“So far is Christianity from an unqualified approval of pure spirituality that it teaches that the spiritual realm, no less than the material realm, has fallen into sin and has rebelled against its Creator. Indeed, in the New Testament evil spirits seem at first sight to be more in evidence than good ones. No doubt this is because the activity of good spirits is so perfectly integrated into the activity of God himself that it does not often need to be distinguished from it. But at least the fact remains that the New Testament has no confidence in spirituality as such. The early Church knew full well, as the Church in many parts of the world knows today, that religion can be very spiritual and very evil; this all depends on whom it worships and how it worships it/her/him. The worship which the angels offer to God is purely spiritual, but so is the worship devils offer to Beelzebub. Amongst humans, devil worship is about as spiritual as a religion could be. And anyone who was tempted to suppose that spirituality as such is good should be well advised to meditate on Dr. C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters.” [Eric Mascall]
Spirituality today (inside and outside churches) may well not be Christian, may well be pantheist or “eastern mysticism”, or may well be secularist. The cultivation of the human spirit in a “religious” direction, whatever that direction may be, is rarely if ever a sure sign of seeking after God the Father through Jesus Christ. However, in some cases it may perhaps be guided and helped to become such a search, for those who truly seek and search shall find, said Jesus.
The teaching of the New Testament is that the whole man, body and soul together, is called to know God, to love and serve him. The soul certainly includes the mind, heart, will and spirit; and the soul and the body together constitute the human being, who is made in the image and after the likeness of God. While the point of contact, as it were, with the Spirit of the Lord in the human person is the spirit, the relation with God the Father does not consist solely in a relation of spirit with Spirit; rather, it is a relation of a person, having body and soul, with the Father through the Son and with the Holy Ghost. Further, this person is united to others in the one Body of Christ and the one Household of God.
Thus to speak today of Christian spirituality may not be wise. An older meaning of “spirituality” used by theologians in the 17th century is “the sphere where the Spirit of the Lord engages with the human spirit” and by this they meant via the means of grace, such as prayer (private and public), sacraments, preaching & teaching, meditation and contemplation and so on. In these spheres there can be communion with God and growth in maturity of faith, hope and love. This old Christian usage is probably and sadly not recoverable by the churches in the present context of a multi-religious & multi-faith secular society, as well as a secularized church. For “spirituality” has been so filled with alien themes that as a word and as an activity for Christians it is best set aside and not pursued.
Today, we need to emphasize that God the Father has actually searched for us and found us and opened the way for us to know him through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Ghost. When we allow ourselves to be found by him and we submit to him, then he asks for the whole of us, body and soul, and he begins the work of making us holy and pure in body and soul. For his plan is to redeem his children and this means not only the sanctification of the soul but also of the body, through the inner work of the Holy Ghost; and at the End by the resurrection of the dead and the granting of life everlasting, with the beatific vision, and the pleasures of the new Jerusalem.
Traditional Anglicans will of course recognize that the sanctification and then redemption of both body and soul of God's people is clearly taught not only within the New Testament, but also within the Order for Holy Communion and in the Collects of The Book of Common Prayer (1662 & 1928).
Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended against all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
June 15, 2005
P.S. In 1989 I published WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? And is it for me? (Darton, Longman &Todd, England). In that book I made a big effort to make “spirituality” work as a Christian vocation with a Christian meaning. I probably failed. Sixteen years on I think that one is better served by using the historic words of the Christian tradition that are firmly planted in the biblical revelation and the creedal & liturgical tradition of the Church.
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