Conor Kelly & Ryan Duns - Who Will You Become? An Ignatian Introduction to Catholic Theology

Who Will You Become by Conor M. Kelly and Ryan G. Duns, SJ is a highly engaging introduction to Catholic theology and Ignatian thought. Through thoughtful spiritual exercises and timely examples, Kelly and Duns offer students an invitation to develop discernment, both in the classroom and in everyday life. Read on for a Q&A with the authors to learn more about their students, the process of writing a collaborative book, and their concept of accessible theology.

You mention that your undergraduate students/graduate co-instructors helped you refine earlier versions of this book. What kind of feedback did they offer you, and what did you learn from them about students' relationships with Catholic theology?

We are grateful that this book has been “road tested” with hundreds of students and over a dozen instructors. Their feedback helped us clearly see where we were communicating well and where we needed to clarify or expand. Students consistently told us that they appreciated the real-life stories and practical connections, but they also asked for more straightforward explanations of key theological terms.

To give a concrete illustration, an earlier draft used an overly complicated story about a party and some stolen drinks in an effort to explain the theological notion of atonement. Feedback from students (corroborated by feedback from their instructors) underscored that this was too convoluted. We went back to the drawing board by focusing on the heart of the matter, so we identified social media as the space where the notion of being haunted by a past mistake and longing for redemption made the most sense.

Listening to our colleagues and their students taught us that many students are eager to engage with Catholic theology—not as an abstract system, but as something that can actually speak into their lives. The result is a text that doesn’t just “talk about” theology but also invites readers to find their own place within a living theological conversation.

Can you describe your processes for coming up with the spiritual exercises in each chapter?

Each of the book’s exercises grow out of our immersion in Ignatian spirituality. Some take the form of an Ignatian Examen—a way of pausing in the busyness of life to reflect on how God is present in one’s experience. Others adapt classic meditations from The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius for contemporary readers. In creating these exercises, we asked: how might this help a student not only think theologically but also practice discernment in daily life? Our hope is that the exercises don’t just illustrate theology; they also help cultivate the skill of spiritual discernment.

As with much of the book, we also had the opportunity to test and refine these exercises while working with our own students. We experimented with longer and shorter versions in some cases, and we landed on a sweet spot that we believe provides enough detail to foster reflection while also remaining condensed enough to serve as an in-class exercise focus exercise for students.

What was your favorite part of the brainstorming and/or writing process for this book?

What I (Ryan) loved most was the freedom we gave each other to be creative. We certainly wanted the book to convey theological content that readers can grasp, but just as importantly, we wanted it to spark imagination. That meant asking: How might theology help someone see their own life in a new light? How might it become not only informative but transformative? Chapter 4, for instance, gave me a chance to engage the genre of horror and use it to illustrate theological ideas in a new way. The material treated in this chapter eventually turned into a book entitled Theology of Horror. Overall, leaning into that creative space—where intellect and imagination meet—was the most energizing and enriching part of the writing process.

I (Conor) really enjoyed the challenge of identifying less conventional examples to illustrate central points throughout the text. I love that Batman Begins is the starting point of an extended analogy in one of the chapters and that the book pulls in everything from philosophers (both ancient and contemporary) to Harry Potter. The process of writing the book helped me think anew about the way theology intersects with ordinary life, a point that fits nicely with the Ignatian notion of finding God in all things.

What was it like to collaborate with each other, and what strengths do you feel each of you brought to the book?

Collaborating was both natural and enriching. We share a common formation—we both did our doctoral work at Boston College—so we started from many shared theological sensibilities. At the same time, our differences made the book stronger: Conor is married with two children and works in Christian ethics, while Ryan is a Jesuit priest and a systematic theologian. Those different life experiences and scholarly approaches meant that our conversations never stayed abstract; they always circled back to the lived reality of faith. The result is a book that models how theology can be more than an academic discipline, because, when practiced, it can become a credible way of life.

Why was it important for you to present Catholic theology in an accessible way?

We respect our students and readers, and it was important to us to present theology in a way that felt like an invitation rather than a lecture. For us, accessibility does not mean oversimplifying. It means opening doors—through stories, cultural references, and concrete spiritual practices—so that readers can see how the Catholic tradition might intersect with their own experience. Our hope is that readers come away not just understanding theology, but also starting to discern for themselves whether (and how) the Catholic faith can speak to and through their lives.