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What Is Spirituality?

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“Time and again, the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs.
But each time, it was the dog that died.”    —G. K. Chesterton

The categories we use may obscure understanding. Some are vague, unclear, and misleading. For example, religion, art, mysticism, and culture may be employed in different ways in tension with one another. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not use “spirituality” in its account of a life in Christ. Only in the last 300 years has “spirituality” come into use. “Spirituality” was not used in the philosophical tradition of the West or in the biblical-theological tradition. The term “spirituality,” if not clearly defined, brings confusion. For example, in the present cultural malaise many say that they practice spirituality, but not religion, where spirituality is a positive, religion a negative.

Spirituality in its most general sense clearly has to do with human lived experience.

“the contents of the concept can be determined approximately in a positive sense as the practical or existential fundamental attitude of a person, the consequence and expression of his religious—-or, more generally, his ethically committed—understanding of existence: his life is entirely determined in what he does and in his state of being (habitus) by his objective insights into life and decision for life.”[1]

This view of spirituality applies to all, not just Christians. We speak of “Carmelite” spirituality, of Buddhist spirituality, of “lay” spirituality, but also of “spirituality for nurses.” This sets the human spirit at the center and emphasizes life’s specifically human dimension.

What is Christian Spirituality?

The adjective “Christian” substantively modifies “spirituality,” shifting focus from what happens within the spirit of an individual person over to that person’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ. According to Cunningham and Egan,

“Christian spirituality is the lived encounter with Jesus Christ in his spirit. In that sense, Christian spirituality is concerned not so much with the doctrines of Christianity as with the ways those teachings shape us as individuals who are part of the Christian community who live in the larger world.”[2]

What is Catholic Spirituality?

Andrej_Rublëv_001Should we speak of “Christian spirituality in the Catholic tradition,” or speak of “Catholic spirituality?” There is a historically rich tradition of spiritual writers quite conscious of being Catholic. They reflect the lived experience of being Catholic. The life of the Church is so substantively continuous that we can discern a “Catholic spirituality.” This Catholic spirituality coincides with that of the undivided Church for the first 1000 years, with the “Catholic Church” in the west for the next 500 years, and for the “Roman Catholic Church” for the 500 years since the Reformation. Catholic spirituality captures the essential dimension of Christian spirituality that is only captured when attention is drawn to the dimension that is “distinctively Catholic.” The distinctively Catholic dimension is its deep rootedness in a distinctive view of the catholicity of the Church and of the Catholic way of living.

“Catholic spirituality is a deep Christian way of living, practiced by the baptized members of the Catholic Church, which, through the power of the Holy Spirit, encounters Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of the Father, and thus is conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.” Catholic spirituality is thus not about a mere encounter with God. It is not merely about being a Christian. Its practice is about the life of the baptized believer within the Church, participating in the dynamic love of the Son for the Father in the inner life of the Triune God.

Spirituality or Spiritualities

There is one Catholic spirituality because the Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic, one body in Christ. Catholic spirituality is the practice of discipleship within the Church whereby one enters into the Triune life of God through Christ. Yet the Church has experienced a history of two thousand years. It lived through the end of antiquity, the medieval period, the tragedy of the Reformation, and the secularization of the modern period. These cultural situations call forth different forms of discipleship. The one Catholic spirituality takes many different forms. We speak of multiple Catholic spiritualities, of Saint Augustine or Saint Teresa of Avila. We speak of priestly, religious, or lay spiritualities. We speak of the great traditions of the different Catholic spiritualities, such as Benedictine, Carmelite, Franciscan, and Jesuit spiritualities. Each is a specific form of the one Catholic spirituality of a life of discipleship in the Church that enters into the life of the Triune God. Each enables baptized Christians to conform their lives to the life of Christ.

Daniel Sheridan is Professor of Theology at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and former Director of the Online Theology Program.

[1] Hans Urs von Balthasar, “The Gospel as Norm and Critique of All Spirituality in the Church,” in Explorations in Theology: III. Creator Spirit (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), p. 281.

[2] Lawrence Cunningham and Keith Egan, Christian Spirituality: Themes from the Tradition (New York: Paulist Press, 1996) p. 7.

Watch!

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I am very glad to be posting on this day, the first Sunday of Advent, because it affords me the opportunity to meditate on a theme which one seldom hears preached from the ambo but upon which our very salvation rests! This theme, of course, is Christ’s return (parousia) in judgment over the living and the dead on the last day (eschaton).

ChristMost Christians, and many non-Christians for that matter, could easily identify Jesus’ resurrection is the central belief of Christianity. In fact, it is only in the light of Christ’s resurrection that other Christian dogmas, such as the Trinity and Incarnation, can be seen as revealed truths. But what is often obscure is the meaning of Christ’s resurrection for us. Jesus’ resurrection is the “first fruit,” i.e., the sign and the promise, of the transformation that awaits all of creation (cf. 1 Cor 15:23-24). To put it plainly: a heaven of disembodied spirits is not our ultimate destination. Our ultimate destination, what we hope for, is the transformation of the entire cosmos, God’s Kingdom on earth, and our own resurrection into eternal life.

The celebration of Christ’s first coming at Christmas ought, therefore, to make us “groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23). Just as at the birth of an earthly prince, an heir to the throne, we might anticipate the time when he finally rules over his kingdom, so too do we anticipate at Christmas the time when Christ’s Kingship (last Sunday) will be manifest “on earth as in heaven” (Mt 6:10). The Preface Prayer from today’s Mass reminds us that this is the fulfillment our hope.

For he assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh,

and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago,

and opened for us the way to eternal salvation, that,

when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is at last made manifest,

we who watch for the day may inherit the great promise in which we now dare to hope.

One might say that our very lives while here on earth are preparation for the Kingdom. Jesus’ own Gospel proclamation announced its arrival. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15; cf. Mt 3:2). Jesus’ life, his teachings, and the grace which he bestows upon us through the sacraments of the Church, are all preparations for this Kingdom; a Kingdom which will only be consummated at his return. In this regard, all Christians are called to be Echatological Christians; that is, Christians who pray and long for Christ’s return. We are all called, with St. Paul, to pray “Marana tha” (1 Cor 16:22), which means “Our Lord, come,” or, as elsewhere in the NT, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).

Sistine ChapelThus, perhaps for reflection on this First Sunday of Advent, we ought to ask ourselves: Do I pray for the coming of the Lord or would I prefer that he take his time in returning? Have the goods of this world captured my imagination so that, in my everyday life, I have made them ends in themselves rather than means to my salvation? Do I live St. Paul’s exhortation to “not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of [my] mind” (Rom 12:2). Will the Master of the house arrive and find me sleeping, at rest with the comfortable life I have made for myself? In today’s Gospel Christ reminds all of us to be prepared for his return at any and every moment. “Watch!” (Mk 13:37).

Anthony Coleman teaches theology for Saint Joseph’s College Online.

 Don’t miss Saint Joseph’s College Online faculty (and blogger!) Susan Timoney presenting a webinar through the Catholic Apostolate Center on December 2. Click here for details!