We all know that the term "spirituality" is more seeker sensitive than terms like "religion" or "denomination". I’ve been reading The Story of Christian Spirituality: Two Thousand Years from East to West (Fortress Press, 2001). It is a large, illustrated, hard cover book unsuitable for my travels. One of the things I enjoy most in life is eating breakfast with the rising sun reflecting through the many prisms we have in our dining room, reading the writings of great Christians. This book has been my focus those rare moments at home from Christmas through Easter. I just finished. Although I often skip ahead, I recommend reading this book from start to finish. It begins with Jesus and the origins of Christian spirituality and ends in 1994 with the release of Nelson Mandela, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Toronto Blessing, and Matthew Fox expelled from the Dominicans. If any readers out there have failed to take notice of these significant events in Christian spirituality, I hope you lift your heads from the sand very soon!
There is something awesome following the flow of the Spirit from earliest times to the present … and realizing that although the book ends in 1994 the Spirit has still been working in ways unpredicted by the authors of each section. Each section is written by a notable scholar and spiritual leader. This is not a book about theology. Aquinas, Kierkegaard, and Calvin get a paragraph at best. This is a book about spiritual habits, spiritual life, and the day-to-day quest of Christians for hope. The sections describe the early church Fathers; Celtic spirituality; saints and mystics; Eastern and Russian spiritual practices; Protestant innovations and Catholic reformers. It ends with a summary of spiritualities emerging in the 20th century.
This last section is the weakest and strongest section in the book. It is weak, because it seems so fragmented. It describes various movements … some seemingly contradictory to each other … clearly reflecting the dissolution of Christendom and the fragmentation of Christianity. Yet that is also its strength. I realized again how extraordinary is the time in which we live. We are truly at a turning point in Christian faith the like of which has not been seen since the 3rd century. There are many voices crying out for a new Reformation. But there have been several "reformations" in Christian spirituality! The future is as pregnant with possibility as it was in earliest times. What will God’s Spirit elicit from this generation and the next?
Yet the most important strength of this book is that it provides Christian leaders today with very practical, insightful, and powerful advice for the living of these days. This is really not a book about history, but about today. How do ordinary Christians live today? How do they practice faith at home, work, and play? How do they face natural, political, economic, and military disasters? How do they have hope for tomorrow? What do real Christians really do? The story here is really quite incredible. Sometimes I think: "Surely real, ordinary Christian people would not risk so much, do so much, sacrifice so much, or love so much, jeopardizing everything comfortable and secure?" Yet it is true. Real Christians do incredible things, only because Christ infuses them .
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