Spiritual conversation was a key skill that Ignatius hoped to develop in the early Jesuits. As men educated in Renaissance humanism, debate came naturally to them, and to this they brought a determination to listen deeply to other points of view, whether those of the Protestant reformers in Europe or of the new and diverse cultures they encountered on their missionary journeys. To engage in spiritual conversation is not artificially to restrict talk to ‘holy’ subjects, but rather gradually to let a conversation deepen, to the point where both parties are able to recognise the God who is at work everywhere in the world and within each human heart. This conversational art has lost none of its relevance over the last five centuries.
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