Session 8: Spirituality

Prophetic Strand of Spirituality

• Characteristics of prophetic strand of spirituality:
  • Experiential: based on sights, sounds, and events that manifest God
  • Awestruck: exceptional, wonder-inspiring, and miraculous
  • Relational: establishes a relationship between God and the hearers
  • Corporate: addressed to the whole people of Israel
  • Ethical: conveys commandments and challenges to live faithfully
  • Theological: establishes God as the one and only effective God
  • Imperial: conquests are seen as tokens of God's faithful presence

Theophanies

• Theophany: appearance of God or manifestation of God's presence
• Examples of theophanies in the Old Testament:
  • Noah and the Rainbow (Genesis 8:20-9:17)
  • Abraham and the three Angels (Genesis 18:1-15)
  • Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 28:10-18)
  • Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-31)
  • Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1-14)
  • Elijah and the Still Small Voice (1 Kings 19:4-15)
  • Elijah and the Chariot of Fire (2 Kings 2:6-14)
  • Isaiah and the shekinah in the Temple (Isaiah 6:1-8)
  • Ezekiel's Chariot Vision (Ezekiel 1:4-3:3)

Law, Prophets, and Holiness

• The Hebrew scriptures initially consisted of "the law and the prophets"
• The heart of the law is the call to "be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 11:45)
• Holiness means separation from other peoples and traditions in imitation of the Hebrew God
• Prophecy was a recall to the initial call to holiness

The Departure of God

• After the chariot vision, Ezekiel narrates a vision of the chariot of God's presence forsaking the Temple (Ezekiel 9:9-10:22)
• The Temple was destroyed in 586 BC, and the Israelites were forced into exile in Babylon
• Events like these led to a sense of God's absence and a bereaved sense of God's absence

Wisdom

• Wisdom tradition: practical wisdom, philosophical contemplation of creation and humanity
• Examples of wisdom literature:
  • Psalms
  • Proverbs
  • Ecclesiastes
  • Job
  • Song of Songs
  • Apocryphal books such as Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom
• Wisdom is personified as a female figure who emanates from God
• Wisdom is seen as guiding the Jewish people through the time of the patriarchs and the exodus

Apocalypse and Mystery

• Apocalyptic writing: represents God's presence as hidden and deferred to the deep future
• Apocalyptic literature developed in the context of long and painful struggles
• Examples of apocalyptic literature:
  • Book of Daniel
  • Book of the Apocalypse
• Apocalyptic literature contains esoteric meanings that need to be decoded

Christ in Spirituality

• Jesus was a shared spiritual experience for his followers

• For the New Testament writers, Jesus was a spiritual experience that went on being

• Jesus' teaching and spirituality fed into the development of Christian spirituality

• Examples of Jesus' spirituality:

  • His conception by Mary
  • His baptism
  • His transfiguration
  • His resurrection
  • His appearance to Paul
  • His appearance in Revelation 1:10-19### The Enlightenment and Secularization

• The Enlightenment marked a shift in perspective, where the past was seen as a negative weight responsible for war and social injustice.

• Thinkers began to appeal to reason, experience, and common sense, which were believed to be universal.

• Secularization refers to a change in relation to time and hope, replacing traditional Christian eschatology with the hope of establishing a better society on earth.

Traditional Christian Eschatology vs. Enlightenment

• Traditional Christian eschatology believed in judgement, heaven, and hell, and saw society as part of a sacred order made by God.
• The Enlightenment replaced this with the hope of establishing a better society on earth through reason, progress, or revolution.
• Society and its institutions were increasingly seen as constructed by individuals coming together in a 'social contract'.

The Impact of Secularization

• Original sin gave way to a more optimistic belief in 'original innocence'.
• As Rousseau put it, humans are 'born free, but everywhere in chains', and can unite to break their chains.

Four Responses to the Enlightenment

Christian Spirituality

• Fideism: retains Christian understanding and hope of salvation, aligned with a realm of 'faith' or 'experience' beyond rationality.
• Liberationism: harnesses Christian hope and eschatology to socialist and secular understandings of the world and its history.

Secular Reason and Hope

• Liberalism: accepts secular reason and its hope, and spirituality submits to the disciplines they impose.
• Romanticism: trusts human traditions, myths, and stories, including Christian ones, and sees nature, culture, art, and imagination as more trustworthy than reason.