The book is a compilation of lectures presented in Oxford
for the Faculty of Theology as a course in Christian Spirituality. The
approach, therefore is typically academic and "Oxford" academic.
The lectures do not really approach the subject with the purpose of
discovering what is spirituality or to try to help people to understand
spirituality for today. Rather it is a course in the history of spirituality.
The history that is selected is biased towards "High Church"
and is very selective. Also typically, the only denominations mentioned
in the lectures are Anglican and Methodist. The book does not deal with
the spirituality of Puritanism or free churches, the Work ethic spirituality
etc.
The main focus of the book is on Spirituality as prayer and mysticism.
This leads to the essence of spirituality as love. Although the chapters
on Friendship and Law and Wesley do mention the importance of community
and human relationships, the main focus is on the relationship with
God. There is nothing in the book about spirituality as life, or living
out the faith. The penultimate chapter does approach the aspect of
church life and the development of faith, but there is little said
of its relationship with daily life. Spirituality therefore, is seen
as an escape from this life or something that is separate from it.
I suspect the authors would disagree with this statement, but this
is what comes across in the book. Therefore the whole approach is
somewhat outdated, and has, I think little to say to the present day.
Chapter 1: To Stand Where Christ Stands - Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams attempts to define the term spirituality, which he
sees as having become a popular word, but without much understanding
of its meaning. The chapter then looks at the concept of "spirit"
and in respect to the life of Christ. So the concept of spirituality
is begun with an overview of the nature and life of Jesus. The life
of Jesus is determined no so much by his earthly life but by the concept
of Logos. This is then explored through the different understandings
and interpretations of the Greek fathers. This seems to have been
developed in principally two ways for the Christian: that of martyrdom
and that of Community (koinonia). The concept of the Logos in relation
to God, and the idea of the Spirit leads to both these ideas.
Chapter 2: Prayer in Evagrius of Pontius and the Marcian Homilies
- Kallistos Ware
This chapter represents two approaches to and understandings of Prayer.
The first is, represented by Evagrius is that prayer is about "knowledge"
or is an intellectual exercise. It is a communing with God on the
intellectual level - that of the mind "nous". However this
is not a matter of transfer of images and ideas, but "nous"
on a higher level when all material concepts (conceptual thinking)
are surpassed. It involves a loss of self-awareness and a pure contemplation
of God. In this sense then it is similar to ideas of mysticism. The
second type of prayer, represented by Marcian, is prayer "of
the heart". The heart is the centre of emotions, affections,
morality and spirituality, and connects the body and the intellect.
His approach is more holistic and therefore understands that thoughts,
feelings and material aspects have a place in prayer. The author concludes
that prayer needs to include both of these ideas.
Chapter 3: Friendship - David Moss
Friendship is understood to be an essential human activity, but it
is also a reflection of the Divine-human relationship of love, and
although today it is seen as a purely human activity, it should be
understood as a divine directive. As such it can be seen as "mystical
friendship" which is of both an earthly and a higher plain. The
second part of the chapter then explores friendship from the Hebrew
and Greek perspectives. the friendship of David and Jonathan is the
example of the Hebrew idea and Plato and Aristotle cited for the Greek
ideas. Finally the relationship between Jesus and the disciples, particularly
as interpreted by John (John 15) in the love command becomes the height
of friendship. This friendship is more than private, but becomes a
community concept.
Moreover if we talk about a spirit of love we can see, from
another perspective, why we need to be careful in our use of the
term "spirituality" in Christian theology. And this because,
whatever spirituality names in the Christian tradition, it most
assuredly does not name a domain, private and partial, of an inner
psychic reality fed by appropriate therapeutic techniques. Rowan
Williams has suggested that to live in the Spirit is to live a whole
human life in a certain direction; which is to say a human life
"performed" in the contest of a set of relations determined
by the commandment to love. It is the cultivation and nourishment
of this entire set of relations that provides the fuel for our movement
in the Spirit; that, so to speak, gives us a directionality through
life. In the terms I have just used, if what is important about
the commandment to love is that it is obeyed, then how it is to
be obeyed is where spirituality finds its proper place. (p 39)
So friendship is about unity and communion. According to Augustine
mystical friendship has three aspects: Recognition (the union of souls
in possession of God), the sensual and the intellectual.
Chapter 4: The English Mystics - Benedicta Ward
Ward begins by setting the scene of the early 14th century in its
political and social settings. There was a criticism of Church, and
state, and also the age of plaques that swept Europe. Consequently
the concern for people was of the heavenly realm and of death. The
author briefly surveys 5 mystics: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, "The
Cloud of Unknowing", Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. The
focus of all these mystics is the love of God. Rolle rejected the
established elements of religion, learning and monastery. He was a
hermit and can be summarised as understanding spirituality as focusing
on the name of Jesus. Hilton was a monk and comes from this perspective,
focusing his spirituality on the contemplation of the cross of Christ.
The "Cloud of Unknowing" is suspicious of emotion and feeling
and prefers the intellect for use in prayer to focus on the love of
God. Prayer is to increase in love. Margery Kempe after a mental illness
left her husband and family for an independent life that forsook the
worldly things and concentrated on prayer so that her love for God
would increase. Julian, through visions and reflections searched for
the greater concept of love understanding that the love of God underlies
all things. The most famous image of the love of Christ that she presented
was that of a mother for her children.
Chapter 5: The Spanish Mystics - Colin Thompson
This is about the "journeys" of Teresa of Anvil and John
of the Cross both of the 16th and 17th centuries. Teresa concentrated
on prayer as contemplation, which should be focused on the humanity
of Christ. Prayer is a result of uncertainty, struggle, conflict and
suffering. John is known for his writing on the "Dark night of
the soul". The darkness of the night is about searching, doubt
and faith and with the day dawns faith and understanding in God. While
Scripture is the authority, experience, revelation and reason are
also influential in spirituality - so spirituality is about the search
for God and the inner life of the individual.
[Sensual] desires may well motivate those who seek the spiritual
life: when for example, they want others to believe that they are
acting for the glory of God, whereas their true motives are self-centredness
and the desire to impress others with a show of devotion or the
favours God has granted. Religion itself, therefore, though spiritual
in appearance, can easily become distorted into a manifestation
of misplaced human desire. (p 80 - 81)
This searching is not idleness but a preparation to receive the gift,
and John systematises the process into a pilgrimage
Chapter 6: William Law and the Wesleys - Ron Glithero
The chapter explores the influence that the writings of Law had on
the spirituality of the Wesleys. Law believed that through prayer
and discipline one could gain union with God (p95). Although Law influenced
Wesley he could not agree with Law's mysticism of absorption into
the Godhead. Wesley had too high a concept of God for this. Wesley
understood spirituality to be that life is in praise of God.
Chapter 7: Spirituality and Unity - Ralph Waller
The chapter is about the influence of Richard Baxter on the Methodists
and Unitarians. The influence is one of "catholicity"- that
differences between people and "denominations" should be
recognised.
[Wesley] recognised that people's apprehensions, experiences
and temperaments differed from person to person, and that these
differences produced varied dogmatic conceptions of the faith; moreover
Wesley held that, while it was important for everyone to follow
his or her own inclinations in regard to the truth, these should
not be the cause of hostility against those holding different views.
(p102)
Wesley understood church spirituality to have three parts: 1: a Church
centred on Christ - which means that Christ is the centre and the
standard for belief. A church is not so much an organisation with
rules etc., but a community of Christ. 2: , the church as community
- Faith is not an individual thing but is the property of the community.
Religion is never purely an individual experience. 3: the diversity
of the church - catholicity is not about agreement of doctrine and
thought but about living in harmony and sympathy.
The chapter then proceeds with an account of the setting up and decline
of the Free Christian Union as an attempt at catholicity and the life
of James Martineau.
Chapter 8: Spirituality in the Anglican Tradition - Geoffrey Rowell
Spirituality is about holiness and being human. These come together
when it is understood that human nature is made in the image of the
triune God (p 125), and so the essence is love. The emphasis of the
author is once again on love. The second part of the paper looks at
the Anglican tradition which he takes back to the beginning of the
Church in Britain claiming it to include all that was before the Reformation,
but then goes on to describe it as: Benedictine - through the offices
of prayer, Eucharistic centred, and the celebration of the festivals
and the sacraments, possibly the patristic roots of its theology,
and the unity of creation and incarnation. The author notes also the
influence of the Romantic era and authors, e. g. Wordsworth. However
the author does seem to claim that anyone who is English can be seen
as part of the Anglican tradition. This then is the Anglican Spiritual
tradition.
