Preparation for apostolic life appears in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus as an engaging and demanding experience. It is driven by the desire to attach oneself to Christ who is active in our world today.

St Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century provided a refreshingly original vision of religious formation. He conceived vocation as "a pathway to God", a dynamic of spiritual and human growth that unfolds in an ever deepening relationship with God.

How can the originality of the powerful Ignatian vision become effective today? How do successive formation environments provide support and challenge at each stage? How can social, intellectual and other human capacities develop in a way that they enhance a dynamic of growth and integration into an apostolic body?

The distance between reading a medieval text and facing contemporary challenges in religious formation can be daunting. Yet the tension between traditional concepts and contemporary insights, between letter and Spirit, between the universal and the individual becomes a source of unexpected fecundity in the life of those who actually begin to make progress on the Ignatian pathway to God.

This book is for those who are passionate about the viability of religious life in a contemporary world.