Conversation in the Spirit: A Guide to the Synodal Method

Conversation in the Spirit guides inclusive decision-making without debate, drawing the Spirit through every participant.

The Final document of the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024) was agreed using a method  some describe as the most expansive conversation in the history of the Church to date. Neither dialogue nor debate, neither democratic nor authoritarian, conversation in the Spirit encourages us to come together, recognising that the Spirit speaks in and through us all. As old as the church itself, conversation in the spirit was practised by St Augustine and St Ignatius of Loyola made it the basis for the Society of Jesus. It can inform decision-making at every level, from parish through to the local, regional and even universal Church.

In Conversation in the Spirit: A Guide to the Synodal Method, authors Juan A. Guerrero Alves SJ & Óscar Martín López SJ draw together the contributions of Augustine, Cassian and Ignatius, the formal documents of the synod, and practical examples of conversation in the Spirit in action. Working with Austen Ivereigh, Alves and López have prepared this revised English-language edition of a soon-to-be classic guide to synodality and discernment.

Óscar Martín López, SJ holds a master's degree in Latin American Social and Political Studies, and a doctorate in Philosophy. He is currently vice-rector of the Jesuit University of Paraguay, director of the reflection and dialogue journal Acción, and a member of the national Paraguayan synodal team.

An Ignatian layman who has done the eight-day Exercises for many years, Dr Ivereigh is Fellow in Contemporary Church History at the Jesuit-run Campion Hall in the University of Oxford, and has been involved at different levels in the synod on synodality. First Belong to God is based on a retreat he gave to the British Province of the Jesuits in 2020.

Ivereigh is the author of two renowned biographies of Pope Francis: The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (Henry Holt / Picador 2014/15) and Wounded Shepherd: Francis and his Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church (Henry Holt, 2019). He also collaborated with Pope Francis on his vision for the post-Covid world, the New York Times bestseller Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster).

Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves SJ is director of the St Ignatius Spirituality Centre in Salamanca. He served as provincial of the Province of Castile from 2008 to 2014. He was prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy of the Holy See from 2019-2022. He has written extensively in the field of Social and Political Philosophy and Ignatian Spirituality.