The Theologic-spiritual Language of Art. The Message of Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s Temple, in Bogotá

Abstract

This article sees the light as the result of a research accomplished at the Xaverian Historic Archives, in Bogotá. The investigation allowed the author to have direct access to the documentary files gathered from different national and international archives, on the goods and chattels which made up the decoration of the church owned by the Society of Jesus in Santa Fe de Bogotá. The actual enclosure, in its decoration, has been modified over the years, having been adapted to the taste of the epoch and to the historic circumstances by which it has been marked, like the fact that it was converted into pro-Cathedral, after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Kingdom of Spain, in the latter part of the 18th century.
Thus, the claim of this article is to try to unveil the first level of the theological-spiritual and didactic reading of the original decorative ensemble of the temple that belonged and still belongs, to the Society of Jesus. Therefore, we will realize a reflection on how the image, the art, that was used always by the Catholic Church to transmit the faith, is a fundamental tool to express a theological content which could be understood by the persons who contemplated it; and we will propose the possible keys of reading, obviously, from the point of view of the Ignatian spirituality, so as to explain from it, the message that the Jesuits were sending to the Bogotanian people, or to any other faithful, who would enter into the sacred place.