guides, and Wayfarers. He is also the general editor of the Classics of Western Spirituality series by Paulist Press.

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ABOUT THE LECTURE: 

The image of the Pilgrim Church is both ancient and new. Since time immemorial, Christians have undertaken journeys to important shrines, and later drew on this experience a vibrant understanding of their faith journey. St. Ignatius of Loyola, among others, had been a pilgrim and later used the pilgrim metaphor to express the transformation of his years of spiritual maturation. With the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the notion of a Church constitutively in motion gained prominence, as the Church managed a shifting conception of herself, from empire to pilgrimage. This more dynamic self-understanding, still unfolding, opened the way to a renewed attention to the Spirit animating fellow pilgrims, and to the ‘walking together’ that is synodality.