Christian Spirituality

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture on Christian Spirituality.

Humanist Understanding of Spirituality

Emphasizes human values and ethics, search for meaning, capacity for transcendence, lived reality shaped into a way of life, and curiosity to study how people live.

Spirit in Spirituality

Refers to the human spirit or consciousness, the animating principle of human life, involving the deepest dimensions of life and capable of both conscious and unconscious actions.

Goal of Spiritualities

To construct hope and meaning in daily life, be self-liberating, require community, and work against destructive elements.

Spirituality (Schneiders, 2003)

Capacity to transcend oneself through knowledge and love; conscious involvement in life-integration through self-transcendence toward ultimate value.

Christian Spirituality

The life of faith, hope, and love in the Church, rooted in Christian beliefs and practices.

Ruach (Old Testament)

Refers to the Spirit of God, the creative and dynamic work of the Spirit in all of creation, portrayed as 'wind', 'hand', and 'fire'.

Pneumatikos (New Testament)

Greek term for spiritual person, representing a way of living with the Spirit in contrast to living according to the flesh.

Spirituality after the twelfth century

Understood as separate from the body, referring to interior life, pious practices, prayers, and rituals, with a dichotomy between material and spiritual life.

Spirituality after the seventeenth century

Associated with inner dispositions, interior states of the soul, and devotion, piety, and the way of perfection to express life in the Spirit.

Christian Spirituality (Working Definition)

Daily, communal, lived expression of one’s ultimate beliefs, characterized by openness to self-transcending love of God, self, neighbor, and world through Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Contemplation-in-Action

Becoming a person in the fullest sense (John Macquarrie) and attitudes, beliefs, and practices which animate people’s lives and help them reach out towards super-sensible realities (Gordon Wakefield).

Sandra Schneiders' Six Components of Spirituality

Understanding of human nature, an ultimate horizon, a path to that horizon, typical experiences on the path, integration of person and community, and specific values to uphold.

Focus of Spirituality

Less on 'perfection' and more on interest in ongoing spiritual growth; interdisciplinary, encompassing concerns about the environment, justice, prayer, primary relations, and religious community.

Characteristics of Christian Spirituality

A life of grace and faith, life in the Spirit, Christocentric, Trinitarian, communal, just, prayerful, and divinization as the ultimate horizon.