Spiritual formation

Athough many things come under the general category of spirituality these days, my focus is specific: Christian spirituality. Generally, "spiritual" refers to what transcends materialism or exceeds preoccupation with self-maintenance. Positively, it is the human capacity for self-transcendence in love, in fidelity to truth whether or not it agrees with me, in free commitment to a worthy cause, in imaginative appreciation for art and music, in a sense of unity with the cosmos.

Thomas Moore's popular book, Care of the Soul, would fit this generic definition of spiritual, as would M. Scott Peck's best seller, The Road Less Traveled. When one believes that this self-transcending capacity is activated by the Holy Mystery or Reality beyond the merely human, one has religious spirituality. When this general religious spirituality is expressed in culture and history, it may be Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or Muslim, for example. Although this definition is general, no spirituality is generic. It is embodied in a person's entire life with all of its particular influences from family, education, and cultural expectations.

Every Christian's spirituality is her or his own total life embedded in the divine self-donation and human response to that gift. It is, in faith, a relationship to God revealed in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit lived in a community of mutual giving and receiving. Its dynamism is love, the love Christ has for us and in us. Its scope is the inclusive love of Trinity, others, self and the cosmos.

Discussing the formation of this Christian spiritual life is an awesome and precarious task because it touches the delicate work of the Holy Spirit, whom tradition has always revered as the source of our sanctification, that is the ongoing process of Christian development. Several other reasons also make this a precarious topic. People easily misunderstand spiritual formation to mean some attempt to find a secret guarantee of salvation. Or, worse, some see it as subtle manipulation of persons, an attempt to form them to an ideology rather than assist them to listen for their own "still small voice of God." This topic meets resistance by others who view attention to spiritual formation as unnecessary because God alone forms and directs us with no need or desire for human cooperation. Indeed, they see this latter view implicit in sola fides.

Another hesitation stems from the scope of the task. Thousands of years of great spiritual teachers have reflected on spiritual formation or development and only one article is available here to present some issues in overview. As in all presentations, one is blessed and limited by one's own social location, one's own experience, preferences, and horizon of vision. Thus, my choices are based on what I have found most helpful in twenty-five years as a spiritual director or companion and fifteen years teaching women and men of various Christian traditions who are preparing to be pastoral counselors or spiritual directors.

Given these hesitations and an awareness of why there is no "one right answer," only theological assumptions carefully stated could allow any discussion of such an awesome reality as spiritual formation. First, the faith conviction that divine wisdom became human reveals, for me, God's desire for immersion in humanity, in human process and history. Therefore, attention to the way human beings slowly become more aware of and comfortable with divine ways, with "this same mind . . . that was in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5), seems an appropriate task.

Second, a faith conviction that we have divine self-communication through the New Testament means we have a Scripture written over many decades in which Christians developed their grasp of revelation. I believe this affirms the value of forming ways of paying ever better attention to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit who continues to teach us. What the Spirit teaches now, of course, is not new facts about God, but deeper understandings of our communal and personal life in Christ. One way the Spirit continues to lead us is through great spiritual teachers whose lives confirm their reliability as guides for tasks such as "test[ing] the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1).

Third, trusting the faith convictions of mothers and fathers of the Eastern and Western church who perceived God's grace working in and through human nature, I believe that spiritual formation and human formation are inseparable without one being reduced to the other. I have found the tradition that sees grace informing, and gradually transforming when we cooperate, to be a perspective that profoundly illuminates my own experience. Moreover, it has given meaning, hope, and challenge to my students and those I have accompanied in the ministry of spiritual direction. Although humanity is wounded by sin, in my theological tradition and experience, grace abounds and orients us to self-transcendence through God's pervasive presence available in many ways. Most powerfully, it is available through the life-giving love for one another that is the revelation that we are Jesus' disciples.