“… for Christian theology ’spirituality’ is really just another name for Christian life because Christian life is simply life in the Spirit.
“If this is right, however, then there are various consequences. In the first place, it makes no sense to think that ’spirituality’ could be a distinct part of Christian life, something one might be engaged in only some of the time. It doesn’t make sense to think of spirituality even as a constant accompaniment to the other, more mundane aspects of one’s life. It doesn’t make sense to think of spirituality as the bit of Christian life that happens when one is on one’s own, or a bit of Christian life that happens when one turns from action to contemplation, or a bit of Christian life that involves one escaping for a while from one’s responsibilities and relationships, or the bits of Christian life that take place when one is calm, centred and breathing slowly. We might even say that it doesn’t make sense - despite the impression given by popular accounts - to think that spirituality could be separated from institutions, traditions and doctrines. If life uplifted by the Spirit, life exploring the things of the Spirit, the life of learning and unlearning on the way to God, is the whole of Christian life, then it is just as much what Christians do together, what they do when they are organised, what they do when they are fulfilling their obligations, what they do when they talk and eat and work and relax and argue and calculate and decide. For Christian theology, spirituality covers the whole of Christian life.
“In the second place, … the work of the Spirit is to lead people before the Father, by shaping them after the Son. The Spirit is, for Christian theology, that power of God that lures and woos and impels and drives and enables and drags and excites people on journeys deeper into the God of Jesus Christ. ‘Spirituality’ can’t, in a Trinitarian context, be a name Christians give to some aspect of their lives that is related to the Spirit, as distinct from aspects that have to do with the Father and the Son. Things simply don’t divide up that way. And that means that Christians cannot separate a sphere of spirituality from the pursuit of the Father’s kingdom, opened up to them by the Son. Christians cannot separate a sphere of spirituality from the pursuit of love and justice in the world. There is, for Christian theology, no sphere of ’spirituality’ separable from the involvements, the compromises, the negotiations, the politics by which common life is formed, and by which the powers of injustice are challenged.”
Mike Higton, Christian Doctrine (London: SCM, 2008), pp.152-53.
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R.O. Flyer 11.18.09 at 2:32 pm
This is just fantastic. Thanks Kim.