Session 8: Spirituality

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

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 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

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

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 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'.

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.

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.

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.