The author comes from a more American conservative background theologically,
but is very familiar with the Roman Catholic Church. The examples
in the book are mainly from the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.
He shows his ignorance of the other Protestant traditions, partly
by not discussing the much and also by getting some of the facts wrong.
He is also strongly influenced by Jung's approach to psychology and
the spiritual.
However the book is a very thorough investigation into the concept
of spiritual experience, and comes from the 1970's with its concern
and interest in the charismatic movement. Although it is from the
1970's it is quite prophetic in that much of what is written is very
relevant to the post-modern context of the 21st century. His book
challenges the Church to take spiritual experience seriously and to
be less reliant on the cognitive approach to faith. The church did
not really meet this challenge in the 1970's and so the challenge
is still there.
The book is in two parts. The first entitled "The reality of the
Spirit" investigates the phenomenon of religious experience and the
place of the Holy spirit in this. This is by far the better part of
the book, and has some good analysis and discussion. The second part,
which I found rather weak, is entitled "The importance of Christianity".
This is when he tries to apply his discussions in the first part of
the book, but I do not feel that the conclusions are very helpful.
He does not come up with anything radical, but assumes that the Church
can continue much as it is, institutionally and in form, but just
change its world view. I feel that this is not possible.
The book starts by contrasting the contemporary situation and worldview
with that held by the church. The church in the enlightenment period
had become very afraid of spiritual matters and came to ignore the
spiritual realm. Instead it had focused on the material realm. He
acknowledges that Christianity is the best of the world religions
in that it attempts to focus on both the physical and the non-physical
realm. He considers that it is the only religion to do this. Most
religions are only concerned with the non-physical. However the world
has moved on and is much more aware of the spiritual realm. It sees
the non-physical as part of live and is fascinated with it. Unfortunately
the Church has not moved on and is still in the state of ignoring
the spiritual. It does not know how to deal with it and is embarrassed.
Consequently people have not found help in the church so have moved
to other places, e.g. psychology for help or have developed their
own systems to understand it. Consequently while there is a growth
in interest in spiritual things, the church is in decline.
"The church has relied on authority and doctrine or theological
understanding about the experiences, instead of living the experiences
themselves. But this new generation, both young and old, are not satisfied
with authority; they want experiences of God and the Holy Spirit to
verify the theology and the dogma. And this, as we shall see, is exactly
what the modern church and modern theology are short on, even hostile
to." (p 24)
The second chapter reviews the way in which the modern church has
dismissed experience. Liberal theology used a scientific approach
and concluded that God is found in history and in the world through
a "natural process". Barth recognising the importance of
experience in the early church developed the doctrine of dispensationalism,
so that the early church was a special when God enabled people to
encounter him through experience. After that it has to be through
the intellect. Bultman could not accept divine encounter and so considered
all references as myths. Much of modern theology is neo-Thomism which
depends on logic and deduction. However Jung accepted the reality
of the two worlds, and so was able to accept the reality of encounters
with the divine.
