Spirituality E-Book

Philip Sheldrake

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 492

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Engagingly written by one of the world's leading scholars in this field, this comprehensively revised edition tells the story of Christian spirituality from its origins in the New Testament right up to the present day. * Charts the main figures, ideas, images and historical periods, showing how and why spirituality has changed and developed over the centuries * Includes new chapters on the nature and meaning of spirituality, and on spirituality in the 21st century; and an account of the development and main features of devotional spirituality * Provides new coverage of Christian spirituality's relationship to other faiths throughout history, and their influence and impact on Christian beliefs and practices * Features expanded sections on mysticism, its relationship to spirituality, the key mystical figures, and the development of ideas of 'the mystical' * Explores the interplay between culture, geography, and spirituality, taking a global perspective by tracing spiritual developments across continents

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 What is Spirituality?

Origins of the Word “Spirituality”

Contemporary Meaning

What is Christian Spirituality?

Spirituality and Mysticism

The Study of Spirituality

Spirituality and History

Interpretation

Types of Spirituality

Periods and Traditions

Conclusion: Criteria of Judgment

Chapter 2 Foundations: Scriptures and Early Church

Christian Spirituality and the Scriptures

Scriptural Markers

Spirituality in the New Testament

Spirituality and the Early Church

Liturgy

Spirituality and Martyrdom

Shrines, Devotion, and Pilgrimage

Spirituality and Doctrine

Origen

Evagrius

The Cappadocians

Augustine

Pseudo-Dionysius

Christian Spirituality as Transformation and Mission

Theories of Spiritual Transformation

Conclusion

Chapter 3 Monastic Spiritualities: 300–1150

The Emergence of Monasticism

Widows and Virgins

Syrian Ascetics

Egyptian Monasticism

Wisdom of the Desert

Monastic Rules

Benedictine Expansion

The New Hermits

The Cistercians

The Spiritual Values of Monasticism

Spirituality and the Conversion of Europe

Local Spiritualities: Ireland

Spirituality in the East

Syriac Spirituality

Conclusion

Chapter 4 Spirituality in the City: 1150–1450

The Gregorian Reform

Apocalyptic Movements

The Vita Evangelica

Twelfth-Century Renaissance

The Rebirth of Cities

Cathedrals and Urban Vision

The City as Sacred

Universities as Sacred Space

Vita Evangelica and Urban Sensibilities

The Mendicant Movement

Dominic, Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure

The Beguines

Fourteenth-Century Mysticism

Julian of Norwich

Crossing Spiritual Boundaries: The Influence of Islam

Devotional Spirituality

Spirituality and Eastern Christianity

The Renaissance

Conclusion

Chapter 5 Spiritualities in the Age of Reformations: 1450–1700

Seeds of Reform: The Devotio Moderna and Christian Humanism

The Crisis of Medieval Spirituality

Spirituality and the Lutheran Reformation

John Calvin and Reformed Spirituality

The Radical Reformation: Anabaptist Spirituality

Anglican Spirituality

George Herbert

Puritan Spirituality

Early Quakers

The Catholic Reformation

The New Orders

Ignatius Loyola and Early Ignatian Spirituality

Spirituality Beyond Europe

Carmelite Mysticism

Lay Devotion

Seventeenth-Century French Spirituality

Russian Spirituality

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Spirituality in an Age of Reason: 1700–1900

Spirituality in the Roman Catholic Tradition

Pietism

Wesleyan Spirituality

American Puritanism and the Great Awakening

Shaker Spirituality

Orthodox Spirituality

Post-Revolutionary Catholicism

The English Evangelicals

The Oxford Movement

John Henry Newman

A Distinctive “American Spirituality”

Conclusion

Chapter 7 Modernity to Postmodernity: 1900–2000

The Impact on Spirituality

The Prophetic-Critical Type

Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

Simone Weil (1909–1943)

Dorothy Day (1897–1980)

Thomas Merton (1915–1968)

Spiritualities of Liberation

Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928–)

Feminist Spirituality

Spiritualities of Reconciliation

Ecumenical Spirituality: The Example of Taizé

Spirituality and Inter-Religious Dialogue: Bede Griffiths

Eastern Orthodox Spirituality

Making Spirituality Democratic: The Retreat Movement

Making Spirituality Democratic: Pentecostal and Charismatic Spirituality

Conclusion

Chapter 8 Twenty-First Century Trajectories

Will Christian Spiritualities Survive?

A Globalized World

Cyberspace

Inter-Religious Encounter

Christian Spirituality and Secular Spirituality

Spirituality, Business, and Economics

Spirituality and Healthcare

Spirituality and the Meaning of Cities

The Spiritual and the Spatial

The Spiritual and Urban Virtues

Other Factors?

The Contemporary Turn to Practice

Conclusion

Select Bibliography

1 World Spirituality Series

2 Classics of Western Spirituality Series

3 Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series

4 Further Reading

Select Glossary

Index

WILEY-BLACKWELL BRIEF HISTORIES OF RELIGION SERIES

This series offers brief, accessible, and lively accounts of key topics within theology and religion. Each volume presents both academic and general readers with a selected history of topics which have had a profound effect on religious and cultural life. The word “history” is, therefore, understood in its broadest cultural and social sense. The volumes are based on serious scholarship but they are written engagingly and in terms readily understood by general readers.

Other topics in the series:

Published

Heaven

Alister E. McGrath

Heresy

G. R. Evans

Death

Douglas J. Davies

Saints

Lawrence S. Cunningham

Christianity

Carter Lindberg

Dante

Peter S. Hawkins

Cults and New Religions

Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley

Love

Carter Lindberg

Christian Mission

Dana L. Robert

Christian Ethics

Michael Banner

Jesus

W. Barnes Tatum

Shinto

John Breen and Mark Teeuwen

Paul

Robert Paul Seesengood

Apocalypse

Martha Himmelfarb

Islam, 2nd edition

Tamara Sonn

The Reformation

Kenneth G. Appold

Utopias

Howard P. Segal

This second edition first published 2013© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, LtdEdition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 2007)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sheldrake, Philip. Spirituality: a brief history / Philip Sheldrake. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-67352-2 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-47235-4 (pbk.) 1. Spirituality–History. 2. Church history. I. Title. BV4501.3.S532 2013 248.09–dc23

2012043026

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Snape Maltings, Suffolk. © Susie HaywardCover design by www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk

To Susie

Preface

I am grateful to Rebecca Harkin of Wiley-Blackwell for proposing a revised and expanded edition of this Brief History, originally published in 2007, and to the publisher’s readers for their thoughtful suggestions. The subject of spirituality is now an important academic field, not least in the English-speaking world. Equally, in so many ways, “spirituality” is a word that defines our era. The growing interest in the subject is one of the most striking aspects of contemporary Western culture, paradoxically set alongside a decline in traditional religious membership.

When the original edition of this book was first discussed, it was agreed that it would be too complicated to attempt a brief history of spirituality in general. While there are commonalities between the spiritualities of the major world faiths, they also differ from each other in significant ways. Equally, the concept of “spirituality” is now employed outside religion by an increasing range of intellectual and professional fields. For this reason, it was decided to limit the scope of the book specifically to Christian ­spirituality. However, this does not imply any sense of exclusivity. It was simply an attempt to control a vast subject by setting clear limits.

Even so, to write a brief yet reliable history of Christian spirituality is risky – particularly for a single author. How do you encapsulate two ­thousand years in a short space without reducing matters to names, dates, and superficial generalizations? The only realistic answer is to be relatively selective in terms of personalities, traditions, and themes. My choices are inevitably subjective, but I hope they are also reasonably ­balanced. The book follows a broadly chronological framework blended with thematic elements that are highlighted as particularly characteristic of an age. In recent years, for teaching purposes I have also found it helpful to ­identify four major “types” of Christian spirituality. I call these “the ascetical-monastic type,” “the mystical type,” “the active-practical type,” and “the prophetic-critical type.” These are ­identified in the pages that follow.

There are a number of significant changes in this revised and expanded edition. Timelines related to each chapter have been provided and there is now a Select Glossary of key words at the end of the book. There are also two major structural alterations. What was the Introduction has been substantially expanded into a new Chapter 1 and subsequent chapters have been renumbered accordingly. Second, the brief Epilogue has become a full-scale final Chapter 8, which explores twenty-first century trajectories. The new Chapter 1 defines “spirituality” in more detail, expands the section on the contemporary meaning of the term and its popularity, defines the relationship between “spirituality” and “mysticism” and how they are to be distinguished, analyzes briefly the current debate about the academic study of spirituality, discusses the use of “types” as a tool for describing the history of spirituality, and, finally, provides some criteria of judgment to apply to the wide range of ­movements, writings, and ­practices that have been labelled “spirituality.” The final Chapter 8 asks whether Christian spiritual traditions will survive in the new world of multiple spiritualities. The chapter then briefly surveys the current “­spirituality” versus “religion” debate, places contemporary Christian spirituality in a fully globalized context, briefly introduces some new spiritual movements, discusses the role of spirituality in inter-religious dialogue, outlines the impact on spirituality of the Internet, and finally relates the Christian spiritual tradition to a selection of the ways spirituality is appearing in non-religious fields such as business and economics, healthcare, and the meaning and future of cities.

Most of the remaining chapters have also had additions made to them. Chapter 2 “Foundations: Scriptures and Early Church” has new material on shrines, pilgrimage, and the development of devotion to saints. In Chapter 3, “Monastic Spirtualities,” I have updated the textual edition used for the quotations from the early desert tradition and have also added material on desert spiritual practices. Additional references have been made to Gregory the Great, Anselm, and Hildegard of Bingen. The section on “The Spiritual Values of Monasticism” now ends with a brief summary of the practice of scriptural meditation known as lectio divina. The section on “Spirituality in the East” has new material on the practice of the Jesus Prayer, and the chapter ends by noting the early expansion of Christian spirituality into Asia, particularly India and China. Chapter 4, “Spirituality in the City,” has an entirely new section on “Apocalyptic Movements” including Joachim of Fiore. The short note on Julian of Norwich has become a separate and expanded section. Finally, there is now an additional section on the early influences of Islam on Christian spirituality, notably in medieval Spain. The section in Chapter 5, “Spiritualities in the Age of Reformations,” on “The Radical Reformation: Anabaptist Spirituality” has been expanded into a broader treatment of the Radical Reformation. There is new material on Thomas Müntzer and Hans Hut as well as reference to the open attitude of some Anabaptists such as Müntzer to Islam and Judaism. The chapter also has a new and expanded section on George Herbert to illustrate key aspects of Anglican spirituality. The section on “Ignatius Loyola and Early Ignatian Spirituality” has also been enhanced with new material on discernment and on Ignatian ­practices of prayer. There are wholly new sections, first, on the spread of Christian spirituality beyond Europe, particularly in India and in Central and Latin America, and, second, on the birth of a distinctive Russian ­spirituality with two diverging styles of monasticism and spirituality. In Chapter 6, “Spirituality in an Age of Reason,” there is new material in the section on “The Oxford Movement” on the social spirituality of key ­figures in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Anglo-Catholicism. Finally, in Chapter 7, “Modernity to Postmodernity,” there are new sections on the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld and on twentieth-century Eastern Orthodox spirituality. Finally, the section on “Making Spirituality Democratic: Pentecostal and Charismatic Spirituality” has been expanded to embrace material on the origins of Pentecostalism.

As I mentioned in the Preface to the first edition, I have taught ­spirituality for thirty years to students on both sides of the Atlantic. This revised and expanded edition is a distillation of these experiences. So, once again, I want to thank all the students I have taught for the ­stimulation they provide. My own researches have been greatly helped by thought-provoking conversations with friends in the international Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. Warm thanks are also due to my present colleagues at Westcott House in the Cambridge Theological Federation for providing a friendly working environment and ­particularly to Dr Will Lamb for reviewing some of the material. Once again, this new edition is dedicated to Susie whose partnership, love, and conversation have been the greatest stimulation of all.

Chapter 1

What is Spirituality?

In her classic book, Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Human Consciousness, Evelyn Underhill suggests that human beings are vision-creating beings rather than merely tool-making animals.1 In other words, they are driven by goals that are more than mere physical perfection or intellectual supremacy. Humans desire what might be called spiritual fulfillment. For this reason, an enduring interest in spirituality should not surprise us.

This book is intended to be a guide for the historical study of Christian spirituality. However, at the outset this raises a basic question about what exactly we intend to explore. If the history of “spirituality” is not simply coterminous with general religious or cultural history, what does it cover? Clearly, “spirituality” is an influential category within the overall history of a religion such as Christianity and, indeed, of wider culture. It both has an impact on culture and is also influenced by it. However, even if the concept of “spirituality” is not entirely free-­standing, it still needs to be distinguished from broad historical studies of Christianity. These will discuss religious institutions such as the papacy, or movements such as the Reformation, or the interaction between the Church and political or social events (e.g. the role of the Church in the medieval crusades or nineteenth-century social reform movements), or the overall impact of Christianity on wider culture (e.g. its relationship to the arts).

With these exclusions in mind, a history of Christian “spirituality” is likely to cover those people, movements, texts, or artifacts as well as practices that relate directly to the promotion of wisdom about how to lead a “spiritual life.” This history will cover both how such a life has been understood and also how it has been practiced at ­different times and in different places.

Origins of the Word “Spirituality”

The origins of the word “spirituality” lie in the Latin noun spiritualitas associated with the adjective spiritualis (spiritual). These ultimately derive from the Greek noun pneuma, spirit, and the adjective ­pneumatikos as they appear in St Paul’s letters in the New Testament. It is important to note that, in this context, “spirit” and “spiritual” are not the opposite of “physical” or “material” (Greek , Latin ) but of “flesh” (Greek , Latin ), which refers to everything that is ­contrary to the Spirit of God. The intended contrast is not therefore ­between body and soul but between two vastly different attitudes to life. Thus, a “spiritual person” (see 1 Cor 2, 14–15) was simply someone within whom the Spirit of God dwelt or who lived under the influence of the Spirit of God.