Spirituality as Lived Interpretation
A Transformative Encounter between Two Traditions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.28265Keywords:
Sandra M. Schneiders, Kees Waaijman, Bernard McGinn, Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality, Methodology, Dialogical modelAbstract
Recent attempts to define the object of and suitable method for spirituality—such as Kees Waaijman’s and Sandra M. Schneiders’—invoke phenomenological and meta-cognitive approaches which prevent (rather than favour) engagement with lived experience. I propose, instead, to conceive spirituality as interpretive encounter and dialogue between the researcher’s and the studied subject’s experiences of inner transformation. The researcher gains access to other spiritual traditions by assuming her own spiritual localization and by reaching out to other living experiences and traditions in their distinctiveness. This mutually enriching conversation itself progressively sheds light on its undergirding foundation: the human longing for God.
References
Gollnick, James. 2005. Religion and Spirituality in the Life Cycle. Studies in Education & Spirituality Series, volume 9. New York: Peter Lang.
Husserl, Edmund. 1965. “Philosophy as Rigorous Science.” In Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy, translated by Quentin Lauer. 71–148. New York: Harper & Row.
Jonas, Hans. 1966. The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lane, Belden C. 2006. “Writing in Spirituality as a Self-Implicating Act: Reflections on Authorial Disclosure and the Hiddenness of the Self.” In Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Sandra M. Schneiders, edited by Bruce H. Lescher and Elizabeth Liebert. 53–69. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist.
Martinez, Gaspar. 2001. Confronting the Mystery of God: Political, Liberation, and Public Theologies. New York: Continuum.
McGinn, Bernard. 1991. The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century. The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism Series, volume 1. New York: Crossroad.
———. 2005. “Spirituality Confronts Its Future.” Spiritus 5(1): 88–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/scs.2005.0014
McGinn, Bernard and Patricia F. McGinn. 2003. Early Christian Mystics: The Divine Vision of the Spiritual Masters. New York: Crossroad.
Nation, Mark T., Anthony Siegrist and Davidp. Umbel. 2013. Bonhoeffer the Assassin? Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
Rahner, Karl. 1970. “Scripture and Tradition.” In Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology, edited by Karl Rahner. 54–57. New York: Herder & Herder.
———. 1978. Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity, translated by William V. Dych. New York: Crossroad.
Saliers, Don E. 1989. “Christian Spirituality in an Ecumenical Age.” In Christian Spirituality: Post-Reformation and Modern, edited by Louis Dupré, Don E. Saliers, and John Meyendorff. 520–44. World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest Series, volume 18. New York: Crossroad.
Schneiders, Sandra M. 1986. “Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners?” Horizons 13(2): 253–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S036096690003632X
———. 1989. “Spirituality in the Academy.” Theological Studies 50: 676–697. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004056398905000403
———. 2002. “Biblical Spirituality.” Interpretation 56(2): 133–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002096430005600202
———. 2003. “Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum.” Spiritus 3(2): 163–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/scs.2003.0040
———. 2005. “Approaches to the Study of Christian Spirituality.” In The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality, edited by Arthur Holden, 15–34. Malden, MA: Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470996713.ch2
———. 2006. “The Discipline of Christian Spirituality and Catholic Theology.” In Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Sandra M. Schneiders, edited by Bruce H. Lescher and Elizabeth Liebert. 196–212. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist.
———. 2010. “Spirituality and the God Question.” Spiritus 10(2): 243–250.
Sheldrake, Philip. 1992. Spirituality and History: Questions of Interpretation and Method. New York: Crossroad.
———. 1998. Spirituality and Theology: Christian Living and the Doctrine of God. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.
———. 2002. “Interpreting Texts and Traditions.” Sewanee Theological Review 46(1): 48–68.
———. 2006. “Spirituality and Its Critical Methodology.” In Exploring Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Sandra M. Schneiders, edited by Bruce H. Lescher and Elizabeth Liebert. 15–34. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist.
———. 2007. “Spirituality and the Integrity of Theology.” Spiritus 7(1): 93–98.
———. 2011. “Christian Spiritual Traditions: Reframing Boundaries, Theory and Method.” In Towards a Theory of Spirituality, edited by Elisabeth Hense and Frans Maas. Studies in Spirituality Series, Supplement 22. 29–42. Leuven: Peeters.
Waaijman, Kees. 2002. Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods, translated by John Vriend. Studies in Spirituality Supplements Series, volume 8. Leuven: Peeters.
———. 2007. “Spirituality: A Multifaceted Phenomenon.” Studies in Spirituality 17: 1–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.2143/SIS.17.0.2024643
