I then went on to say that in this post I would define what I mean by Holistic Christian Spirituality. So that is the purpose of this piece. To do that, I will take each word and elaborate upon it briefly, beginning with “spirituality,” moving to “Christian,” and finally “holistic.”
Spirituality
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To define it is not easy in our day, mainly because it has come to be used in a wide variety of contexts with a broad range of meaning. This has been the case increasingly since the last quarter of the 20th century. Defining “spirituality,” I have learned after reading hundreds of pages, can become quite involved and rather challenging but not altogether impossible.
Here I offer (1) a few succinct statements and then (2) comparatively lengthier assertions by recognized authorities in the field of spirituality, and finally (3) a bullet-point description of what spirituality encompasses.
First, here are a few succinct statements. Spirituality has to do with…
- “the capacity for self-transcendence” (Joann Wolski Conn)
- “the inner dimension of the person…[where] ultimate reality is experienced” (Ewert Cousins)
- “becoming a person in the fullest sense” (John Macquarrie)
- “the constituent of human nature which seeks relations with the ground or purpose of existence” (Gordon Wakefield)
- the expression of the dialectic by which one moves from the inauthentic to the authentic (Edward Kinerk)
- “our experiencing of God and with the transformation of our consciousness and our lives as outcomes of that experience” (Richard O-Brien)
- “the self-transcending character of all human persons, and everything that pertains to it, including, most importantly, the ways in which that perhaps infinitely malleable character is realized concretely in everyday life situations” (Richard Woods)
Second, here are three comparatively lengthier statements:
At the end of his book, Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction, Philip Sheldrake writes:
I want to end by summarizing what I see as the three critical features of the concept of ‘spirituality’ and how and why it makes a difference to us both as individuals and as groups. First, spirituality expresses the reflective human quest for identity and meaning beyond a purely pragmatic approach to life. Second, it suggests that a full human life needs to move beyond self-absorption to a sense of the greater good and services of others. Finally and vitally, spirituality relates to a process of unlocking the creativity and imagination that enables us to touch the edge of mystery.
At the beginning of his book, Understanding Christian Spirituality, Michael Downey states:
In moving toward a clear definition, it may be helpful to note that in the various spiritual movements today there appear to be two strands which run throughout. First, and most importantly, there is an awareness that there are levels of reality not immediately apparent; there is more than meets the eye. Second, there is a quest for personal integration in the face of forces of fragmentation and depersonalization. In my view, these are the two spirituality constants, the two essential components in any approach to spirituality.
Finally, Sandra Schneiders, one of the most significant voices in this line of study, has written:
Spirituality as a lived experience can be defined as conscious involvement in the project of life integration through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives. This general definition is broad enough to embrace both Christian and non-Christian spiritualities as well as secular spiritualities. However, it is also specific enough to give the term some recognizable content.
First, spirituality is not a doctrine or simply a set of practices but an ongoing experience or life project. Second, its ultimate purpose is life integration. Thus, negative patterns such as alcoholism or consumerism (which can become the organizing principle of a person’s life) do not constitute a spirituality. Third, the process of self-transcendence rules out a narcissistic self-absorption even in one’s own perfection. And fourth, the entire project is oriented toward ultimate value, whether this is the Transcendent, the flourishing of humanity, or some other value.
The ultimate value which generates the horizon of any spirituality relates the one who lives that spirituality to the whole of reality in some particular way.
With these statements in mind I come, thirdly, to a bullet-point description of what spirituality essentially encompasses:
- It concerns what is holistic – that is, a fully integrated approach to life (more about “holistic” below)
- It involves a quest for the “sacred,” whether understood as God, the numinous, the depths of human existence, or the boundless mysteries of the cosmos
- It includes the search for meaning, embracing the purpose of life
- It suggests an understanding of human identity, personality development, and human flourishing
- It incorporates a sense of ultimate values
- It embraces the quest for an effective world-view
- It involves exploring the deepest self
- It entails a principled lifestyle supported by specific practices
All of this provides us with a good and basic working idea of what is meant by spirituality today.
Christian
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While I will interact from time to time with the various other religious spiritualities (for example, Hindu spirituality, Buddhist spirituality, Taoist spirituality, Jewish spirituality, Islamic spirituality, New Age spirituality), esoteric spiritualites (for example, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, non-traditional Kabbalah, and Spiritualism), and secular spiritualities (“spirituality” as a framework of meaning in philosophy, psychology, gender studies, aesthetics, and science), the predominant emphasis will be on Christian spirituality.
Now, as I see it, a spirituality that is distinctively and definitively Christian must include the following, each of which I will explain in detail in subsequent posts:
1. A basic understanding of the grand narrative (sometimes called “metanarrative”) of the Bible. Let's call it the Grand Story. What is the MAJOR, OVERALL story that the Bible communicates as it begins with creation (Genesis 1-2) and ends with renewed creation (Revelation 21-22)?
There is a story being told in the Bible, which I propose has 6 chapters, the 5th of which we ourselves are in right now. Or to change the analogy a bit, a play, as it were, is being conducted, with 6 acts, the 5th of which is taking place presently.
Two words that help summarize the Grand Story fairly well are revelation and redemption. I will say more about these ideas in the future, but for now I indicate that (a) by revelation I am referring to God’s disclosure of the Divine Character and divine purpose for the world, indeed the cosmos, and (b) by redemption I am speaking ultimately of the world’s, indeed all of creation’s, liberation from evil with its destructive effects.
Lamentably, this metanarrative has been, and is, often somehow overlooked or ignored with the most unfortunate consequences, one being misinterpretation of what the message of the Bible is really all about. And that, in itself, has potentially disastrous ramifications, including a blasphemous portrayal of the character of God and a misrepresentation of God’s purposes for creation. Miss the Bible’s Grand Story and virtually everything goes awry from that point.
2. A foundational grasp of the centrality and supremacy of Jesus in the revelatory and redemptive purposes of God. The key figure in the Grand Story is Jesus of Nazareth, as I hope to demonstrate clearly. He is central to the accomplishment of God’s redemptive purposes for creation. And he is the summit of God’s progressive revelation of the Divine Character which takes place within the metanarrative. He is the supreme personal revelation of God, against which all other purported revelations of the Divine Character must be measured.
3. An essential awareness of the necessity of the action of the Holy Spirit in the realization of God’s redemptive purposes. As the Grand Narrative develops, the role of the Holy Spirit in God’s redemptive work becomes more pronounced and prominent. But the Spirit’s activity is essential throughout. God’s revelation and redemption are not, and cannot be, undertaken and accomplished apart from the Holy Spirit, who is also called “the Spirit of Jesus” and “the Spirit of the Christ.”
4. An unconditional commitment of discipleship to Jesus, which involves a transformative journey. This is where a distinctively Christian spirituality, as personally and consciously lived experience, begins: with unreserved devotion and loyalty to Jesus as one’s teacher, example, companion/friend, redeemer, and Lord. Such a commitment entails a journey which involves a process of transformation – transformation into the image and likeness of Jesus. That’s what discipleship is: progressive transformation of character wherein the disciple, more and more, lives and loves like Jesus himself did.
5. A clear perception of the centrality of Spirit-empowered, Spirit-directed Jesus-follower communities (aka “churches”) in the fulfillment of God’s redeeming purposes. I will speak more often of “Jesus-follower communities” than of “churches” or “the church,” mainly because of understandably (in our society and culture) negative mental images that the language of “churches” and “church” often conjures up. Besides, “churches” are supposed to be Jesus-follower communities, bottom line.
Such communities, empowered and directed by Jesus’ Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, are absolutely essential to the progressive realization of God’s redemptive purposes on earth. At least this is what Jesus and his first century apostles taught. It’s not that God could not sovereignly and unilaterally achieve such redemptive purposes, but that God chooses to use Jesus-followers, individually and collectively, to do so. Just as from the beginning, according to the Grand Story, God’s plan was to work in this world through human beings to accomplish the Divine intention for the world, so it still is. The plan has not changed.
6. A wholehearted dedication, on the part of such communities, to the vision of Jesus for the world. What that vision is, according to the Grand Story, will become clear as we proceed; but it includes a transformed, renewed world - sometimes called in scripture the "new heavens and new earth," but "new" is better translated "renewed."
7. A fundamental orientation toward the future God has in store for creation. The final chapter of the Grand Story for God's people and God's creation is beautiful beyond description and eternal in duration – it never ends – as we shall see. A genuine Christian spirituality keeps this future in view and finds motivation in it. It is referred to in scripture as our "hope."
As I see it, these are the seven fundamentals of a distinctively Christian spirituality, and they are integral to the HEALING of the self, the HEALING of relationships, the HEALING of communities, the HEALING of the nations (about which the Bible speaks), the HEALING of the world. (As I indicated, this site will still relate very much to the theme with which I began – that of healing for the broken.) To delineate them succinctly, they are:
The Christocentric Priority
The Spiritual Dynamic
The Discipleship Imperative
The Communal Perspective
The Missional Engagement
The Eschatological Orientation
Holistic
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Synonyms for “holistic” include “full,” “complete,” “whole,” “all-inclusive,” “universal.” What I have in mind here is this: Christian spirituality embraces all aspects of life, life in its totality. Nothing is excluded.
Michael Downey has put it this way:
Christian spirituality involves attention to the many dimensions of the human person and of the God-world relation, not just the interior dimension, or the inner life of the human person. A contemporary spirituality entails greater attention to a wide range of factors that together constitute the human being’s relation with self, others, and God. It is inclusive of the social, political, and economic realms; in a word, every dimension of personal and communal life is involved in a Christian spirituality.
And to Downey’s “social, political, and economic realms” I would add the ecological, or environmental. A “Christian spirituality” that does not include these realms is incomplete and inadequate. It does not embrace the totality of God's plan and vision for the world.
As we will see, God’s revealed intention is to renew the earth, our world (among other things), not to destroy it. God’s declared purpose is ultimately to rid creation of all evil with its destructive effects, renewing and even enhancing it. Yes, this earth. This world. That is included in God’s redemption project. And if so, then it is only consistent that a Christian spirituality will love and care for all aspects of God’s created reality, nothing excepted.
From this point forward my plan is to develop the seven Christian fundamentals I have identified, incorporating throughout the ideas included in the spirituality bullet-point description I have offered and suggesting ways in which a truly Christian spirituality is holistic in scope - that is to say, it concerns and promotes healing that is all-inclusive, as indicated.