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Defining Spirituality

From time to time, I return to something I have read years before.  I guess that is one good argument for a library!  In our technological culture I am sure there is less book buying than I did.  That is not a bad thing.  But I still do like to have a book to hold in my hand, to underline and place back on a shelf in the hope that some day in the future, I will again pull it off the shelf and re-read parts of it.

I did that just yesterday.  I am working on some guest lectures for the near future.  It is a topic that I have given some thought to, but have never actually lectured or spoken publically about this theme.  This is an odd place---a place where I have been many times.  The topic given to me to address is one that I am quite happy to do.  I have many, many thoughts, ideas, and half-baked suppositions running through my head.  On one hand, it feels like I know quite a bit and could stand up right now and speak for an hour on the topic.  On the other hand, realistically I know that I have no organized way to present the extraneous material floating about in my brain.

I may know quite a bit, but it is randomly related, unorganized and, probably, chaotic.  I could stand up and make a whole range of thoughts that would not be related or connected.  An audience would think I am nuts, if I were to do it right now.  I need to ponder the topic.  I need to find a couple filters to sift through the variety of ideas that I have.  I need a magnet to line up the various strands of thought.

The topic is about spirituality.  Of course, there is much more specificity than that.  Spirituality is a very general term. There are many ways you could take a speech.  Some in the audience would assume they know what spirituality is.  And others would claim to have no clue.  What is needed is some definition.  Some focus would be helpful in the moment. 

And that is exactly what I found in a book that I had pulled down from the shelf.  I knew I had read it before.  Indeed, the markings in the book proved that I had read the whole thing.  I am always amazed and a little disappointed to see that I had read this book fairly carefully and, yet, had little recollection of what it said.  Maybe it is better to have read and forgotten, than never to have read at all!

I have no memory of the book’s definition of spirituality.  Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, is one of my favorite writers.  She is a spunky, daring writer who takes all of us half-hearted spiritual creatures to task.  In a book from the 1990s Chittister distills the meaning and truth from St. Benedict’s Rule.  The Rule offers guidelines for monks, nuns and other spiritual people to live meaningful lives.  I have read it often and try to follow its direction.

It was not specific words on the Rule that captured my attention.  What grabbed me was Chittister’s definition of spirituality.  She says, “Spirituality is more than churchgoing.  It is possible to go to church and never develop a spirituality at all.  Spirituality is the way in which we express a living faith in a real world.  Spirituality is the sum total of the attitudes and actions that define our life of faith.”  To me that resonated as quite true.  Don’t confuse spirituality with churchgoing.  Somehow, spirituality is different than going to church---although spirituality may include going to church.

It was the next line that made so much sense to me.  She says that spirituality is the way we express a living faith.  That also is a general statement, but it strikes me as being profound.  Spirituality is an expression.  It is more than ideas and more than doctrine.  It is an expression---an expression of a living faith.  It leaves me with some queries---some questions.  Do I have a living faith?  I am sure I have a faith.  But it is a living faith?  That’s the key question.

She continues.  Spirituality is the sum total of the attitudes and actions that define our life of faith.  Again, I like the idea of spirituality as both attitudes and actions.  Attitudes and actions are so much more than mere ideas.  For example, I could have a belief in God---a doctrine of God.  But if it does not shape my attitudes and develop specific actions, it is actually pretty puny.

Chittister’s definition gives me a good way to think about my own spirituality.  Is it a living faith?  Or it is only something to which I give only incidental, passing thought?  Does my spirituality actually shape my attitudes?  Or do I have my normal attitudes about things that have no real connection with my spirituality---my living faith?

Finally, does my spirituality shape and define my actions in the world?  Do I do anything because that is how my spirituality dictates the action?  Or are my actions totally unrelated to what I would say my spirituality is?  Perhaps that is the key question: do I act in a way that befits my spirituality---my living faith?  

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