Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the

Church, by Peter Feldmeier, (Winona, MN: Anselm

Academic, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Peter Feldmeier.
All rights reserved. www.anselmacademic.org

1
Chapter

What Is Spirituality?

M odern interest in spirituality is big and growing. One needs only to enter
a major bookstore to f ind a plethora of books devoted to the subject.
These include works on religious doctrine, the new age movement, mysticism,
self -help books, and many other subjects. Many are practical, dealing with
such topics as how to pray, how to inf use marriage with religious meaning,
or how to develop a twelve-step spirituality. Others are more exotic, promis-
ing wisdom f rom indigenous traditions or esoteric teachings f rom the East.
Still others use the term “spirituality” quite loosely, applying it to such things
as optimal golf games or wholesome business strategies. What seems clear
from such titles and themes is that the term itself is very unclear. Even trained
scholars struggle to agree on a def inition. The f amous Anglican theologian
John Macquarrie considers that spirituality “has to do with becoming a person
in the fullest sense.” Leading Protestant spirituality scholar Gordon Wakefield
says that it “describes those attitudes, beliefs, and practices which animate peo-
ple’s lives and help them to reach out towards super-sensible realities.” And
f inally, f ormer Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams speaks of “each
believer making his or her own that engagement with the questioning at the
heart of faith.”1
Each of these def initions has problems. Macquarrie’s is a bit vague and
assumes a modern bias toward f lourishing in all dimensions of human lif e,
whereas a number of traditional spiritualities would not see biological health
as a necessary component. Regarding Wakefield’s definition, many spiritualities,
such as Buddhist, might quarrel with the idea that spirituality must involve the
pursuit of super-sensible realities. Even Williams’s definition can be faulted on
the grounds that some persons’ “questioning” might be rather superficial.

1. John Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 40; Gordon Wake-
field, “Spirituality,” in Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, ed. G. Wakefield (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1983), 361; Rowan Williams, Christian Spirituality: A Theological History from the New
Testament to Luther and St. John of the Cross (Atlanta: John Knox, 1979), 1. See Sandra Schneiders,
“Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners?” Horizons 13, no 2 (1986): 265–66.

7
8  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

Ewert Cousins, the general editor of the monumental series, World Spir-
ituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, af ter wrestling with the
problem, finally settled on this definition: Spirituality is “that inner dimension of
the person called by certain traditions ‘the spirit.’ This spiritual core is the deep-
est center of the person. It is here that the person is open to the transcendent
dimension; it is here that the person experiences ultimate reality.”2 Cousins’s
def inition could be f aulted f or characterizing spirituality as something solely
personal, with little attention to spiritual movements that focus on such goals as
social justice or environmental responsibility.
Sandra Schneiders, a leader in the field of spirituality, argues that every spir-
ituality has six analyzable components:

• An understanding of human nature and the human condition from a

theological perspective.
• An ultimate horizon. Whether this ultimate horizon is God, union with
God, or perhaps Nirvana, there is always something that represents a
spiritualty’s foundational concern or absolute value.
• A path to that ultimate horizon, a way of life or series of stages that helps
aspirants attain the ultimate horizon.
• Typical experiences that represent advancement on the path.
• Integration of the person or community of persons that represents increas-
ingly broad flourishing along the path.
• Specific values that are core and necessary to uphold and pursue.

Many scholars find this framework useful, both for exploring a particular
spirituality and f or comparing dif f erent spiritualities. In my doctoral disser-
tation, I used Schneiders’s strategy f ruitf ully to compare the spiritualities of
sixteenth century mystic John of the Cross and fifth century Buddhist scholar
Buddhaghosa. Each of Schneiders’s categories helped me comprehensively
map their respective understandings of the human person, the respective nature
of union with God and Nirvana, how to proceed to that ultimate horizon, what
one would typically expect as one proceeded along the path, the kinds of spir-
itual healing that corresponded to different stages of spiritual growth, and the
key values one would have to maintain progress.
Schneiders’s account also helpfully exposes the limitations of some spir-
itualities. For example, twelve-step spiritualities, such as one might f ind
in Alcoholics Anonymous and similar recovery models, of ten prove helpf ul in
addressing addiction, but off er no real sense of who or what God is. Rather,

2. Ewert Cousins, “Pref ace,” in Christian Spirituality, ed. Bernard McGinn, John Meyendorf f ,
and Jean Leclercq (New York: Continuum, 1988), 1:xiii.
 What Is Spirituality?   9

Spiritual but not Religious

Many Americans today say they are “spiritual but not religious.”
Some who say this mean that they believe themselves spiritually
attuned to God or transcendental principle in the universe, but
are not members of a religious organization. Others mean that
they are committed to specific spiritual practices, typically com-
ing from a religious tradition, but are not formally members of
that religion. Others mean that, although they do not participate
in religious practices, neither do they consider themselves athe-
ists. Scholars and religious leaders alike often recognize that the
“spiritual but not religious” posture sometimes reflects a princi-
pled intellectual stance against religious dogma or institutional
dysfunction. But the phrase is vague, and sometimes persons use it
without actually thinking through what it means to be “spiritual
but not religious.”

they imagine God only as “a higher power.” They also pursue no ultimate goal
beyond recovering from addiction and assuming personal responsibility for one’s
past behavior. Their understanding of the human condition is limited to the
recognition of one’s powerlessness to resist addiction. In light of the six com-
ponents, twelve-step recovery programs don’t embody a full-fledged spirituality,
which involves the whole person in a comprehensive way or contains a clear
agenda for pursuing transcendence.
Schneiders’s account, however, also has its limitations. Some spiritualities
simply do not fit this model very well. Native American spiritualities, for exam-
ple, do not lay out a clear path with well-defined stages of growth. Daoist and
Shinto spiritualities do not have an ultimate horizon. And even the Ignatian
spirituality from the Roman Catholic tradition does not seem to fit Scheiders’s
account well, as explained in chapter 10.
Another helpf ul f raming of the study of spirituality comes f rom Michael
Buckley, who, together with Schneiders, started the first comprehensive doctoral
program for spirituality in the United States. Buckley says that every spiritual-
ity deals with a theology of God, an understanding about what it means to be
human, and ways or means to union with the Divine. To these three concerns, he
adds questions related to religious experience:

1. What types of experience gave rise to and foster this spiritual perspective?
2. How were these experiences originally expressed?
10  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

3. What theology do these experiences foster?

4. How are such theologies and experiences communicated?3

In the academic f ield of spirituality, many scholars resonate with the

approaches of Schneiders and Buckley, in large part because both recognize the
crucial importance of experience. Spirituality is simply dominated by the dynamics
of religious experience. Both approaches express profound encounters with God,
ways of engaging God and the world, and the dynamics of inner transf orma-
tion. Furthermore, both approaches also recognize the necessity of situating that
experience in a structure of theological beliefs and commitments. Every religious
experience and path comes with assumptions about how God and nature work,
and every experience has to be interpreted. Finally, both approaches emphasize
that spirituality is about religious practices and their transformational possibilities.
This book will address Christian spirituality mostly through the interpretive lenses
of both Schneiders’s and Buckley’s models. Some spiritualities easily fall into the
framing we find in Schneiders’s model, and with these her model is most helpful.
Others with a less clear path can be best examined with Buckley’s framework.
Most contemporary scholarship on spirituality also embraces several other
f actors, including the understanding that spirituality as such is not necessarily
Christian. There are Buddhist spiritualities, Hindu spiritualities, Native Amer-
ican spiritualities, and so on. Because a number of spiritualities can exist even
within a given religious tradition, scholars increasingly see spirituality in a less
dogmatic or universally prescriptive way. There is no “one-size-fits-all” spiritu-
ality that guarantees holiness or can claim to be the only way to become holy.
Given such considerations, studies in spirituality overall show less interest in an
abstract goal of “perfection” and more interest in ongoing spiritual growth.
Finally, the study of spirituality is invested in everything that gives meaning
to human growth and f lourishing. Thus the field tends to be holistic, encom-
passing concerns about the environment, justice, prayer, primary relations, reli-
gious community, and so forth. Because spirituality incorporates so many aspects
of the human condition, it is also interdisciplinary. Since spirituality involves
community, it dialogs with sociology. Since it includes issues of justice, spiritu-
ality works with moral philosophy. Since it is concerned with human develop-
ment, spirituality partners with the field of psychology. Indeed, spirituality has
become so interdisciplinary that one can even find books in the field focusing
on how quantum theory impacts meditation. Many studies, such as this one,
show particular interest in historical and theological issues. Although scholars in
spirituality cannot acquire expertise in every relevant field, they tend to have a
sound understanding of several fields and apply insights from various disciplines
to illuminate their particular areas of inquiry.

3. Michael Buckley, “Seventeenth Century French Spirituality: Three Figures,” in Christian Spir-
ituality, ed. Louis Dupré and Don Saliers (New York: Crossroad, 1991), 3:31–32.
 What Is Spirituality?   11

Scholar as Insider
A scholar of spirituality is typically something of an insider, that
is, someone who has a personal knowledge of the subject. While
it would be inappropriate for the scholar to be essentially work-
ing autobiographically, it has become obvious in the field that
the most creative and insightful work is done by those who have
a participative knowledge of spirituality. Sandra Schneiders writes,
“The researcher must know the spiritual quest by personal experi-
ence if he or she is able to understand the phenomena of spiritual-
ity. . . . A purely disinterested phenomenological approach seems
inappropriate if not impossible for spirituality.”4 Schneiders com-
pares spirituality to other fields where participation is critical: “Like
psychology, spirituality deals with material that cannot be under-
stood except through analogy with personal experience. It is diffi-
cult to imagine that one could understand mysticism, discernment
of spirits, or spiritual direction without some personal participation
in a spiritual life in which these phenomena or their analogues
were experienced.”5

Christian Spirituality as a Field of Study

History of the Term
In Christianity the term “spirituality” has an interesting and varied history.
The English word derives from the Latin spiritualitas, which itself is a trans-
lation influenced by the Greek noun pneuma (spirit). In the New Testament,
the term pneuma refers both to the Holy Spirit and to the life of God working
within the believer. It is this lif e of God working within that makes some-
one pneumatikos (spiritual). Jesus, in John’s Gospel, emphasizes a rebirth in
the Spirit and in truth ( John 3:2–8; 4:23), and both Luke’s Gospel and Acts
of the Apostles have the Spirit establishing the community of believers (Luke
4:14; Acts 2:32–33). So integral is the Spirit to the presence of the risen Lord
that Saint Paul even identifies the Christ with the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Saint
Paul also sees the nature of a Christian as entering the sphere of the Spirit
(1 Cor. 6:17), and the indwelling presence of God makes one a “spiritual per-
son” (1 Cor. 2:14–15). In the Vulgate, a late fourth-century Latin translation of

4. Sandra Schneiders, “Theology and Spirituality,” Horizons 13, no. 2 (1986): 268.
5. Sandra Schneiders, “Spirituality and the Academy,” Theological Studies 50, no. 4 (1989): 694–95.
 12  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

the Bible, Saint Jerome used the term “spiritual” (spiritualis) twenty-two times as a
translation of pneumatikos. The noun form of the term appeared in a fifth-century
letter ascribed to Jerome: “Age ut in spiritualite perfecias” (Act in order to grow in
spirituality).6 This is the way the early
church typically used the term, and
there was no real change in its usage
through the f irst half of the Middle
Ages.
In the twelf th century, Saint
Thomas Aquinas continued to use
spiritualitas to mean something like
pneumatikos, but he also used the term
to ref er to that which distinguishes
humans from other animals. For Aqui-
nas, humans have a “rational soul,” that
is they have the ability to ref lect, pur-
sue morality, and direct their lives to
God. Thus they are “spiritual” beings.
In contrast, other animals are irrational
and have no soul or spirit. In his six-
teenth-century Vocabulary of Theology,
Johannes Altenstaig noted that the
adjective “spiritual” ref erred to ways
of acting religiously. It also referenced
the kinds of spiritual exercises, such
Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images

as meditation, that f reed the soul

f rom complete dependence on the
senses. In the seventeenth century,
the term was sometimes used pejo-
ratively. “Spiritual people” were crit-
icized as those who withdrew f rom
the community or thought they were
Acts chapter 2 describes the coming of the above standard expressions of the
Holy Spirit upon the apostles in the form of f aith. By the eighteenth and nine-
“divided tongues, as of fire.” The artist El teenth century, “spirituality” tended
Greco has added another traditional image
of the Spirit: the dove. to be replaced by “devotion” (Catho-
lic preference) or “piety” (evangelical
preference) or even “perfection” (Methodist preference). Not until the twentieth
century, with the publication of the Dictionaire de spiritualité (1932), did the

6. As cited in Bernard McGinn, “The Letter and the Spirit: Spirituality as an Academic Dis-
cipline,” in Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality, ed. Elizabeth Dreyer and Mark
Burrows (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 25–41, at 26.
 What Is Spirituality?   13

term “spirituality” return to standard, widespread use. Later that century, jour-
nals took up the term. The journal Révue d’ascétique et de mystique renamed itself
Révue d’histoire de la spiritualité in 1972, and in 1978 Cross and Crown became
Spirituality Today.7

Emphases in the Study of Christian Spirituality

The study of Christian spirituality has a number of emphases. One emphasis, as
noted earlier, is experience. From the beginning, the scriptures depict apostles
and other early disciples as having experienced Jesus as risen and among them.
They also experienced the Spirit, who both animated their f aith in Jesus and
guided their lives. Above all, Christian spirituality is interested in making sense
of various expressions of God’s interaction with persons and communities, and
the transformations they have experienced because of it.
Another emphasis is the use of scripture. The Bible provides the core
themes, metaphors, and grand narratives out of which Christians make sense of
God’s revelation in Christ. The Bible, as the first and foremost witness in Chris-
tian revelation, serves as a primary source for Christian spirituality.
Theological categories—and in some denominations, church doctrines—
keep spirituality grounded in the Christian tradition. Thus theology constitutes
another essential emphasis. Important theological themes and doctrines, such
as church, grace, the Trinity, and salvation, have become normative and pro-
vide central teachings. Christian spirituality is not the study of such themes or
doctrines—such as grace,8 for example—per se, but every Christian spirituality
would necessarily deal with grace uniquely as it is experienced in that partic-
ular spirituality. Still, an authentic Christian spirituality would be assessed on
whether or not its expression of grace proved theologically adequate.
Another emphasis involves history. As the saying goes, “You are your his-
tory,” and most studies in spirituality investigate classic historical models,
whether from the monastic movement, Carmelite spirituality, Ignatian spiritu-
ality, or some other source. Even modern day expressions of spirituality tend
to have a pedigree in previous historical models, although one cannot simply
embrace a given historical model as though the culture from which it came were
one’s own. Saint Francis of Assisi’s spirituality was rooted in many medieval
themes, including assumptions about the body and its relationship to the soul, the
centrality of Christ’s Passion as expressed in the church, and how the incarnation
ought to be modeled in the Christian. This spirituality was also culturally con-
textualized by f eudalism and a new burgeoning capitalism, widespread poverty,
monarchies, chivalry, and other factors specific to that era. His situation diff ers

7. Ibid., 28.
8. Grace is a theological theme that investigates God’s favor and saving presence.
14  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

greatly f rom the contemporary one, so a critical dialog between cultures will
comprise a necessary part of any historical study.
Working with historical models tends to involve three major aspects. First,
historical studies call for a thick description of everything relevant to the spiritu-
ality and the culture out of which it emerged—what could be called the “what
is it?” phase of the study. Second, critical analysis seeks to make sense of it all,
including problems and biases of the time that one would not want to export
to today. One could call this the “what does it mean?” phase of the study. Third,
constructive interpretation entails extrapolating the insights and genius of such a
spirituality and finding ways to make these relevant to today, or the “what can it
mean for us?” phase of the study.

Essential Characteristics of Christian Spirituality

While every Christian spirituality is unique, each contains universal and bib-
lically grounded elements that express core values of Christian identity. Many
scholars studying a given spirituality highlight how these elements are expressed
in it, and some spiritualities are critiqued when one or more of the f ollowing
elements is missing.

Christian Spirituality Is a Life of Grace and Faith

Most scholars would agree that the most important theologian in Christianity
is Saint Paul. His letters, f ound in the New Testament, continue to inf luence
both Christian theology and spirituality. Perhaps Paul’s most important concern
is grace: God’s favor and life within us. Paul says that grace justifies Christians
before God, making them acceptable to God, and spiritually animates their souls
(Rom. 3:9, 22–24). Grace is also a gift. Christians believe that they cannot earn
salvation by works, but rather that it comes only by God’s gift of himself.
If God’s grace is what saves, what is the appropriate human response to it?
Paul’s answer is “faith.” So united are faith and grace that he will even say in
shorthand that human beings are “justified by faith” (Rom. 3:28, 5:1). What is
faith? Paul does not equate it merely with belief or accepting doctrines about
one’s religion. Rather, faith represents entrusting oneself to God wholly. It is,
from the human side, the dynamism of one’s heart and mind to open oneself
to God, to trust and follow God. Although faith is sometimes thought of as
“belief without evidence,” such a perspective is not Christian and would be
referred to as “bad faith” or “blind faith.” Rather, the experience of the liber-
ating grace of God provides the initial evidence, and one responds to it with
one’s whole heart.
The life of faith is one of increasing spiritual freedom. Paul says in Gala-
tians, “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to
 What Is Spirituality?   15

the yoke of slavery” (5:1). Christianity understands human sinfulness as a kind

of slavery, while the life of faith represents the true flourishing of a free person.
This new kind of freedom is not freedom to do whatever one wants, if what one
wants is sin, but rather freedom to love. In Martin Luther’s classic, On Christian
Liberty, he writes, “I shall set down the following two propositions concerning
freedom and bondage of the spirit: A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, sub-
ject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”9 In
this seeming paradox, Luther shows how freedom works. Being truly free means
being in the position to serve others and serving, not by compulsion or to prove
anything, but because the very nature of freedom is to live the full Christian life
of loving care.

Christian Spirituality Is Life in the Spirit

As noted above, Paul believed that being spiritual meant living in the Holy
Spirit and attending to the Spirit’s inf luence in one’s lif e: “The f ruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). Here Paul uses this listing to describe the kind of
person whose life is infused with the Spirit.
The greatest sign of the animating presence of the Spirit, according to
Paul, is the soul’s transformation in love. Paul teaches, “Owe nothing to any-
one, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the
law” (Rom. 13:8). Jesus too taught that all of the Old Testament law could be
summed up as love: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first com-
mandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The
whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matt.
22:37–40). Love is, f or Jesus, the new and complete commandment ( John
13:34; 15:10). Indeed 1 John declares that “God is love” (4:8). So central is
this expression of the Christian life that one could safely say that with love one
has God within oneself and without love one has no communion with God
(1 John 2:10–11).

Christian Spirituality Is Christocentric

A fundamental goal of an authentic Christian spirituality consists of entering
into a progressively deeper intimacy with Jesus Christ. Paul even described
baptism as being “baptized into Christ” (Rom. 16:3), that is, immersed both
in him and “into” him. This intimacy with Christ proves crucial to Christian

9. Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty, trans. W. A. Lambert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,

2003), 2.
16  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

spirituality. In Jesus’ final prayer, he prays, “So that they may all be one, as you,
Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. . . . I in them and
you in me” ( John 17:21–23).
This Christocentric principle also involves incorporating the fundamental
mysteries of Christ. For Christians, the Incarnation of Christ not only creates
the condition whereby God and humanity are united in him, it also provides
a model for taking on the divine life within oneself. As Saint Augustine said,
“God became human that humanity might become God.”10 Here Augustine
is not suggesting that humans actually exchange their human nature f or the
divine nature, but rather that the incarnation allows humanity to participate in
God’s life radically. The very nature of human existence becomes infused with
divine possibilities.
Another f undamental mystery of the Christian f aith is the cross. Every
Christian spirituality in some way embraces the cross or a kind of personal dying
to self. The cross represents God’s solidarity with suffering humanity. According
to Christian theology, God in Christ literally became united to the very broken-
ness of the human condition and entered into that darkness with healing love.
In Philippians, Paul pleads with community members to take on the mind of
Christ, who emptied himself for humanity (Phil. 2:5–8). God’s love is revealed
here as self-donation. For Christians, the cross can represent a kind of dying to
one’s sinful self, the self that separates one from God and others. Paradoxically,
the very dying to oneself and living for God becomes the condition of finding
oneself in God’s love.
The cross intrinsically connects to the Resurrection, and authentic Chris-
tian spirituality upholds this essential component. Paul proclaims, “If Christ
has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1
Cor. 15:14). For Christianity the victory of the Resurrection already empowers
believers to new life (Phil. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:3).

Christian Spirituality Is Trinitarian

Even as Christian spirituality emphasizes Jesus as the “one mediator between
God and the human race” (1 Tim. 2:5), it yet maintains an understanding of
God as Trinity. A typical expression of this Trinitarian thrust can be seen, f or
example, in the directive to pray to the Father through the Son in the Holy
Spirit. The meaning of the Trinity is difficult to understand. According to the
dogmas of the patristic church, Christianity does not believe in three separate
beings who all have the divine nature. Nor is there one God who expresses
himself in three ways. Rather, the Trinity reflects something of the communal
dynamism of the one God.

10. Augustine, Serm. 13.

 What Is Spirituality?   17

One might consider it thus:

the Holy Spirit is the spiritual
context through which the risen
Lord is known. Christian spiri-
tuality is a manifestation of life
in the Spirit. The Father rep-
resents the eternal source of the
Son and Holy Spirit. Augustine,
among others, described the
Trinity through the dynamic
of love. If God is love, then a
Pictures from History / Bridgeman Images

lover (Father) needs a beloved

(Son), and when they share
that love, it redounds to the
lovers in creative power (Holy
Spirit). Love is triune.
The Holy Spirit is the lif e
of the church because the Spirit
The Trinity is notoriously difficult to represent is the common good of the
in art. This beautiful icon by Rublev (ca. 1360– Father and the Son. The Spirit
1430) might be misunderstood as suggesting inf uses believers with God’s
that the three persons are separate beings.
love. The Son, now incarnate, is
the very access to the Father, even as intimacy with the Word is conditioned by
the Spirit.

Christian Spirituality Is Communal

Paul envisions the community of believers as the Body of Christ, with Christ as
the head (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12–13). Although a metaphor, Paul saw it as an
apt description of the true nature of Christian identity. During the Second Vat-
ican Council (1962–1965), the Roman Catholic Church described the universal
call to holiness as intrinsically communal: “It has pleased God, however, to make
men holy and save them not merely as individuals without any mutual bonds,
but by making them into a single people, a people which acknowledges Him in
truth and serves Him in holiness.”11 The importance of this principle can hardly
be overstated. Christianity, by its nature, is a communion of believers, praying
together, actively supporting each other’s f aith, and mutually discerning God’s
presence in their personal lives and community.

11. Lumen Gentium, no. 9, The Documents of Vatican II, general ed. Walter Abbott, trans. Joseph
Gallagher (New York: Guild Press, 1966).
18  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

Christian Spirituality Is Just

The communal nature of Christian spirituality means that believers can never
reduce the faith to merely “God and me” (and nobody else). Rather, spirituality
has to include community and indeed the world, especially with regard to issues
of justice. To ignore human suffering is to fail as a Christian, and a spirituality
that does not attend to injustice is seriously def icient. As the Letter of James
says, “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and
one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not
give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?” (2:15–16).
This challenge by James is echoed throughout the Bible, particularly with the
prophets. Isaiah described the true religious behavior as one of justice (58:1–9),
and Jeremiah insisted that the temple would be forever defiled unless oppression
against the poor was reversed (7:3–11). Amos even taught that Israel’s offerings
to God were a blasphemy when justice was not attended to in the land (4:4–5).
Justice comprises one of the great themes of the Bible and the Christian tradition.

Christian Spirituality Is Prayerful

The Christian tradition has widely insisted that prayer provides the cornerstone
for intimacy with God. Origen, one of the great minds of the patristic era, writes,
“Let our whole life be a constant prayer, because the Kingdom of God is estab-
lished in all who bear the image of the man from heaven.”12 Intimacy with Jesus
and solicitude to the movements of the Spirit on one’s soul constitute a central
aspect of Christian spirituality. The Christian tradition has widely insisted that
such intimacy and solicitude are best cultivated through a life of prayer. Praise
and worship order the soul to God, who is the source of all good. Petitionary
prayer recognizes the universal need for God’s blessings. Meditation allows God
to work in the soul through reflection on spiritual truths, particularly by using
the Bible. Contemplation represents the soul’s silent longing for and openness to
direct knowledge of God in one’s soul. Prayer is simply indispensable to authen-
tic Christian spirituality.

Christian Spirituality Sees Divinization

as Its Ultimate Horizon
Sandra Schneiders saw every spirituality as having an ultimate horizon. Christi-
anity’s ultimate reference is the triune God. It could be argued, however, that its
ultimate horizon, the ultimate end of the path, is actually divinization. The early
church called this theōsis, which literally means “becoming God.” This is not a

12. Origen, On Prayer 22.5. Translation from Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer and
Selected Works, trans. Rowan Greer (New York: Paulist Press, 1979), 125.
 What Is Spirituality?   19

literal, metaphysical change from human nature to the divine nature, but refers
to living God’s life as God lives God’s life. Paul considered discipleship as living
the very life of Christ within, bearing Christ’s likeness and glory, becoming the
very holiness of God and being filled with God.13 The profound goal that Paul
foresees is “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
The First Letter of John also suggests a divinization, where on the last
day all will be “like him” (3:2) and become “as he is” (4:17). Perhaps the most
explicit description comes from the Second Letter of Peter: “His divine power
has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion. . . . Through
these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that
through them you may come to share in the divine nature” (1:3–4).
The spiritual tradition is replete with descriptions of this radical divine
union. Christians do not imagine heaven merely as some place to go where one
will be in the proximity of God. Rather, it is a full union with God where one
lives in and through the Divine. As explored in later chapters, Christians believe
that it is possible to experience in this lif e a kind of union that dramatically
anticipates this future state.

Putting the Elements Together

The above-mentioned elements may seem quite abstract, but collectively they
represent a robust Christian expression. To illustrate how these elements might
come together in practice, let us imagine a new and f ully engaged adult con-
vert; we might call her Mary. Mary recognized that her life was flat and deeply
lacking. She began investigating Christianity and came to see that it could pro-
vide direction and meaning—even ultimate meaning—to her life. Mary became
baptized and fully took on the Christian faith. Placing her heart and soul in the
hands of God felt like a great act of faith, which was both exciting and a little
scary. Quite quickly she felt an astonishing inner freedom and communion with
God. Mary began to develop a regular prayer life where she often felt close to
God. Further, her church became like a second f amily and a place where she
could continue to progress in her faith. Other members of her church also felt
blessed by her enthusiasm, and it turned out that she was already ministering
to others by her young witness to the gospel. The church was committed to
service projects in the city and Mary quickly became conscious of Christiani-
ty’s insistence of pursuing a just world. Mary’s burgeoning Christian spirituality
felt like a complete whole: God was filling her with love and her love naturally
flowed out to want to help others. As Mary continued to grow in her faith life,
her experience of God progressively ref lected her truest, deepest self. She was
getting a hint of what heaven must be like—living God’s life.

13. See Rom. 8:14–17; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:19–20.
20  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

Recurrent Themes in the Spiritual Tradition

When considering the variety of ways of being Christian, regular themes emerge.
Each recurrence comes with a dif f erent f raming or new way of considering a
given theme. These include the following:

The Way
A common theme in the Christian spiritual tradition is that Christianity poses a
new way of life, one that is daunting, but ultimate. One of the oldest designations
for Christians was that they were followers of “the way.”14 Jesus referred to this
new way as utterly challenging and yet life-giving: “Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter
through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to
life. And those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13–14). Early Christian texts echo
this. The Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (ca. 90 CE) begins, “There
are two ways, one of lif e and the other of death, and there is a great dif f erence
between these two ways.”15 The Epistle of Barnabas (ca. 100 CE) concludes part
of an exhortation, “This, therefore, is the way of light.” The epistle then contrasts
it with “the way of the black one,” which is “crooked and completely cursed.”16
One insight in taking the image of “the way” is that the Christian lif e is
something decidedly dif f erent f rom the ordinary road people travel. It is sup-
posed to mean something truly decisive and unique. To be Christian is to think,
look, and be different. A second insight is that the way is a road on which one
advances. No one should expect to become holy in a day. As one progresses
along the path, there will be setbacks, failures, and the realization that spiritual
transformation comes slowly. It’s a process.

Discipleship
Discipleship emerges as another common theme. The term “disciple” literally
means “one who learns,” and it refers to a follower. One of the most interesting
dynamics in the Gospels is just how much the disciples had to learn from Jesus,
and indeed how slow they often were to understand him. Similar to the idea that
Christian spirituality is a way on which one progresses, discipleship is an ongoing
learning process. Many Christians have reported that meditating on the scriptures
or other religious texts through their adult lives gives them ever more to con-
sider and incorporate in their lives. While Christian f aith includes learning the

14. See Acts 9:2; 19:9; 22:4; 24:19; Heb. 10:20.

15. Didache 1.1. Translation from The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael Holmes, trans. J. B. Lightfoot
and J. R. Hamer, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 149.
16. The Epistle of Barnabas 19–20. Translation from The Apostolic Fathers, 185–86.
 What Is Spirituality?   21

doctrines and practices within one’s Christian tradition, above all it requires learn-
ing in terms of being a follower of Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), in
his seminal work The Cost of Discipleship, offers a telling insight into discipleship:

Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the

object of adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. . . . Chris-
tianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without dis-
cipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity
without Christ.”17

What Bonhoeffer means here is that discipleship has to be more than just agree-
ing with doctrines; it must focus on profoundly knowing and following Christ,
and at great cost.

The Three-Fold Pattern

A third regular theme is that of the three-f old progression of purgation, illumi-
nation, and union. Many classic f ormulations of interior growth and conversion
assume this three-f old progress. The central idea underpinning purgation is that
spiritual growth and maturity require moral progress that purges one from disor-
dered attachments and habitual sins. For example, being a heavy drinker or prone to
anger profoundly limits the possibilities of spiritual growth. Such sinful dispositions
undercut spiritual progress and intimacy with God. Christians regularly claim that
opening one’s life to God’s grace and diligently working to curb these disorders is
a necessary f oundation. The purged soul then has the f reedom and spaciousness
to pray more sincerely and with a fuller, purer heart. This provides the context in
which one may come to a deeper knowledge of God’s indwelling: the illuminative
way. Further progress then allows the soul to come to know God in deep experi-
ences of union whereby the soul and God regularly unite—even interpenetrate—
and one gains a habitual knowledge of God’s presence within: the unitive way.

A Path
Many Christian spiritualities describe the spiritual journey in terms of a spe-
cif ic set of stages. While the three-f old pattern listed above of f ers a path of
sorts, many spiritualities articulate a more detailed series of stages that repre-
sent a spiritual course with defined markers. They frame one’s ascent to union
with God as a step-by-step process. The most famous patristic text describing
such a path is Saint John Climacus’s (525–606) The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in
which he describes thirty specific steps to spiritual purification. The first three

17. Dietrich Bonhoef f er, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R. H. Fuller (New York: Touchstone,
1995), 59.
22  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

ref erence a skillf ul decision to embrace the monastic lif e. The next f our have
to do with the kinds of virtues a new monk has to cultivate. The ensuing six-
teen involve practices one should embrace as a means to undermine inordinate
passions, such as anger or lust. The three that f ollow involve particularly sen-
sitive interior virtues that condition deep contemplative prayer. And the f inal
four reference ever-deepening expressions of prayer, with the final step involv-
ing outright union with God. Devotees to this program did not slavishly follow
each step with no concern about issues in more advanced steps. Still, Climacus
insisted that one has to crawl before one can walk, walk before on can run, and
run before one can fly. There is an ordered progression.
Many other expressions of spiritual advancement lay out a relatively stable
path. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) expressed an ever deepening reli-
gious life through the metaphor of types of spiritual kisses. Saint Catherine of
Sienna (1347–1380) imagined levels of spiritual tears representing the soul’s
progress. Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173) described the path of spirituality
as involving twelve steps corresponding to the spiritual meaning of the twelve
patriarchs in the Old Testament, and John Rusbroeck (1293–1381) describes a
Ladder of Spiritual Love. The modern period offers no clearer example than Saint
Teresa of Ávila’s (1515–1582) Interior Castle, where she describes seven man-
sions, each representing more sensitive moral intuitions and a deeper knowledge
of God’s presence in the soul.
In all these presentations, the spiritual guides posit a series of stages of
ascent to union with God that are marked by particular experiences and condi-
tioned by various spiritual practices and virtues. Not all Christian spiritualities
have such markings or stages, but many do. Such presentations help spiritual
directors and those they guide to recognize particular challenges and possibili-
ties as they progress.

Conclusion
Spirituality is such a widely used term that one might wonder whether it confers
much specif ic meaning. Even in academic circles it can ref er to a great many
different things and be approached quite variously. Fundamentally, in both pop-
ular and academic settings, the term designates something essential—even most
essential—about being human. It touches on how humans make sense of them-
selves in relation to things transcendental. The genius of artists and poets lies
in their ability to tap into the heart and soul in ways that elevate human beings
beyond conceiving of themselves and their relationships merely in materialistic or
utilitarian terms. There is a realm of meaning and truth, a realm of the spirit that
cannot be reduced to science or banal cultural exchanges of commerce or politics.
Christian Spirituality as a field of study identifies that realm through his-
tory, theology, scripture, and, above all, experience, in ways that both highlight
 What Is Spirituality?   23

the Christian life and show skillful paths to engage it. The study of spirituality
requires a breadth of knowledge in all these f ields as well as allied disciplines
in the academy. Utilizing this breadth, the study of spirituality provides deep,
penetrating insight into Christian understandings of the life of grace and ways
to become holy.

Questions for Review

1. Spirituality is a difficult term to define. What two theoretical frameworks

do scholars use to analyze a given spirituality?
2. What were the origins of the term spirituality? How was the term used
historically, and how is it used today?
3. What are the main elements of a Christian spirituality?
4. What are the recurring central themes in Christian spirituality?

Questions for Discussion

1. What do you think accounts for the interest in spirituality today?

2. This chapter identifies a number of emphases in Christian spirituality.
How would you rank them in order of importance? What is the basis for
your ranking?
3. Christian spirituality emphasizes experience. Why do you think that is, and
what challenges might a scholar have in assessing religious experience?

Bibliography

Resources with annotations are highly recommended to students interested in

further study.

Cunningham, Lawrence, and Keith Egan. Christian Spirituality: Themes from the
Tradition. New York: Paulist Press: 1996.
This book of f ers ref lections on particular themes in Christian spirituality,
including prayer, solitude, and community life.
Downey, Michael, ed. The New Dictionary of Spirituality. Collegeville, MN:
Michael Glazier, 1993.
This collection of articles provides a shorthand expression of a broad range
of relevant topics in Christian spirituality.
Dreyer, Elizabeth, and Mark Burrows, eds. Minding the Spirit: The Study of
Christian Spirituality. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005.
24  Christian Spirituality: Lived Expressions in the Life of the Church

Dupré, Louis, and Don Saliers, eds. Christian Spirituality: Post-Reformation and
Modern. Vol. 18 of World Spirituality. New York: Crossroad, 1991.
Feldmeier, Peter. The Developing Christian: Spiritual Growth through the Lif e
Cycle. New York: Paulist Press, 2007
This book addresses various human development models in the social sci-
ences and correlates them with spiritual growth throughout individual chal-
lenges in the life cycle.
Holmes, Urban. Spirituality for Ministry. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982.
This text details how a rightly appropriated understanding of spirituality
serves as a necessary resource for pastoral ministry.
Lescher, Bruce, and Elizabeth Liebert, eds. Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays
in Honor of Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2006.
Locklin, Reid. Spiritual but Not Religious: An Oar Stroke Closer to the Farther
Shore. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005.
Schneiders, Sandra. “Spirituality in the Academy,” Theological Studies 50, no. 4
(1989): 676–97.
Schneiders, Sandra. “Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals or Partners?”
Horizons 13, no. 2 (1986): 253–74.
Sheldrake, Philip. Spirituality and History: Questions of Interpretation and Method.
New York: Crossroad, 1992.
This text examines the historical approach to Christian spirituality and how
one might extrapolate modern insights from classic spiritual expressions in
ways that respect the differences in time and culture.
Vatican II. The Documents of Vatican II. Edited by Walter Abbott. Translated by
Joseph Gallagher. New York: Guild Press, 1966.

Internet Resources

The Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. https://sscs.press.jhu.edu.

The Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality is widely considered the
premier society for the academic study of spirituality. The society also pub-
lishes Spiritus: The Journal of Christian Spirituality.

Films

Filmsite. “Top 100 Spiritually-Signif icant Films.” www.filmsite.org/top100spiritual.

html.
A list and description of one-hundred films that have either overt themes in
spirituality or deal with issues important to spirituality.