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December 16, 2005
a new read....
How can we further specify spirituality on these orthodox Christian terms, especially as it bears on the concerns of this book? Out of this tradition, we can say clearly what spirituality is not. It is not opposed to the body, it is not nonphysical. It is not removed from history, the ongoing flow of time. It is not asocial, a solitary activity or state of being. It is not primarily inward and invisible, a hidden affair of the private heart. In all these ways it is unlike a common conception of "spirituality" in our day as a compartmentalized experience, customized by and for the lone individual, removed from any pesky, constraining traditions or social bodies (institutions). There certainly are private spiritualities of this sort about; there are even quite a number of spiritualities considered Christian which are marked by these characteristics. I will not insist they have nothing going for them. I do insist that in their very nonphysicality, privacy, and denial of history they are not orthodox, or catholic and evangelical, Christian spirituality.
Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality For People, Not Angels by Rodney Clapp.
Posted by rhett at December 16, 2005 01:05 AM
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