Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed 9781472594532, 9781441180926

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For Susie

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PREFACE

The subject of spirituality, particularly in contemporary terms, is both extensive and complex. Spirituality, or its equivalents, is present in all the major religions as well as in an increasing range of non-religious or ‘secular’ contexts. While I have covered a large amount of material, I have nevertheless had to make some difficult choices and also to organize the material into a coherent pattern. My intention all the way through was, as best I could, to avoid unhelpful over-simplification and stereotypes. I have been teaching and writing on the subject of spirituality for nearly three decades in both university and adult continuing education contexts in a number of countries. My own background and training is in the fields of history, theology and philosophy and I have employed a number of interpretative frameworks throughout this book. I studied for a year in India in the early 1980s which is where I fi rst encountered Hinduism and Buddhism and I have also become actively involved in interreligious dialogue in recent years. I want to thank colleagues at Westcott House in the ecumenical and interfaith Cambridge Theological Federation, and more recently at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, for providing helpful environments to prepare and then write the book. As always, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my partner Susie for her loving support and encouragement in all my writing endeavours. Philip Sheldrake Cambridge and San Antonio 2013

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Introduction ‘Spirituality’ is without question a subject that fascinates many people in our contemporary age. It is a word that is frequently and increasingly used yet its meaning is often ill-defined. So, what exactly is spirituality? Is it distinct from religion and can we separate it from beliefs and traditions? Does spirituality mainly focus on spiritual experiences and practices or is it something more? This book suggests that, while there may be common features in the use of the word, ‘spirituality’ is not a single reality. Different ‘spiritualities’ reflect particular religious, philosophical or professional viewpoints, as well as the cultural contexts in which they arise and develop. However, there are sufficient common features in contemporary usage to make it possible to hazard an overall summary definition. In brief, ‘spirituality’ stands for lifestyles and practices that, explicitly or implicitly, portray a vision of human existence and of how our human spirits may achieve their fullest potential. In other words, the contemporary interest in ‘spirituality’ embraces an aspirational approach to the meaning and conduct of human life whether this is seen in religious terms or in non-religious terms. It seems that, as human beings, we are persistently driven by goals beyond mere material satisfaction to seek a deeper level of meaning and fulfilment. This idea will be developed in more detail in Chapter one. While, as we shall see, the word ‘spirituality’ has Christian origins, during the last part of the twentieth century the concept moved well beyond Christianity and indeed beyond religion as a whole. The quest for spiritual experience and spiritual practices is broadly based and is expressed in a variety of ways. As an area of study, spirituality increasingly fi nds a place outside theology and religion in such academic fields as the social sciences, psychology, philosophy and gender studies. The theme of spirituality also regularly appears in professional worlds and trainings such as

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health care and nursing, counselling and psychotherapy, social work, education, business studies, the arts and sports education.

About this book This book is written for students and general readers. It seeks to provide them with a reliable and comprehensive guide to ‘spirituality’ as an area of study, religiously, historically, philosophically and in the social sciences. It explores the tools that are used to study the subject and to interpret spiritual classics (whether these are written texts or other expressions such as art) from different times and cultures. Attention is paid to spirituality in a variety of religious and nonreligious forms in their own terms and sometimes comparatively. The book is divided into three parts. Part one ‘Defi nitions and Methods of Study’ seeks first of all to defi ne spirituality and then explores the subject as a contemporary field of study. What exactly are we studying and is our attention limited to written texts? What are the key tools and methods for studying spirituality? A further chapter examines the connections and distinctions between ‘spirituality’ and ‘mysticism’. The fi nal chapter of this fi rst section then examines the connections between spirituality, belief systems and spiritual practices. The theory and history of spirituality as an interdisciplinary area has been notably developed within the framework of Christian studies over a long period of time. For this reason, Part one inevitably uses examples from Christianity relatively frequently in relation to defi nitions and methods. Part two ‘Leading a Spiritual Life’ begins with a short introduction which outlines the wide range of religions that embrace spirituality including such contemporary religious movements as NeoPaganism. Subsequent chapters are then dedicated in turn to each of five major world faiths: the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and then two of the major religions originating in the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism and Buddhism. Finally, Part three ‘Secular Approaches to Spirituality’ has one chapter on ‘Secular Spirituality and Contemporary Perspectives’. This chapter is an exploration of spirituality in relation to nonreligious frameworks such as philosophy and psychology. It also examines how spirituality is currently employed in professional and social areas such as health care, education and the business world among other examples.

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CHAPTER ONE

What is spirituality? Commentators on the contemporary phenomenon of ‘spirituality’ often suggest in different ways that the word somehow defi nes our era. Certainly, the widespread use of the concept is a striking feature of the present times. It is now employed in an increasing range of different contexts. Because of this great variety of uses, the answer to the question ‘what is spirituality?’ is not a simple matter. However, before we look more closely at the contemporary meanings of the word, it is important and useful to explore briefly the longer history behind it.

Origins of the word ‘spirituality’ In the two classic dictionaries of the English language, the definitions of ‘spirituality’ or ‘the spiritual’ are fairly conservative. For example, in the Oxford English Dictionary ‘the spiritual’ relates to, or affects, the human spirit or soul as opposed to the material and physical side of our existence. Consequently, a ‘spiritual person’ is someone who is not concerned with material values or secular pursuits. From this perspective, the noun ‘spirituality’ is derived from this non-material value system. In the American Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary the word ‘spirituality’ is defined as the quality of being attached to spiritual (i.e. non-material) or religious values or, more historically, as something that in Church law relates to the clergy. The historical origins of the word ‘spirituality’ are explicitly Christian. Etymologically, the word derives from the Latin noun

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spiritualitas which is associated with the adjective spiritualis (or spiritual). These Latin terms ultimately derive from New Testament Greek – the noun pneuma, or spirit, and the adjective pneumatikos, spiritual – as they appear in St Paul’s letters. This is not a context to enter into debate about the complex issues of biblical interpretation. However, in broad terms, it is important to note that in the theology of Paul, ‘spirit’ and ‘spiritual’ are not meant to be the opposite of ‘physical’, ‘material’ or ‘bodily’ (Greek soma, Latin corpus) but rather the opposite of ‘fleshliness’ (Greek sarx, Latin caro). This concept has a moral sense and refers to everything that is contrary to the Spirit of God. The intended contrast is not therefore between the body and the soul but between two vastly different attitudes to life. Thus, a ‘spiritual person’ (e.g. in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 2, 14–15) is not someone who turns away from material reality or who undervalues the body. Rather, he or she is simply a person within whom the Spirit of God dwells or, in other words, who lives under the influence of God’s Spirit. This theological and moral sense of ‘spiritual’, meaning ‘life in the Spirit’, remained in constant use in the West until about the twelfth century. At that point, under the influence of new trends in Christian theology, influenced by Greek philosophy, the concept of ‘spiritual’ began to be used as a way of distinguishing intelligent humanity from non-rational creation. Yet the New Testament moral sense and the supra-material sense of ‘spiritual’ continued side by side in the thirteenth-century writings of a great theologian like Thomas Aquinas. Interestingly, the noun ‘spirituality’ (spiritualitas) during the Middle Ages was most frequently used to refer to the legal category of ‘the clergy’. The word only re-established itself in reference to ‘the spiritual life’ in seventeenth-century France. However, this new usage often had pejorative overtones in reference to what were perceived as excessively privatized or rarified spiritual enthusiasms. During the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth century, other words such as devotion, perfection and piety predominated in mainstream Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant circles in reference to a ‘spiritual life’. The use of the concept of ‘spirituality’ as the way to describe the ‘spiritual life’ receded into the background in Christian circles until the later part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. At this point, it again appeared in positive references to the ‘spiritual life’ in French Roman Catholics writings. From there it gradually passed into English via translations of French writings.

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If we look more widely, we see that all great world religions originated in diverse cultural contexts. As a result, each of them developed a range of different words and concepts to express the reality that we nowadays refer to as ‘spirituality’. The wide adoption of the word ‘spirituality’ appears to have begun in the late nineteenth century, initially due to contacts between Europeans and Indian religious figures. For example, the famous Hindu thinker Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) travelled a great deal outside India. In speaking to American and European audiences in the 1890s, he praised the inherent ‘spirituality’ of Indian culture and religion and contrasted this with what he perceived to be the limitations of Western thinking and behaving. The use of the word ‘spirituality’ as an area of religious study gradually developed during the twentieth century, particularly in Christianity, but it was only after the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s that it began to become the preferred term within Christian studies and to replace older concepts such as ‘ascetical theology’ and ‘mystical theology’ or the later ‘spiritual theology’. The emergence of ‘spirituality’ as the common term to describe studies of the spiritual life began to spread ecumenically across Christianity until it had become a commonplace term during the 1980s. This change of vocabulary expressed an important shift in values. First, ‘spirituality’ bridged the older divide between a supernatural, spiritual life and our purely natural, everyday existence. Second, the concept of ‘spirituality’ specifically in Christian circles also recovered a sense that ‘the spiritual life’ was corporate and social in nature rather than exclusively individual and interior. Third, as we shall see in the next chapter, as an area of reflection and study ‘spirituality’ re-integrated with theology, including biblical studies. It also gradually became an interdisciplinary field as it increasingly engaged with other disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology and the social sciences. Finally, both intellectually and practically, the field of ‘spirituality’ has become an important medium for both ecumenical collaboration and interreligious dialogue.

Contemporary meanings As already noted, there is a widespread fascination with ‘spirituality’ these days. The concept is often contrasted favourably with ‘religion’ and is presumed to be open to everyone. So, in broad terms, how

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is ‘spirituality’ defi ned today? As I have already suggested, the answer is not a simple one because the word is used in such a wide range of different contexts. The contemporary usage is also often vague and difficult to defi ne because it is increasingly detached from religious belief systems. The coherence of distinguishing sharply between spirituality and religion will be examined briefly later. However, despite the fuzziness of the contemporary use of the word ‘spirituality’, it seems possible to suggest that it refers to the deepest values and sense of meaning by which people seek to live. ‘Spirituality’ embodies some kind of vision of the human spirit and of what will enable people to achieve their fullest, even transcendent, potential. As an illustration, contemporary literature on ‘spirituality’ regularly includes some or all of the following approaches. First, spirituality concerns what is holistic – that is, a fully integrated approach to life. The basis for this lies in the fact that historically the notion of ‘the spiritual’ relates to another concept, ‘the holy’. This translates the Old English word ha¯lig, ‘whole’ or ‘complete’, which harks back to an ancient Greek word holos from which the contemporary notion of ‘holistic’ arises. In this sense, ‘spirituality’ is best understood not so much as one element among many in human existence but as the integrating factor – treating ‘life-asa-whole’. ‘Spirituality’ is also regularly linked to the concept of ‘thriving’ – what it means for humans to thrive and how we come to thrive. Second, in contemporary approaches, spirituality also engages with the quest for the ‘sacred’. The ‘sacred’ in the spiritualities of theistic religions such as Islam or Christianity is closely related to beliefs about God. In wider culture ‘the sacred’ nowadays refers to broader understandings of the numinous (sometimes embodied in nature or in the arts), the undefi ned depths of human existence or to the boundless mysteries of the cosmos. Third, spirituality frequently refers to the search for meaning, including the overall purpose of life, and for a sense of life direction. This association of ‘spirituality’ with meaning and purpose is in many ways a response to the decline of traditional religious, political or social authority, particularly in Western countries. In its association with meaning, contemporary spirituality implicitly suggests some understanding of human identity and of personality development. An interesting example of the way this has been

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applied was the concept of ‘spiritual development’ in some 2004 documentation for English secondary (high) schools produced by the government Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). In this context, ‘spirituality’ is defi ned as ‘the development of the nonmaterial element of a human being, which animates and sustains us’. The purpose of including this in the school curriculum is: ‘. . . about the development of a sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose. It is about the development of a pupil’s “spirit”.’1 Finally, contemporary defi nitions of spirituality often relate it to the desire for some sense of ultimate values in contrast to an instrumentalized or purely production-oriented approach to life. This means that ‘spirituality’ promotes a self-reflective life rather than an unexamined life. It thus overlaps in significant ways with ethics and with having a moral vision. These contemporary approaches to spirituality provoke some important questions. First of all, is spirituality essentially a personal or even an individualistic matter or is it also inherently social? Interestingly, on the Web, the majority of available defi nitions of spirituality emphasize inner experience, introspection, the subjective journey, personal well-being, inner harmony or happiness. Here spirituality does not connect strongly with our social existence. This also provokes another question. Is spirituality more than another useful form of therapy – concerned with promoting everything that is comforting and consoling? In other words, can there be such a thing as ‘tough’ spirituality that is capable of confronting the destructive side of human existence and behaviour? Some critical commentators on the contemporary phenomenon of spirituality, such as the British academic Jeremy Carrette, are deeply sceptical about these developments, suggesting that the current enthusiasm for ‘spirituality’ reflects the subjective turn in contemporary Western culture and is nothing more than another off-shoot of consumerism. 2 There is considerable justification for this assertion in relation to the kind of ‘lifestyle spirituality’ that taps into the widespread preoccupation with fitness, healthy living and holistic self-care. However, in the new millennium there are also signs that the word ‘spirituality’ is expanding beyond an individualistic quest for self-realization. As we shall see in Chapter ten, references to spirituality increasingly appear in discussions about culture and the arts, about public values and about the

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further development of professional fields or the transformation of social structures. Some examples are an attentiveness to the deeper focus of healthcare, an exploration of the purpose of education, more reflective approaches to business practice and economic systems, and, more recently, a concern for the re-enchantment of cities and urban life and even the need to recover a sense of the ‘spiritual’ in politics. As we shall see in the next chapter, the study of ‘spirituality’ has now begun to involve disciplines well beyond the confi nes of theology or religious studies such as philosophy, psychology and the social sciences.3

Reasons for current interest The contemporary interest in spirituality is part of a broader process of cultural change that took place during the late twentieth century. For a range of reasons, inherited religious and social identities or value systems were seriously questioned. As a result, many people no longer saw traditional religion as an adequate channel for their spiritual quest and looked for new sources of selforientation. Thus, ‘spirituality’ has become an alternative way of exploring the depths of human identity and the ultimate purpose of life. Overall, the spiritual quest has increasingly moved away from outer-directed authority to inner-directed experience which is seen as more reliable. This subjective turn in Western culture has created a diverse approach to spiritual experience and practice. Nowadays, spirituality frequently draws from an eclectic mixture of religious traditions as well as from popular psychology. People who no longer call themselves ‘religious’ often want to describe themselves as ‘spiritual’. They express this in the values they promote and the practices they follow in their quest for a meaningful life. Two British examples serve to illustrate this point. One survey by David Hay, an academic scientist with a long-standing interest in spiritual experience in the tradition of Sir Alister Hardy, covered the period from 1987 to 2000. The statistics in the survey showed that the proportion of people who did not attend church or another place of worship yet believed in a ‘spiritual reality’ increased from 29 per cent to 55 per cent. Some years later the sociologists Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead researched contemporary religious and spiritual attitudes in the

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northwest of England. They reached the conclusion that what they called ‘holistic spirituality’ was gradually replacing religion in an evolutionary development because it better suited contemporary needs. The problem with this developmental interpretation is that it operates within very specific boundaries. The study of history teaches us that making any assumptions about a defi nitive rupture with the past, in this case a religious past, is a risky move. Even the ways we understand the present moment are ambiguous. In terms of Western societies, it may be true that increasing numbers of people are exploring a diversity of spiritual theories, experiences and practices. However, it is also true that other often young and intelligent people are converting to very conservative forms of religion such as Christian biblical fundamentalism or radical Islam as their answer to the problem of achieving apparent certainty in what they experience as a confusing and dangerous world. If we move beyond Western countries to take into account Asia, Africa and Latin America, an assessment of the defi nitive decline of conventional religion is even more questionable. When we turn to people in Western countries who continue to identify with religion, we see that they are also increasingly adopting a mixture of spiritual genres. They borrow from across the boundaries not only of spiritual traditions but also of religious faiths. For example, the Dutch social anthropologist Peter Versteeg has analysed the current work of Roman Catholic spirituality centres in The Netherlands. These have created an interesting place for themselves on the religious-spiritual landscape and are positioned somewhere between the institutional Church and the world of alternative spiritualities. The qualifying adjective ‘Christian’ may only refer to the fact that such spirituality centres have a religious origin. However, what is on offer in them is frequently identified simply as ‘spirituality’ without any explicit reference to religious beliefs.4 A similar eclecticism may be detected in the programmes of many Christian retreat houses and spirituality centres throughout the Western world. This approach to spirituality among contemporary Christians raises complex questions about how we understand the way religious traditions function in radically plural contexts. The French social scientist and expert on Islam, Olivier Roy, borrows the word formatage or ‘formatting’ from computer language in his analysis of the process whereby religions and their spiritual traditions

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are ‘reformatted’ to fit the norms of the different cultures within which they exist. While Roy is primarily reflecting on the position of Islam in Western countries, many of his observations apply to other religions in an increasingly global and plural world.5 This ‘reformatting’ may occasionally be ‘from above’ when religious authorities consciously seek to adapt to new cultural-social realities. However, ‘reformatting’ is more frequently ‘from below’. Here, in informal and less theoretical ways, and sometimes in contrast to the attitudes of religious authorities, classic religious themes are reformulated, spiritual practices are adapted or new ways of life are adopted to re-express a faith tradition. For example, something crucial remains identifiably Muslim or Christian. Yet, at the same time, fundamental ways of understanding such designations and their expressions change in significant ways.

Varied approaches and traditions With all this in mind, we can briefly summarize three broad approaches to spirituality. First, there are the classic religious spiritualities of, for example, Hinduism or Christianity, which are traditions with a combination of all or most of the following: a framework of transcendent beliefs, foundational texts or scriptures, symbol systems, some visible structure, public practices and sacred spaces. Second, there is an ambiguous category of ‘esoteric’ spiritualities many of which are little known to the wider public. Such spiritualities are ambiguous because they sometimes have religious elements combined with esoteric philosophical or ethical ones. Finally, there is an increasingly important spectrum of nonreligious or secular understandings of spirituality. Even within each of the great world religions, spirituality has always been a diverse and plural reality. Different individuals or groups in varied historical and cultural contexts have sought to respond to the question of how to live an authentic version of their particular religious vision. Clearly, the foundational beliefs of a religion mean that the different versions of spiritual wisdom and practice within them have certain important common features. However, different spiritual traditions have existed and continue to exist within any given religion which have distinctive features and a particular history. More broadly it is also possible, with due

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care, to describe a typology of different styles of spirituality that cross the boundaries between different world religions and indeed the boundary between religion and so-called secular spirituality. First of all, what are ‘spiritual traditions’? If we leave behind the inadequate defi nitions of ‘religion’ mentioned above, all the world faiths are fundamentally based on an overall spiritual vision. At the same time, they have given rise to a plurality of spiritual wisdom teachings, embodied in a combination of texts and groups of people who seek to live by the teachings and also to pass them on. These ongoing wisdom teachings which have passed beyond the boundaries of their time and place of origin are what I defi ne as ‘spiritual traditions’. Each of them offers some kind of distinctive map of the spiritual quest and often promotes certain spiritual practices that encapsulate the foundational values of the tradition. For example, in Christianity there are a wide range of such traditions, for example, Ignatian spirituality, Franciscan spirituality or monastic spirituality, each with its founding narrative, its iconic spiritual teachers, its core values, its central wisdom texts, its distinctive practices and an overall flavour or style by which it is often identified. In a global world, such traditions travel beyond their original contexts and are continually being ‘reborn’ or reinterpreted locally in their new circumstances. Thus, the striking growth of Buddhism in the West means that it has inevitably taken on new shapes and its original Asian patterns of behaviour are no longer the defi ning feature. The worldwide Triratna Buddhist movement (formerly Friends of the Western Buddhist Order) emphasizes two things. First, how the unity of Buddhist principles is able to transcend the historic local cultures within which the religion originally developed. Second, how it is capable of adapting to the conditions of the modern world.6 It is worth emphasizing that spiritual traditions have a developed theory and value system rather than just teachings on prayer and meditation. This raises an important question of authenticity when certain spiritual practices are borrowed from religions without any reference to the background belief system or spiritual theory. We only have to think of the widespread practice of yoga, derived from Hinduism, merely as a form of healthy exercise or alternative medicine and the growing use in psychology and therapy of ‘mindfulness meditation’ derived from Buddhism but without any attention to its underlying ethics and philosophy.

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Types of spirituality I have already mentioned that it is possible to develop a comparative typology of different styles of spiritual wisdom and practice with shared characteristics that appear in all the world religions and also to some degree in the new category of ‘secular’ or non-religious spirituality. A number of historians of spirituality have developed a range of typologies to help people organize into an intelligible pattern what would otherwise be a confusing mass of detail and information. However, while typologies are useful tools we need to remember that they are frameworks of interpretation rather than purely descriptive and ‘factual’. The ‘types’ should not be treated as absolutes or as wholly self-contained. In reality there may well be overlaps and mixtures between them. Having said this, in teaching about spirituality to students I have found it helpful to identify four broad types of spirituality. I refer to these as ‘the ascetical’, ‘the mystical’, ‘the practical’ and ‘the prophetic’. These types offer particular emphases in relation to the process of self-transcendence and spiritual transformation not least in terms of which aspects of life need to be transformed, where transformation needs to take place (in everyday life or in special contexts), how transformation takes place (i.e. the recommended spiritual disciplines or ways of life) and what the end-point of transformation is intended to be. The ‘ascetical type’ of spirituality overall implies a rejection of the idea that human fulfilment can be achieved through material success or consumption. It tends to prescribe the practice of self-denial and abstention from material pleasures as the pathway to spiritual enlightenment and perfection. The word ‘asceticism’ derives from the ancient Greek word, áske¯sis. This means ‘training’ or ‘discipline’ and probably originates in the world of athletics. The ascetical type of spirituality may be practised in a disciplined everyday life but it also sometimes recommends special places for the process of spiritual transformation such as the desert or a monastery. Overall, asceticism implies a disciplined rather than a dissipated life. The end product of the ascetical type of spirituality may be summarized as liberation from material preoccupations and a deepened moral behaviour. As we shall see in later chapters, this type of spirituality is clearly present in the disciplines of Islam, in the yoga practices of Hinduism and in those religions such as Buddhism and Christianity which

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have historically produced forms of monastic life. Contemporary Judaism is more ambivalent about overtly ascetical movements as we shall see. In the minds of many people asceticism sounds fairly masochistic and unhealthy. However, in the main religions its true purpose is not to punish the body or to reject everyday life as illusory. Rather, asceticism is intended to bring about liberation from whatever impedes our spiritual progress such as an unbalanced dependency on material possessions. The ‘mystical type’ of spirituality will be explored in more detail in Chapter three. It is often associated in people’s minds with intense religious experiences or experiences of self-transcendence. Indeed, the still popular book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, by the late-nineteenth-century American psychologist and philosopher William James focused on the mystical in terms of interior experience that was essentially universal. He believed that such experiences crossed the boundaries between religions and transcended their specific beliefs or external forms. The problem with this belief in a universal spiritual experience is that such a ‘spiritual essence’ is highly abstract. It does not correspond accurately with how Buddhism, Islam or other religions actually understand the spiritual path. There is also a problem with whether it is actually possible to separate some kind of pure experience from our prior intellectual assumptions. The actual words ‘mystical’ and ‘mysticism’ originate with the ancient Greek mystikos which broadly refers to secret knowledge or religious mysteries. However, the mystical type of spirituality more accurately relates to the quest for an immediate consciousness of, or sense of deep connection with, God or the ultimate depths of existence. The mystical type of spirituality is often associated with a way of ‘knowing’ that transcends purely rational analysis. This type of spirituality is present in some way in all the world religions. However, people do not set out to become ‘mystics’ but simply to engage with their Islamic, Hindu, Christian or other spiritual paths with a particularly intense commitment. This is often associated with some form of contemplative practice. Equally, it is important to note that the world religions do not understand ‘the mystical’ in terms of intense private experiences separated from a commitment to leading a morally transformed life in the everyday world. The ‘practical type’ of spirituality in a variety of ways promotes the ordinary everyday world as the main context for following a

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spiritual path and for seeking spiritual transformation. In this type of spirituality, what is needed in order to reach truth, fulfilment and enlightenment is therefore within our reach. As the eighteenthcentury Zen master Hakuin taught, ‘The Pure Lotus Land is not far away’. This type of spirituality is present in various ways in all the world religions, for example, in the teachings of the Hindu Vedanta expressed, for example, in the philanthropic work of the Ramakrishnan Mission, in various trends in Buddhism, in varieties of Christian engagement with social need or in the spirituality of service associated with the sixteenth-century founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola. In many respects, this type of spirituality is more immediately accessible than either the ascetical or mystical types. It emphasizes that we are to fi nd God or the Absolute in the midst of everyday existence. Consequently, this type of spirituality is in principle open to everyone and not simply to special groups of initiates or those people with time to commit themselves to extensive contemplative practice. The ‘practical type’ of spirituality seeks to fi nd spiritual meaning and an effective spiritual path in the context of our everyday experiences, commitments and activities – whether in family life, work or other social contexts. It promotes spiritual practices that will help us to develop a greater attentiveness to life beyond the immediate, to pursue a holistic lifestyle, to seek happiness beyond immediate satisfactions. This type of spirituality emphasizes the value of such everyday human virtues as forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, charity and social responsibility. The ‘practical type’ of spirituality also frequently promotes the disinterested service of our fellow human beings as itself a challenging form of spiritual practice. Finally, the ‘prophetic type’ of spirituality, while equally focused on the everyday world, goes beyond the practical service of our fellow humans in favour of social critique and commitment to social justice as a spiritual task. In one sense, all historic spiritual traditions have had prophetic elements. Thus, the prophetic books of the Jewish scriptures, for example, Amos, Isaiah or Jeremiah, critiqued corrupt religious or political systems. Equally, in Christianity, the mendicant movement of St Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century ce, with its emphasis on spiritual poverty and work with marginalized groups of people, was partly a reaction against what Francis saw as the prevailing sins of his own wealthy merchant class. However, biblical prophecy and

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Francis of Assisi did not promote explicit movements of social transformation. The development of socially critical spiritualities really emerged during the twentieth century in response to three interrelated factors. First, there was an overwhelming awareness of the power of violence and human oppression experienced in the slaughter of two world wars, mid-century Nazism and Stalinism, the Holocaust and the birth of the atomic-nuclear age. Second, there was the often violent end to European colonialism in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Third, there was a growing tide of social change in Europe and North America particularly in relation to the role of women and to civil rights for racial minorities. The ‘prophetic type’ has clear expressions both within and outside the world religions. For example, there was the spiritual message of the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi in relation to both British imperial rule and the wider situation of the poor in India. In Buddhism there is the socially critical teachings of Venerable Prayudh Payutto in Thailand. In Christianity there have been a range of examples including Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s radical Christian resistance to the Nazi party, the birth of liberation spirituality in central and Latin America in the 1960s, forms of feminist spirituality in Western countries and the preaching of someone like Martin Luther King at the heart of the American Civil Rights movement. What is most characteristic of the ‘prophetic type’ is the twofold notion that authentic spirituality demands that the human community engages fearlessly with the structures of injustice and violence and conversely that any truly effective engagement with injustice demands the purification of our motivation through the challenging practice of contemplation.

Types and esoteric spiritualities The ‘types’ of spirituality that I have described also appear in a variety of forms outside the world religions in both esoteric and in non-religious, or what are often called ‘secular’, spiritualities. Contemporary secular spirituality will be explored in the fi nal chapter. Briefly, in terms of what are called esoteric movements, among the better known are Anthroposophy, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, non-traditional Kabbalah and Spiritualism. Apart from secret rituals and special initiates,

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many esoteric spiritualities have a number of other shared characteristics such as a quest for illuminated knowledge, believing in an interconnection between the visible and invisible universe, symbols, rituals, spirit guides and human teachers that unlock the universe’s mysteries. In some respects, it appears more obvious to associate the esoteric movements with ‘the mystical type’ because of the widespread emphasis on unlocking hidden knowledge and the quest for superior illumination. For example, Theosophy, founded by Madame Blavatsky in the late nineteenth century, overtly mixes together mystical teachings, strongly influenced by her interpretation of Indian religions, philosophy and occult knowledge. Theosophy attracted the Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin. He developed a kind of abstract mystic theory based on the role of music and musicians in relation to the transformation of perception and the birth of a new world through a quasi-religious synthesis of all the arts. Equally, some versions of Rosicrucianism explicitly refer to themselves as an ‘Ancient Mystical Order’. The movement claims to originate in a medieval secret society of alchemists, founded by Christian Rosenkreuz, which later added to the mixture what it claimed to be ancient Egyptian, Greek, Druid and Gnostic ‘mysteries’. As we shall see later, Kabbalah was a mystical movement within mainstream Judaism but Western esoteric Kabbalah embraces a syncretistic range of teachings and illuminated knowledge drawn from astrology, alchemy, the tarot, certain elements of Neoplatonic and Gnostic philosophy and tantra. Finally, Spiritualism has largely taken two forms. There is a syncretistic movement with a heterogeneous range of beliefs and another, larger group, which is organized as a Christian church. The dominant belief is in spirit communication. That is, the spirits of the dead may communicate with the living via teachers known as ‘mediums’ and in this way offer spiritual guidance and knowledge of the afterlife. However, some elements of the esoteric movements appear to fall within the ‘practical type’ of spirituality. For all its mystical overtones, one expression of the Rosicrucian tradition, ‘The Rosicrucian Fellowship’, seeks to develop in the individual person a spirit of all-embracing altruism and unselfish service of humanity. The male fraternal organization of Freemasonry places a strong emphasis on charitable action and philanthropy. Anthroposophy,

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a spiritual philosophy founded by the Austrian thinker Rudolph Steiner in the early twentieth century, was certainly based on a belief in the reality of a spiritual world that was accessible to direct experience. However, Steiner’s combination of a form of Christian humanism with his interest in the natural sciences led the movement in very practical directions. Thus, Waldorf-Steiner schools are based on a desire to develop morally responsible, socially competent students. The Camphill Movement caters for adults and children with learning difficulties. There has also been support for organic farming, ethical banking and medical clinics that combine elements of conventional medicine with homeopathy and naturopathy.7

Types and non-religious spiritualities In terms of non-religious or ‘secular’ spiritualities, the ascetical type is both the most common and the easiest to describe. For example, a range of non-religious people have adopted the disciplined practice of regular meditation as a way to deepen their awareness of reality and of achieving greater attentiveness or mindfulness. Although regular meditation is itself a demanding discipline, it is also often accompanied by practices of dietary abstinence or other disciplines. In various forms of ecologically sensitive spiritualities, similar questions of discipline and abstinence arise in relation to the use of natural resources such as heat, light and food. I noted that the origins of the word ‘asceticism’ lie in the ancient Greek world of athletic training and its underlying disciplines. The contemporary world of high-level sport is sadly tarnished by cynicism brought about by the effects of excessive money and greed as well as substance abuse and the corrupt practice of match fi xing. A new kind of asceticism has emerged among those sports people who seek the recovery of a spiritual vision for sport beyond the mere disciplines of training. There are references to the deeper ‘spirit of sport’, originally called religio athletae during the re-emergence of the modern Olympic movement. Idealistic sports people speak of the vital importance of recovering ‘the spirit of the game’, the innate sanctity of sport or a quest for virtue in reaction to modern sporting scandals. On a more idealistic level, the ‘mystical type’ is also present in references to the quest for the sublime and the experience of self-

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transcendence inherent in nature sports such as mountaineering or skiing. This quest for the sublime is also present in some modern understandings of encounters with wonder in the world of science and, even more notably, in approaches to the impact of music on the human spirit. The ‘practical type’ of spirituality finds a place in the new spiritualities of social work, in reference to respectful work with clients, and in renewed attention to professional life as a vocation rather than merely a matter of techniques, skills, productivity and material success. Finally, a ‘prophetic’ spiritual motivation is increasingly detectable in discussions of spirituality in relation to renewed visions of human well-being and public virtue in such areas as international peace, social justice, health care, education, architecture and planning and even politics or economics. Much of this will be developed further in Chapter ten on ‘Secular Spirituality and Contemporary Perspectives’.

Conclusion What seems clear from the extraordinary range of spiritual movements, traditions and types, whether religious, esoteric or ‘secular’, is that the concept of ‘spirituality’ is not a single generic reality. Nevertheless, as I have already noted, there are sufficient family resemblances across different time periods, religions and areas of human behaviour to make the use of the word ‘spirituality’ broadly understandable. Above all else, the interest in ‘spirituality’ expresses a widely held sense that human life involves more than biology and more than social or cultural expectations. The concept of ‘spirituality’ suggests that we are naturally driven to seek more than physical well-being, social respectability or material success. A deeper level of meaning and fulfi lment beckons.

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CHAPTER TWO

The study of spirituality The increasing fascination with spirituality over the last 30 years has led to an increasing attention to the subject as an area of scholarly enquiry and also to the birth of numerous courses at different levels in universities worldwide. Indeed, a number of institutions now offer free-standing graduate degrees in spirituality, whether in relation to a specific religious tradition such as Jewish or Christian spirituality or in the form of comparative spirituality. The study of spirituality raises interesting and important questions concerning what precisely we are studying, how we should study it (i.e. which tools we need to use and what methods we should employ), and the related questions of motivation – why we study spirituality and who we are as we study it.

What do we study? First of all, an absolutely fundamental question is what precisely we are studying. In other words, what makes ‘spirituality’ stand out as an object of study that is distinct from everything else? If we think in terms of religious spiritualities such as Buddhism or Christianity, any study engages with the traditions of that faith community. However, if we think historically fi rst of all, how is the study of Buddhist and Christian spirituality to be distinguished from the history of Buddhism or Christianity more generally? For example, if we take the example of monasticism, we could examine the impact of the Christian Cistercian monks on medieval

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economic structures in England. An example would be how the monks of Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire helped to develop the English wool trade. It is likely that most people would agree that this is not the study of spirituality. On the other hand, if we explored the wisdom offered in the treatise Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx, the renowned twelfth-century abbot of the same monastery, most people would immediately recognize this as part of the study of spirituality because it has something to do with what it is to be fully human, how we develop spiritually and how to live a self-transcendent and self-giving life. Another side of the ‘what’ question in reference to spirituality refers to the question of which aspects of a religious tradition we give attention to in our study. The development of spirituality as an academic field has tended to give priority to the study of sophisticated literary texts. Thus mystical, monastic, contemplative or theological books predominate over more popular, devotional or broadly based writings. Clearly, such spiritual classics are a central part of historic religious spiritual traditions. Yet, to give exclusive attention to these suggests an intellectual preference for theoretical thinking. Equally, written texts as a whole have tended to take precedence over other manifestations of ‘spirituality’. In all the great world religions, what we mean by spirituality has been expressed in a range of forms – for example, in lifestyles, popular devotions, in certain iconic figures such as sages and saints, spiritual practices such as meditation or pilgrimage, artwork and music and the design of sacred buildings. The topic of spiritual practices and devotions will be explored further in Chapter four. The theme of sages and saints and their roles will be discussed in the relevant chapters dedicated to each of the major religions and to the notion of non-religious or ‘secular’ spirituality.

Arts and aesthetics Before we turn to the question of the tools and methods we need to use in studying spirituality which will focus primarily on reading and interpreting ‘classic’ texts, it is worth considering briefly the role of aesthetics and art in expressing spirituality. Interestingly the American religious scholar David Tracy is clear that what we mean by classic texts, including spiritual classics, is not limited to

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written material but may be extended to include events and people that have some form of transformative potential. I would add to this list that spiritual classics may also include the creative arts and architecture.1 In both religious and non-religious contexts, aesthetics and the arts have always been an important medium for expressing spirituality. The word aesthetics comes from the Greek aisthetikos, ‘concerning perception’, which implies how we come to understand reality through our senses. Major Western philosophers from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and from Immanuel Kant to Martin Heidegger all wrote in various ways about our understanding of ‘beauty’ and the role it plays in human life. For some thinkers, the concept is not merely concerned with what is attractive but is also connected with ‘the sublime’ – that is, what relates to the sacred and to ultimate truth however we conceive of this. At the heart of all the arts (e.g. music, painting, sculpture, theatre, literature and dance) is the power of the image. The artist or composer creates an image, communicates via imagery and the audience receive ‘meaning’ through their imagination. In other words, musical or artistic images have a capacity to touch the spiritual depths of our human experience beyond the limits of rational language and description. Historically, the creative arts have deep religious roots. For example, there is great spiritual depth in the art of Michelangelo, in the poetry of George Herbert or in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Equally, broadly understood, all religions use artistic forms. Apart from the portrayal of the cosmos and its meaning in medieval cathedrals, we can note the riot of painting and sculpture in Hindu temples, the chanting of Buddhist monks and the poetry of Sufi Islam. The central role of art as a spiritual statement is explicit in some religious traditions, such as the tradition of icons in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. For example, the famous fifteenth-century icon of the Trinity by Andrei Rublev is considered to be one of the greatest achievements of Russian art. The role of icons is not purely aesthetic but is explicitly spiritual because they are understood to be a medium of divine power. It is believed that through our interaction with icons we may become united with what the icon represents – whether this is God the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or the other saints. Outside formal religion, a number of artists have approached their work as both a way of trying to express the transcendent

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and a form of spiritual practice. More widely, for many people aesthetic experience is an intense source of self-transcendence. For some artistic practitioners, creating works of art is an expression of a spiritual vision and is itself a form of spiritual practice. For example, the artist Wassily Kandinsky, influenced by Rudolph Steiner and Anthroposophy, suggested that ‘to send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist’. Another twentieth-century artist Piet Mondrian believed that an artist was only able to attain the ideal art by reaching a point where there was direct and conscious interaction with the spiritual. Historically, another artistic form with powerful spiritual resonances is architecture. Whether we think, for example, of the historic mosques in the Middle East, the great medieval European cathedrals or the extraordinary Meenakshi Amman Hindu temple in the Indian city of Madurai, religious buildings have historically offered a treasury of spiritual meaning and have also given a sacred focus to city landscapes. One striking example of the spiritual power of religious buildings is the continued fascination with the great medieval cathedrals of Western Europe even in a supposedly post-religious age. Cathedrals continue to attract large numbers of visitors. Contemporary research suggests that a majority of visitors do not treat such buildings simple as heritage monuments but fi nd in them some sense of ‘the sacred’ and of spiritual experience. The original theory behind medieval cathedral architecture was overtly spiritual. In these great churches, paradise was evoked and expressed in material terms in the design, layout and artwork. To enter the cathedral was to be transported into a transcendent realm by the space, light, colour and architectural design. The architecture of the cathedrals was explicitly intended to be a microcosm of the cosmos. Interestingly, the ancient Chinese system of aesthetics known as Feng Shui (literally wind and water) has also made an impact on Western architecture and design. This system suggests a harmonious way of orientating buildings that offers a positive energy to the users. Feng Shui is believed to relate the ‘laws of heaven’ to earthly realities. It seeks to align the key natural elements or forces in an auspicious way. Another artistic medium, music, plays an important role in all the major world religions. While it often accompanies the performance of religious ritual, it is sometimes also considered to be a spiritual expression in itself. Indeed some religious music, such

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as the ethereal sound of plainchant sung by Christian monastic communities, has an enthusiastic following among non-religious people. A number of twentieth-century composers also engaged overtly with the spiritual. Thus, French composer Olivier Messiaen believed that sound was itself spiritual because it connected us to the harmonies of the cosmos. The American composer John Cage based his abstract music on Buddhist philosophy. The Estonian Arvö Part, a leading minimalist composer, is inspired both by plainchant and by the music of the Orthodox Church. Spiritual experience has also impacted on elements of European musical theatre. For example, the MusikTheaterKöln has used mystical texts, both Buddhist and Christian. Thus, Zen koans from the Mumonkan have been the basis for one musical and the chamber opera Las Canciones was based on the poetry of the sixteenthcentury Spanish Christian mystic John of the Cross. The opera sought, through text and music, to express the surrender of the human spirit to God. In terms of literature, ‘spirituality’ is most explicitly present in religious poets. Famous examples include the Persian Sufi Rumi, the Bengali Rabindranath Tagore, the English seventeenth-century metaphysical poets such as John Donne or George Herbert, the nineteenth-century English Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins and more recently the poetry of the late Elizabeth Jennings and the late R. S. Thomas. However, an attention to spirituality is also present in such prose work as the short stories and novels of Flannery O’Connor, the children’s books of C. S. Lewis and the fantasy Lord of the Rings cycle of writings by J. R. R. Tolkien who was a devout Roman Catholic. Finally, in a fascinating collection of essays, Art and The Spiritual, some major contemporary artists and fi lm directors, such as Antony Gormley, Bill Viola and David Puttnam, engage with the interface of the arts and spirituality. All the writers understand that the spiritual power of art lies in the fact that while it arises out of an engagement with the material world, it also offers a spiritual sense of the wholeness of humanity and the world. 2

How do we study? The second important question is how we study spirituality. Of course, we can approach the subject merely as a human and cultural

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phenomenon, held at a distance and viewed purely objectively, without any interest in spiritual wisdom teachings or the nature of spiritual practices in themselves. However, my approach to the question of study seeks to embrace both the quest for objective and factual information and the possibility of an interest in spiritual wisdom in and for itself. The study of spirituality has established itself in recent years as an interdisciplinary field rather than merely a subset of the theology of a particular faith or of religious history. Indeed, the role of interdisciplinary study has become a central methodological principle of spirituality, especially in the Christian tradition which, on balance, has developed the most detailed discussions about methods and interpretative tools.3 A criticism was levelled at the study of spirituality some 20 years ago that it tried to use as many methods and tools as possible because it had no adequate sense of its own disciplinary identity. Indeed, there can certainly be a ‘cheap’ interdisciplinarity that borrows concepts from, and uses the language of, different disciplines without any real expertise in them. However, interdisciplinary study is not simply a matter of convenience but is actually a principled position as critical theory underlines. Since the end of the Second World War, critical theory, derived from French philosophers influenced by social analysis, has had a growing impact on religious thinking in the West. This promoted the breakdown of traditional closed systems of analysis and interpretation. Such systems demanded that academic disciplines should be pure and clearly separated from each other. The recent breakdown of these closed systems of study and interpretation has also underlined that the ways we think about what we are studying or reading are complex and are also inevitably bound up with power issues. Thus, information and viewpoints are presented by writers in a certain way and also how we receive them often accords with our prior, unexamined assumptions. Thus, interdisciplinary study is both a challenge and an enrichment of the ways we approach what we study, for example, the spiritual classics. However, it is also a discipline of learning to live with what is complex rather than simple and with a range of perspectives rather than with material that is relatively easy to control. Because the study of spirituality engages with the range of religious traditions as well as with certain non-religious

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professional worlds, certain disciplines will be necessarily involved in its study depending on the context. Sandra Schneiders, one of the key figures in the modern development of Christian spirituality and its methods, describes these disciplines as ‘constitutive’, that is inherently associated with the nature of what is being studied. So, in the case of Christian spirituality, she cites as ‘constitutive disciplines’ the history of Christianity and the foundational JudeoChristian scriptures. In addition, whatever the religious spirituality we are studying, we need some understanding of its ‘theology’ or belief systems. There are also what Schneiders refers to as the ‘problematic disciplines’. These are a range of disciplines that may be brought into play depending on the particular text, theme or problem within the spiritual tradition that is being studied. Particularly if we extend what we study beyond written texts in the ways already noted, examples of such additional disciplines might include social and cultural history, psychology, the social sciences, literary theory, the history or theory of art, urban studies and architecture, philosophy, political theory or the sciences. For our immediate purposes, I am going to limit my comments to four areas: history, theology or its equivalent, textual interpretation and the social sciences.

History It is important to underline the degree to which all forms of spirituality are explicitly historical phenomena. Even a religion such as Christianity, with its belief in an eternal and transcendent God, also believes that this God is defi nitively revealed in and through a particular historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, and more generally through the processes of human history. ‘History’ is the context for spiritual transformation. In approaching the overall relationship of spirituality and history, a fundamental factor is how we see the importance of history itself. It is not uncommon these days for people to believe that history signifies only the past – something that is interesting but not critical to our future. History is closely bound up with ‘tradition’ which is perceived by some people as a conservative force from which we need to break free if we are to live a more rational existence. Consumerism also tends to encourage a culture of immediacy and

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this all too easily leads to a memory-less culture. An even more powerful factor during the twentieth century was the decline of the belief that history was a necessarily progressive force. Such a view evaporated in the face of world wars, totalitarianism and the horrors of the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the nuclear age. Despite these problems, a historical consciousness is vital in our understanding of spiritual traditions. It reminds us of the contextual nature of spiritual values. Indeed, attention to the complexities of history has been a major development in the study of spirituality over the last 30 years. Spiritual traditions do not exist on some ideal plane above and beyond history. The origins and development of spiritual traditions reflect the circumstances of time and place as well as the psychological state of the people involved. They consequently embody values that are socially conditioned and we need to be aware of these factors. For example, the emphasis on radical poverty in the spirituality of St Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century was not simply a response to scriptural values but was also a reaction to what he saw as the prevailing sins of society and the Church in his day. Equally, we need to be aware that inherited spiritual traditions and texts in all religions reflect the limitations and biases of their time and place. The theory of history and how it is studied these days suggests a number of key questions of which we need to be aware. First, in a particular spiritual text or historical tradition, how was holiness conceived? Second, which categories of people and lifestyle were made prominent because they were thought of as particularly spiritual? For example, are monastic ascetics or everyday workers and married people more prominent and why? Third, what spiritual practices were given priority and why? Fourth, why did certain spiritual wisdom teachings survive and others did not? Fifth, in a given spirituality is it the sophisticated mystical texts or the popular devotions and practices that are treated as more powerfully ‘spiritual’? Finally, when we look at a spiritual tradition we should be aware that choices are involved in how it was originally recorded and then how it is subsequently presented in historical writings. The study of Christian spirituality offers some helpful examples. Thus, certain time limits are chosen. In other words, writers decide on the appropriate boundaries to date a spiritual tradition and thus to understand it. For example, traditional histories of Christian religion tended to separate the reformed Protestant traditions of

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spirituality sharply from the spirituality of the Middle Ages rather than acknowledge the undoubted continuities. Then, traditional histories reveal a geographical bias. One example was that the spirituality of the Celtic lands (e.g. Ireland) was not treated on its own terms until relatively recently but only as an ‘eccentric’ sideshow in the story of Western Christianity. Another example was a Eurocentric attitude whereby the Christian cultures and their spiritualities in Africa, Asia and Latin America were scarcely mentioned if they were present at all. Finally, traditional histories of spirituality treated only certain evidence as significant. So there was a tendency to concentrate on major spiritual figures and sophisticated written sources, thus giving the impression that ‘spirituality’ was essentially literary and confi ned to socially privileged groups and was to be distinguished from popular religion. Modern historical approaches to spirituality are much more aware of these critical questions and are therefore more inclusive in their coverage. These difficult questions certainly do not imply that spiritual traditions and texts have no value beyond their original historical contexts. However, an awareness of such questions does mean that to appreciate the riches of historical spiritual traditions and to interpret classic spiritual texts we must take their original context seriously and bring it into conversation with our own very different contexts and value systems.

Theology and systems of meaning The spiritual traditions present in the various world faiths also reflect the belief systems (or ‘theology’) of those religions. This means that to understand such spiritual traditions and texts we need to have some grasp of the underlying values, symbols or beliefs of their religious context. It may be that for many people in the intellectually fluid and uncertain cultures of Western countries, ‘spirituality’ is no longer necessarily the practical application of religious, that is, theological, beliefs. However, if we explore the spiritual traditions of the major world religions we cannot entirely escape such theological questions. For those who study religious spiritualities from within the given faith tradition, the process of studying the background theology is of course somewhat different.

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In this case, theology involves more than simply analysing themes and ideas from a distance but includes some further personal appropriation of the tradition. The question of why we study spirituality and what difference such study makes will be briefly discussed later in the chapter. Meanwhile, the central value and importance of studying spiritualities in terms of their theologies can be illustrated by a number of questions. The fundamental question when approaching religious spiritualities is what or who is ‘God’ or, in the case of a non-theistic religion such as Buddhism, how is the object of religious beliefs defi ned? If you like, this embraces a view about ultimate meaning. As a corollary, in the case of theistic spiritualities, how is the relationship with God conceived? What are the dominant images for the human relationship with the divine – a commitment of love in response to divine love as in mainstream Christian religion or of voluntary submission to the will of God as in Islam, or something else? A number of further questions follow from this. First, whether or not there is a belief in a creator God or Gods, how is the material world viewed? Is it fundamentally good, flawed, an illusion or something else? Is it the context for the pursuit of a spiritual life and spiritual transformation or does the latter demand detachment or escape from ‘the world’? Second, how is human existence and human identity understood? Is the core or essence of human nature some form of spiritual dimension (e.g. the ‘soul’) or is embodiment inherent to being fully human? Thus, is the body a problem for spirituality or central to it? A corollary is whether the core of human identity is seen in purely individual terms or whether the communal and social side of existence is critical to being fully human. Third, in this religious tradition, how is the heart of a spiritual life understood? For example, is it concerned with cultivating some kind of relationship with God or Gods? Or is it interested in reaching some kind of transcendent experience and transformation of consciousness? Or is it understood as a process of being liberated from limitations? Or is it focused upon achieving some form of higher knowledge or enlightenment? Or is it a mixture or some or all of these? Finally, how is the end point of spirituality understood – for example, salvation, paradise, union with the divine, enlightenment or something else? In the case of non-religious spiritualities, systems of meaning might more appropriately be thought of in terms of ‘philosophies’ whether these are intellectually structured or not. Some

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contemporary approaches will be briefly mentioned in the fi nal chapter. Two historical philosophical systems may be thought of as particularly relevant examples in relation to the study of spirituality. Confucianism originated in China with the person of Confucius (551–479 bce). He emphasized the importance of cultivating moral virtues, especially those of humaneness, civility and decorum. The latter concept reminds us that ‘courtesy’ or ‘manners’ were historically not simply a matter of conventional behaviour but were related to some kind of ethical framework in relation to human interaction. For Confucius, these three virtues shaped the truly noble person. A properly ordered and harmonious society begins with rightly ordered family relationships and then spreads into the wider world. Confucius’ underlying philosophy was an understanding of cosmic harmony reflected in daily affairs. Thus, even the ordinary features of everyday life are sacred. A sense of Heaven is not entirely absent from Confucius’ philosophy but the focus is generally on being more properly present in the world. The second historical example is the ancient Greek tradition of Stoicism. Among the Stoics, as in some other Greek philosophies, the contemplative life is seen as paramount. To pursue this life, people need to free themselves from everything alien. The contemplative life seeks to connect with the underlying truths of the cosmos. ‘Philosophy’ as a system therefore seeks to make human behaviour conform to universal nature. In order to bring this about, a person should undertake meditation, examine his or her conscience and live wholly in the present moment. In terms of a framework for studying spirituality from a philosophical standpoint, the work of Pierre Hadot, the eminent French historian of philosophy, is particularly helpful. Hadot wrote a remarkable study on spirituality and philosophy, Philosophy as a Way of Life. This presents a history of ‘spiritual exercises’ from Socrates to Michel Foucault. For Hadot, philosophy is not intellectually abstract for its goal is to cultivate the art of wholesome living and to achieve the transformation of human existence.4

Textual interpretation The study of spirituality, particularly in relation to historic religious traditions, involves important issues of interpretation

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especially in relation to the classic texts of those traditions. If we take context seriously, yet also seek to approach spiritual traditions from other times and places for the spiritual wisdom they contain, the question of how we are to interpret a text is critical. We are inevitably aware of different cultural and religious perspectives when we read a text from another time or place. What world of meaning is revealed in and through a classic spiritual text? If interpretation is to serve contemporary use, we cannot avoid the question of how far to respect a text’s assumptions and the author’s original purpose. Certain responses are naive. We may ignore the author’s intention and the text’s structure entirely and simply pick and choose from the text as it suits us. The opposite extreme is to assume that only the author’s original intention matters. Even assuming that we can accurately reconstruct this intention, such an approach subordinates our present values and horizons to the past. Both approaches assume that the ‘meaning’ of a text is straightforward. A more fruitful, but more complicated, approach to interpretation is to engage in a critical dialogue with the text. This allows the wisdom of a text to challenge us even in its strangeness while at the same time it allows our own horizons their proper place. The possibilities of a text, beyond the author’s original intention, are evoked in a creative way by the new world in which it fi nds itself. If there is to be a dialogue between the horizons of a text and our own contemporary horizons, the text’s original historical context is certainly an important starting point. In other words, the spiritual classics of the world religions were written for clearly identified audiences and addressed specific concerns. The insights of contemporary literary criticism also remind us that however familiar the words of a spiritual classic may seem to be in the fi rst instance, the experiences and assumptions that lie behind them are different from our own. As a result, particular words have a new significance. We also need to remember that, in reading a classic spiritual text, we are not dealing with two quite disconnected moments (our own and that of the author of the text) but also with whatever comes between. That is, all classic spiritual texts have been transmitted from their time of origin to the present time and so there will be history of their interpretation. This tradition of interpretation and the previous use of a text over the centuries affects our own moment of reading it.

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However, while allowing for the importance of understanding something of the historical context of a spiritual wisdom text and the intention of the author, contemporary theories of textual interpretation add some important factors to the process. First, the values we bring to a classic spiritual text are not a problem for its correct understanding. The possibilities of a spiritual text, beyond the author’s original purpose, may be evoked in a creative way by the new context in which the text now fi nds itself. In other words, to use technical language, a classic text has an ‘excess of meaning’ beyond the subjective intentions of the author. When a classic spiritual text survives beyond its time and place of origin, it takes on a life of its own and the author effectively loses exclusive control over it. Equally, the spiritual text and its wisdom are distanced from the original audience. A good example would be a monastic or mystical text written for members of a particular community or group of initiates which now attracts readers and users from outside these groups. Finally, contemporary theories of interpretation also remind us that we need to be critically aware of the assumptions and values embedded in a classic spiritual text. On the one hand, the author’s intention and previous traditions of interpretation continue to have some kind of normative role. We should not exploit a text ruthlessly for our own ends. In this sense, we ‘consent’ to a text and allow it, even in its strangeness, to challenge us. However, we may also recognize that the questions and values provoked by our contemporary world and situation may well be critical of aspects of a classic spiritual text and its cultural assumptions. We would nowadays be much more aware of the social conditioning of texts and the need to uncover the hidden biases in classic spiritual texts against certain ideas or groups of people. For example, texts from an earlier age may contain a strong gender bias with an assumption of male authority. Equally, the classic spiritual texts from any of the world religions are likely to be shaped by particular cultural and racial assumptions. For example, many Christian mystical and spiritual texts are unselfconsciously Eurocentric while Muslim texts reflect a more Middle Eastern or Asian ethos. These will need to be critically ‘reread’ if they are to be accessible and meaningful for a readership in a different cultural context. In summarizing this approach to the process of interpreting classic spiritual texts, I find the example of musical performance particularly helpful. The basis for performance, at least in classical

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music, is a written score. Musicians interpret this score. A pianist cannot do simply anything with the music and still call it a Debussy prelude. Although the pianist may be technically faultless in following the composer’s instructions, a good performance seeks to be more than mechanically correct by striking the right keys at precisely the required speed and volume. A good performance will also be creative. Faithfulness certainly involves correct technique but this is also linked to imagination. The point is that Debussy did not merely describe how to produce certain sounds but sought to shape an experience in the audience. The score does provide boundaries or limits to the performance but nevertheless every good performance is a fresh process. Indeed, music lovers tend to prefer the interpretation of a particular piece of music, for example, Debussy’s piano preludes, by certain performers rather than by others. This image of musical performance leads us to the heart of the interpretative process when it comes to reading a classic spiritual text. Without ignoring the technicalities of a text, we uncover new and richer meanings every time we read, use or ‘perform’ it.

Social sciences There have been an increasing number of studies of the contemporary phenomenon of ‘spirituality’ from an anthropological or more generally social scientific point of view. Although in one sense studies of spirituality from an explicit social scientific perspective are relatively new, the social sciences had already begun to make an impact as early as the 1960s. I have emphasized the importance of a sense of context in the study of spiritual traditions in my remarks about history. However, ‘context’ is a concept that was imported into the study of history and into historical theory from the social sciences in the early 1930s and even more strongly after the Second World War. It is particularly associated with a French group of social and cultural historians known as the ‘Annales school’ after the journal of the same name. One of the most important scholars of Christian spirituality from the 1960s onwards, the French Jesuit priest Michel de Certeau, was strongly influenced by this way of thinking. Michel de Certeau (1925–86) was an extraordinarily eclectic scholar of spirituality and mysticism who trained in a range of

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disciplines and crossed the boundaries between historical study, theology, psychology and the social sciences. As we shall see in the next chapter, his groundbreaking work on Christian mysticism, The Mystic Fable, was strongly influenced by his social scientific approach to history. However, at this point it is worth noting briefly that his later explicitly social scientific and influential writings on The Practice of Everyday Life, while reflecting on such themes as cities, talking, reading, dwelling and cooking, uncover wonder (and what we might call ‘spirituality’) in the everyday ordinary and discloses ordinary human life as mystical.5 The point about a contextual sensitivity is that all human experience, including spiritual experience, is determined to some degree by our cultures. The contextual approach to historic spiritual traditions within historical studies also seeks to take note not merely of explicitly religious issues but also of the situation of a spiritual tradition within the social context as a whole. As Michel de Certeau noted in his groundbreaking 1966 essay on spiritual experience and culture, ‘context’ is not a ‘something’ that we may choose to add or to subtract from spirituality but is the very element within which spirituality takes its form and fi nds its expression.6 The point is that while the world religions and their spiritual wisdom traditions claim some kind of transcendent dimension, all of them throughout their long histories have been embedded in a range of specific cultures. Despite these comments, and apart from comparative work on religion across the world faiths in religious studies courses as opposed to theology courses, serious engagement with ‘spirituality’ from the point of view of sociology has been relatively rare until recently. Then in 2007 a major collection of scholarly essays appeared, entitled A Sociology of Spirituality.7 This offers a range of perspectives by an international team of social scientists. Sociologists have often tended to be suspicious of the notion of ‘the spiritual’ because of its religious resonances. They were concerned to protect what they saw as their non-ideological observation of concrete circumstances from what they feared were dogmatic frameworks. This collection of recent essays counters this intellectual division by engaging with the themes and preoccupations of religions and their theologies. For the editors, the concept of ‘spirituality’ is now an important conceptual tool that unlocks new cultural doors for the sociologist to explore. Indeed, the introduction suggests that the concept of ‘the

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spiritual’ is not merely theological or supernatural but expresses an indispensable dimension of what it is to be human. However, sociology inevitably raises some sharp questions of its own about the contemporary phenomenon of ‘spirituality’. While the concept explores matters of ultimate concern and embraces a search for meaning that is independent of institutional authority, religious or social, is it in effect becoming a substitute religion? Also, is the contemporary concept of ‘spirituality’ and wide fascination with it a long-term phenomenon or merely a passing phase – a response to particular cultural circumstances? The editors are rightly cautious about offering any defi nitive answers. It also needs to be said that the book is an eclectic collection of essays that opens up a new field of enquiry rather than a comprehensive and systematic sociological study of contemporary spirituality in all its forms.

Why study spirituality? After the important questions of what we study when we look at ‘spirituality’ and how we study it, the final question concerns motivation and the likely result of studying spirituality. This question is why we study spirituality. No field of study, however theoretical, leaves the enquirer untouched and unchanged precisely because any new information or deeper knowledge inevitably challenges our preconceptions and ways of understanding the world. However, in the case of spirituality there is a deeper question precisely because what we study is directly concerned with a form of wisdom to live by. A holistic approach to the study of spirituality will not only be informative but also transformative. In other words, when we approach the classic sources of spiritual wisdom, for example, in world religions, we clearly seek information – that is, historical data, a detailed interpretation of the key texts, an understanding of the underlying religious-theological frameworks and an identification of the kind of spiritual wisdom that is being presented. However, beyond seeking such information, students of spirituality often combine this with a quest for the spiritual wisdom embodied in traditions, texts and practices and how to gain access to this. In the words of Sandra Schneiders, one of the leading theorists in the academic field of spirituality, particularly Christian spirituality, the study of spirituality is not a purely intellectual or

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abstract exercise. It is also self-implicating and therefore potentially transformative. In this approach, the study of spirituality confronts us with questions such as: ‘What difference does this make?’ ‘What might our response be?’ This is the transformative dimension of study and involves a judgement that what is being studied is important in relation to life as a whole. A number of scholars nowadays refer to what they call an ‘appropriative method’ in relation to spirituality. In other words, there is an understanding that ‘spiritual wisdom’ in all the world religions inherently involves a practical dimension. Consequently, its study includes a legitimate dimension of ‘application’ and of ‘appropriation’ – that is, making the wisdom our own.

Conclusion As with all areas of study, spirituality fi rst of all involves a specific focus. In the case of religious spiritualities, this broadly embraces the ways of life that such religions promote, both in theory and in practice. In non-religious spiritualities there will also be some kind of underlying value system or worldview and spiritual practices that are relevant to them.

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CHAPTER THREE

Spirituality and mysticism In the opening chapter I discussed a way of thinking about different ‘types’ of spirituality that might be applied across all the world religions and, indeed, across the range of esoteric and also contemporary non-religious spiritualities. One of these is the ‘mystical type’. Alongside the concept of ‘spirituality’, ‘mysticism’ is the object of a great deal of fascination these days. Unfortunately, there is an assumption that the word basically refers to anything esoteric or deeply mysterious, particularly if it seems to promise us some kind of special insight or depth experience of our connectedness to nature or the cosmos. ‘Mysticism’ is also frequently related to special experiences such as trance-like states or visions. In terms of the world religions, ‘mysticism’ is present in some way in all of them as we shall see in later chapters and is accorded a particular status and role. How does mysticism relate to spirituality? Sometimes these days the two words are treated as synonymous. However, any study of the spiritual traditions of the world faiths suggests that ‘spirituality’ is the broader term, embracing a committed approach to, for example, ‘the Muslim life’ or ‘the Hindu life’, while mysticism is a particular dimension of this broader term.

Definition of mysticism As has often been noted by scholars, in a similar way to the term ‘spirituality’, ‘mysticism’ is very difficult to defi ne in a single,

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simple way.1 In terms of the world religions, such ideas as direct access to the divine or an immediate personal contact with God are fairly common. Beyond the explicit boundaries of religion, and irrespective of religious beliefs, more broadly based transcendent experiences are recorded by quite a few people. It is true that trance-like states may be artificially induced by drugs. However, the kind of oceanic experiences of connection and oneness and of self-transcendence are generally not artificially induced but usually happen spontaneously and when least expected. Among the most common contexts for such experiences appears to be the sense of overwhelming awe in the face of nature provoked for example by the power of the sea or the majesty of mountains. Another medium for mystical experience is aesthetic, particularly the experience of being overwhelmed emotionally while listening to music. It seems that the actual term ‘mysticism’ fi rst appeared in France (as ‘la mystique’) in the seventeenth century. 2 Thus, rather like the concept of ‘spirituality’, the word begins its life in a Christian context and has since been adopted in relation to other religions and beyond the boundaries of religion as a whole. To some observers, both then and now, the notion of mysticism seems to create a separate, somewhat eccentric sphere of religion or spiritual experience. For some people the word simply implies that ‘peculiar things happen to strange people’. Other observers, particularly those involved in the institutional side of religion, view the idea of mysticism and of people known as mystics with deep suspicion. For example, in the words of the nineteenth-century English Benedictine monk and historian, Cardinal Gasquet, mysticism ‘begins in mist and ends in schism’. For them, ‘mysticism’ contrasts dangerously with the institutional elements of religion such as authority structures, doctrinal systems, religious law and formal rituals. Mysticism has sometimes been treated with suspicion by religious authority because it appears to promote a direct form of inspiration that bypasses the orthodox religious path. This is why Gasquet refers to ‘mist’, a lack of doctrinal precision, and ‘schism’, the danger of rejecting the authority of religious systems. Until relatively recently, most commentaries have concentrated on mysticism simply as a category of religious experience. This approach results in a number of problems. First, it tends to separate mysticism from the core beliefs of a particular religion and intellectual reflection upon these (theology) or, in other words,

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from the ways we attempt to think about or speak about the divine or ultimate reality. Second, such an approach removes mysticism from the public world into the private realm of individual interiority. The result is that it is difficult to suggest how mysticism may be of any great importance to the vast majority of people – whether within a particular religion or in relation to human life more broadly. Third, and related to inwardness, such an approach tends to concentrate on phenomena or ‘states of mind’ and emotions experienced by a limited number of people as the result of their intense meditative practices or ascetical disciplines. All of these approaches raise the question about whether, given that a mystical dimension is said to exist in all world religions, there may be a something which we can call ‘mysticism as such’ that transcends the boundaries of particular religious and spiritual traditions. As I have already mentioned, this is a common viewpoint in many modern popular writings and workshops on mysticism, especially those influenced by so-called New Age spirituality with its innate suspicion of old-fashioned and closed dogmatic systems. The notion of ‘mysticism as such’, which we can defi ne apart from specific religious belief systems, would broadly be the viewpoint of the still influential writings of the American philosopher and psychologist of religion William James in his Gifford Lectures, The Varieties of Religious Experience, which fi rst appeared in 1902. His emphasis was on interior religion rather than on external forms.3 For James, this interior religion was understood to be a global, universal phenomenon. He interpreted religious experience, including the mystical, as a ‘pure consciousness event’ that exists prior to any form of religious defi nition or specific belief systems. However, there are several problems with this approach. First, all attempts at all-inclusive defi nitions of mysticism are open to the criticism that they fail to do justice to the riches and complexities of the specific religious traditions such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity. Such defi nitions are highly abstract and are not what the so-called practitioners of mysticism say about their understanding of the spiritual path. The point is that any adequate theory of mysticism must begin not with some abstract ‘essence’ of mysticism but with an awareness of and reflection on specific personalities, historical moments or cultural-religious contexts. Indeed, the people we refer to as ‘mystics’ do not set out to practise something called ‘mysticism’. On the contrary, they

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are those people who practise their specific religious faith with particular intensity. In terms of the theistic religions, mysticism involves an explicit awareness of the immediate presence of God. The great mystical writers are clear that what they are concerned about is fundamentally a spiritual way of life rather than intense inner experiences or altered states of consciousness. Second, mysticism in the strongly scriptural and text-based Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is as concerned with religious language as it is with experience. It can be understood as the quest to reach out to a God who is ultimately beyond our capacity to capture in definitions. In other words, the mystical traditions of these religions effectively question the adequacy of all the words we seek to use about God and the transcendent. Can we ultimately defi ne or name God? The mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam answer the question with a clear ‘No’. As the great medieval Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, said of God in one of his sermons ‘If I have spoken of it [the divine], I have not spoken, for it is ineffable’. Modern philosophical treatments of mysticism also call into question the notion that mystical experience is fundamentally the same in all religions and that mystics of different faiths merely describe their experiences and illuminations after the event in the religious language and imagery that is familiar to them. The implication of such philosophical critiques of James’ notion of a common ‘mystical core’ in all religions is that it is not really possible to distinguish experience from interpretation. In fact, we can only experience things within our overall frameworks of meaning and understanding. Thus, first of all, Jewish mysticism is quite particular, as is Christian mysticism or Buddhist mysticism. The focus of a religious mysticism is specific because religious mystics experience in the way they do within, rather than despite, their particular beliefs. In other words, the experiences of mystics are pre-formed by their background religious frameworks. These set the boundaries within which the actual experiences take place. Indeed, the moment we name something as a religious experience, and specifically an experience of God, we have already interpreted it.4 If we reject the notion that there is a clearly defi ned, common ‘something’ that we can call mysticism as such, that exists prior to and independently of specific religious traditions, can we talk meaningfully at all about a mystical dimension present in all world

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religions? By using the word ‘mysticism’ in reference, for example, to Buddhism or Islam are we simply borrowing a concept from Christianity and then imposing it on others? In order to validate using the word ‘mysticism’ so broadly, we do not have to fall back on the work of William James and his belief that there is a shared ‘something’ that predates religious belief systems. However, it would be fair to say that, as in ‘spirituality’, it is possible to detect a kind of ‘family resemblance’ that enables us to explore a similar concern within all the world religions. This relates to a spiritual life that is intensely penetrated by the presence of the divine or, more broadly, the transcendent. Indeed, as we shall now see, mystics from different traditions, for example, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, have actually borrowed from each other’s traditions across time.

Mysticism and mixtures Any careful historical study of all the world religions, and of religion in general, soon reveals that no religious system of belief and practice is utterly pure. To take simply one example, for all its concern with the uniqueness of God’s self-revelation in the person of Jesus and its subsequent preoccupation with precise doctrinal defi nition, Christianity was receptive to influences from beyond its boundaries from the start. Of course, its overall origins were as a particular version of Judaism which then slowly parted company with the synagogue. Almost as soon as it began to spread throughout the cities of the Roman Empire, Christianity encountered previous philosophical traditions which it was able to detach from their preChristian Greek or Roman religious frameworks. One particular philosophical strand, Greek Neo-Platonism, had an early impact on what might be called the mystical interpretation of the Christian spiritual path. For example, the theologian Origen in the city of Alexandria (c 185–254 ce) drew inspiration from the Neoplatonic emphasis on the spiritual path leading to union with ‘the One’, or God. This union was attained through contemplation and mystical interpretations of the scriptures as well as through an ethical purification from all that diluted our desire for union with the One. Origen adopted the classic Neoplatonic understanding of a threefold framework of existence. He translated this into a pattern

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of three ascending stages of spiritual growth (i.e. beginners, the proficient and the perfect). The ascent was away from the material world towards eternal Light where there would be a recovery of the image of God in the human soul. Origen’s speculative Neoplatonic thinking was also adopted by later Christian mystical theologians such as the Egyptian monk Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century. Evagrius described God mainly in terms of negative language – that is, what God is not. He also taught a related form of imageless contemplative prayer. Later, at the beginning of the fi fth century, another anonymous monk from Syria, known as pseudoDionysius, was also influenced by Greek philosophy. He wrote a number of highly influential works, among them his Mystical Theology, which stressed the theme of divine darkness – that God is ultimately beyond all the names and definitions that we use. This work, and the other writings by pseudo-Dionysius, had a massive impact on the development of Western Christian mysticism during the Middle Ages. Later, during the European Middle Ages and beyond, the interchange between Christian mysticism and the other two Abrahamic religions, especially in Spain, is striking. For example, it is now accepted that the thirteenth-century Catalan thinker Ramon Llull, in his mystical work The Book of the Lover and Beloved, was inspired by Sufi Islam, not least by the great Muslim thinker al-Ghazzali. It also seems that important themes in the particular tradition of Sufism in Al-Andalus had an impact on sixteenth-century Franciscan mystical writers such as Francisco de Osuna who in turn influenced the great Carmelite mystical writer Teresa of Avila. There has also been a detailed assessment of the likely impact of Sufism on the language and symbolism of the poetry of another great Spanish mystic, John of the Cross, as well as on his mystical treatise the Spiritual Canticle. It is also worth noting that it is now widely accepted that both Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross had Jewish ancestry and in particular that the Jewish mystical text Zohar may possibly have been an influence on Teresa’s great mystical work The Interior Castle. The notion of any reciprocal influence by Christianity on Islam is more controversial. However, some scholars nevertheless believe that at an early stage of the Sufi mystical tradition adherents learnt about the practice of meditation that involved controlled breathing from the Eastern Christian monastic tradition. This refers to the

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practice of still contemplative prayer known as Hesychasm (from the Greek word hesychia or stillness).

Mysticism and visions A number of mystical writings, for example, in Christianity, refer to visionary experiences. While I do not wish to limit the understanding of mysticism to intense experiences in isolation, there is no doubt that some people have such experiences that are commonly described as ‘mystical’. Such experiences may be indicative of having reached a deep level of communion with God, the Gods or with some more undefi ned ultimate transcendent reality. However, the notion of close communion with God (or an immediacy of presence to God) is far more important than particular kinds of experience. This is because in reality not all the people we call mystics have experienced what we might call ecstatic experiences or visions or other altered states of consciousness. Also, we need to be cautious because, in isolation, such extraordinary experiences are not reliable indicators of mysticism. For example, it is possible that a visionary experience may result from a psychotic episode. Equally, as already noted, ecstasy – a trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness – may be achieved artificially by deliberately taking drugs or by sleep deprivation or by fasting. We also need to recall, as I have already noted, that religious mysticism is essentially the spiritual life of a particular religion lived out with intensity rather than a scattering of occasional experiences. Equally, since for religious people what we call ‘God’ is a reality ultimately beyond our ability to grasp, control or defi ne, many mystics insist that a true consciousness of the divine is best realized through an experience of absence, of darkness or of a ‘cloud of unknowing’ (to borrow from the famous fourteenthcentury English mystical text of the same name). That is, through a process of negation or denial, all experiences, images or concepts of the divine are ultimately stripped away. In this way, the person on a spiritual journey moves towards the ultimate mystery of God that lies beyond both definition and denial. Some modern scholars of mysticism such as Bernard McGinn have also questioned whether visions are truly mystical. This

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suspicion led McGinn in his ongoing magisterial history of Christian mysticism to leave out of consideration some well-known medieval women candidates for the title of ‘mystic’, for example, the extraordinary figure of Hildegard of Bingen.5 Of course, as I have already suggested, visionary experiences alone, or indeed the whole panoply of paranormal phenomena, do not necessarily imply what we mean by mysticism. However, if there are dangers in overemphasizing paranormal phenomena, there is an equal danger in rejecting them entirely. In a certain context, intense experiences such as visions or ecstasy may be a preparation for, or be part of the consciousness of, or be a side effect of a heightened awareness of the transforming presence of the divine. In other words, such phenomena are sometimes authentic indicators of the spiritual transformation of someone. Other scholars of mysticism such as the late Grace Jantzen have pointed out that visionary experiences may also be a source of authority, or a validation of their spiritual teaching, for people such as women in the Middle Ages who lacked official status or recognition in the Christian Church.6 Thus, in the fourteenth century it is significant that the famous and immensely popular English mystical writer, Julian of Norwich, begins her writing with the sixteen visions (or ‘showings’) that she experienced while seriously ill. These were not presented as ends in themselves but as the basis for introducing her sophisticated theological reflections and spiritual teachings.7 A spiritual experience in and of itself is not the end of the matter. Indeed, the great mystical writers are not interested in experience as such nor in the status it gives them. What concerns them is what such privileged experiences reveal and enables them to say for the benefit of others. Obviously, visions and other paranormal phenomena are by definition extraordinary. However, to exclude the extraordinary automatically from our considerations runs the risk of putting aside anything that seems peculiar or that makes us uncomfortable because it is alien to our contemporary cultural expectations.

Mysticism and union One word that is frequently used by mystics and commentators on mysticism to describe the heart of mystical experience and mystical

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purpose is ‘union’ or its equivalents. That is, the mystical path is undertaken in pursuit of communion with, even identity with, God or however one defines ultimate reality. There are versions of mysticism that, while speaking of ‘union’, maintain a clear distinction between ‘the self’ and God and, at the same time, between each particular human self. Other traditions suggest that ‘the self’, in the sense of individuality, is extinguished and finally left behind as in the concept of fana in Islamic Sufism or that everything is absorbed into the One or into absolute reality or reaches ultimate reality as in Taoism or in the concept of mahamudra in Northern Buddhism. The monotheistic Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are in general terms particularly sensitive to the need to maintain the absolute sovereignty, independence and ‘otherness’ of God and are thus suspicious of any excessive language of human identity with, let alone mystical absorption into, the divine. However, in the mysticism of all three religions there is some ambiguity of language. Certainly, the concept of human ‘surrender’ to God, the sacrifice of the ‘self’ or loss of ego and intimate communion with God is powerfully present in different forms. Is ‘union’ with God or the Absolute the end of the matter? Interestingly, in certain approaches to the mystical in Christian tradition, the deep union with God of figures like Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi or Catherine of Siena led them into greater activity and service of others rather than the opposite. We shall briefly explore the connections between mysticism and social transformation in a moment. A broad and flexible understanding of mysticism need not take the language of union with God as the defi ning characteristic. While many mystics have used such language, others have avoided it and preferred different modes of expression. A broad understanding of mysticism also emphasizes that it is essentially a commitment of one’s life directed at reaching the divine. The significance of the effect of mystical consciousness on the life of the mystic is important because religious traditions have in some sense always implied that the only way to validate the claims of mystics is through the impact that their inner transformation has upon their lives and their relationships with other people. Seeing mysticism as part of a life process rather than merely as a set of experiences also emphasizes that it is an element within a religious tradition rather than some kind of esoteric alternative to conventional religion.

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Dimensions of mysticism In the Christian mystical tradition, for example, the classic teaching is that there is a movement towards greater simplicity and stillness and a growing realization of the inadequacy of human images and language for God. However, sometime people speak of distinct ‘types’ of mysticism in which the emphases differ. The most common approach in Christianity usually involves some variation on a simple, twofold distinction. The fi rst way is sometimes known as the ‘apophatic’ way, from the Greek apophasis or denial. This way of ‘denial’ or ‘unknowing’ is associated with imagelessness, stillness and wordlessness. Rather than attempt to describe what God, the divine or the Absolute ‘is’, the apophatic way suggests that we simply cannot fi nally encapsulate these in words or images. God is beyond all images and concepts. Thus, everything we seek to affi rm about God or the Absolute must in the end be denied or negated as ‘not God’. Examples of this approach might be the enigmatic writings of the fourteenth-century mystical writers Meister Eckhart in Germany or the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing in England. Similar trends can be found in other religions. For example, in Hinduism, Brahman (the supreme soul or the divine) is described in the text of the Upanishads as ‘neither this, not that’. In classic Buddhism, this apophatic approach is apparent in much of its literature. According to early texts, the Buddha refused to answer certain questions about ultimate reality such as the existence of the soul, the origin of the cosmos and life beyond death. Some commentators would also add that he had an apophatic approach to the question of the existence or otherwise of God or Gods. All that he would say is that we do not need a God to save us. In that sense, Buddhism is best described as non-theistic rather than atheistic. The second approach or ‘type’ of mysticism is known in Christianity as the ‘kataphatic way’. This involves attempts to speak of the divine through positive terminology. In Hinduism the school of Vaishnavism uses positive theological language about the qualities of the Supreme Lord Krishna or Vishnu. In Christianity this ‘way’ may embrace a devotional focus, for example, on the person of Jesus Christ (as in the writings of Francis of Assisi) or the

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use of imagination or images in prayer and meditation (e.g. in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola). In fact, in the Christian mystical tradition from which these concepts arise there is no basis for any absolute distinction between the negative and positive ‘ways’. This is because the logic of Christian understandings of the divine is that God is both revealed in and through our images, everyday experiences, relationships and the world around us and yet at the same time is always beyond these and more than these. Really, the negative and positive ‘ways’ are not alternative types of mysticism but are dimensions of all mysticism. In differing ways, there is a balance between the use of images for the divine or the Absolute and a necessary imagelessness in all mystical traditions. Both ‘ways’ reveal something of the divine yet by defi nition neither way is capable of fi nally capturing it.

Mysticism and social transformation To suggest that mysticism may also be bound up with social action may be counter-intuitive. For many people the word evokes inner experience or a preoccupation with transcendence. However, in her classic work, Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill believed that selfless service of others was particularly characteristic of Christian mystics. Indeed, she saw the connection between mysticism and outward action as fundamental to the Christian tradition of mysticism. For this reason, Underhill described the fourteenth-century Flemish writer Jan van Ruusbroec (or John Ruysbroeck) as arguably the greatest of Christian mystics. He was clear that the mystical life born of contemplation did not separate the mystic from others but rather joined human beings to one another in the service of all. Ruusbroec argued that those people who practised contemplative inwardness but disregarded the demands of ethics and charity were of all people most guilty of spiritual wickedness.8 The connection between mysticism and social engagement while not unique to Christianity is certainly strikingly apparent in it. A number of writers over the last 30 years have argued that the mystical way is a necessary part of an engagement with social justice rather than separate from it. One example is the Chilean theologian Segundo Galilea who has written arguably more than anyone in the liberation theology tradition concerning the mystical dimensions

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of political and social responses to injustice. Interestingly, he is also an expert on sixteenth-century Spanish mysticism. Galilea suggests that if responses to poverty and injustice in the world are purely structural or political, the new structures on their own may simply become new forms of manipulation or oppression. Structural change is needed for justice to prevail but it must be complemented by a truly spiritual experience of discovering the compassion of God present in the poor. Humans are not able to fi nd true compassion in themselves, nor create structures of real transformation, without entering contemplatively into God’s own compassion. Only contemplative practice, allied to social action, is capable of bringing about the conversion or change of heart in us that is necessary for a lasting solidarity with the poor. Thus, according to Galilea, social engagement must be accompanied by a process of inner transformation and liberation from self-seeking. Galilea calls for a reformulation of the idea of ‘the mystical’. He suggests that at the heart of the Christian mystical tradition has always been the notion that true contemplation is a supreme act of self-forgetfulness rather than a preoccupation with personal experience.9

Jürgen Moltmann and Dorothee So˝lle Two other writers on the connections between mysticism and social action, Jürgen Moltmann and Dorothee So˝lle, are from the Protestant tradition. Jürgen Moltmann in his often overlooked book Experiences of God writes of the ethical dimension of the mystical ‘experiential wisdom’. However, the most interesting aspect of his approach to mysticism and contemplation is the description of a fivefold process of spiritual enlightenment. This process is really a continuous circular movement. It begins with our everyday engagement with the ambiguities and pains of the outer public world. Moltmann suggests that the instinctive human response to experiences of injustice is to want to change things. However, any attempt at action aimed at change inevitably leads the religious person to a realization that a truly spiritual response has to be embedded in the practice of contemplation. In this there is an echo of the Latin American approach to liberation theology that I have already mentioned. In Moltmann contemplation is

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focused on the narrative of Jesus Christ portrayed in the four New Testament gospels. This contemplation leads to a movement away from the self and from false images of God towards an engagement with ‘God alone’ – meaning the mysterious Other who is beyond our images and preconceptions. Purified of selfi shness through honest contemplation, the radical human encounter with this mysterious God is what has been described in classic Western mysticism as ‘union’. However, this union is not an end in itself. The purpose of mystical union for Moltmann is not to remain in a kind of pure spiritual experience that frees us from our responsibilities in everyday life. What is encountered at the heart of God is the image of the cross, that is, the self-giving suffering of Jesus in which the true nature of God is revealed. Mystical union with God leads therefore to a deeper identification with the person of Jesus whom the scriptures describe as the one who moves out of himself in selfless love. So, the mystical journey eventually leads beyond ‘union’, which now becomes a new point of departure, to a renewed engagement with everyday existence and with the need for social transformation. For Moltmann, mysticism does not mean estrangement from action; it is a preparation for public, political engagement. The icon of mysticism therefore becomes the political martyr as much as the contemplative monk. It is not surprising that one of Moltmann’s heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the outstanding German religious writer, Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi activist who was executed at Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945 and is thought by some to have been a mystic.10 An important aspect of the relationship between mysticism and social engagement is in terms of the purification of our motivations and the resulting transformation of our social practice. Dorothee So˝lle, a feminist thinker, Christian theologian and political activist, was deeply inspired by the mystical tradition. For her, resistance to injustice and action to change the world must have mystical roots. For So˝lle there are three dimensions or levels to what she understands by ‘mystical consciousness’. First, there is what she calls ‘amazement’. This is not only wonder or praise of God but, in her words, something that ‘tears the veil of triviality’ because it is touched by the spirit of life. Without this re-inspiration, nothing new begins. At this fi rst level, we do not embark upon the path of the spiritual journey merely as aimless

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seekers but as people who have already been ‘found’. By this she means that any effective action we undertake is preceded always by the goodness of God that we have already experienced. Then, second, there is the level of ‘leaving oneself’ and letting go. Or, as So˝lle puts it, it is a process of ‘missing God’. This notion of ‘missing God’ is a process of purification that comes about when we realize how distant we in fact are from leading a truly spiritual life and also from the deep reality of God. We necessarily go through a process of ‘dis-education’ (her words). This involves a growth in freedom, especially in our contemporary world a freedom from what she refers to as ‘the addictive and compulsive mechanisms of consuming’. This identification of a satisfactory life with consumerism might be summed up in the equation ‘I have or I choose and therefore I am’! Third, and fi nally, there is the level of what she calls ‘a living in God’. This is her version of ‘union’ or the via unitiva – the unitive way. This fi nal level of mystical consciousness involves healing. Our healing is also the birth of true resistance. For we only become capable of healing others and healing the world to the degree that we ourselves are healed fi rst.11

Social transformation and world mysticism While it is fair to suggest that the connections between mysticism and social justice or social transformation have been explored most explicitly in Christian writings, a similar point of connection exists in other mystical traditions, at least implicitly. All of them in different ways seek to counter the human ego – the self-centredness that lies not only behind our distance from God or the Absolute but also behind our damaging separation from human others. A few examples may illustrate this point. One implication of the Buddhist teaching on non-attachment and its deepening in meditative practice refers to what kind of presence we are in the world. The more we focus on ourselves as individuals, in other words are ego-centric, the more we see other people or the world simply from our point of view. Cultivating the no-self in everyone removes the barriers between people and

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ultimately shapes a properly shared humanity. We will mention the movement of Engaged Buddhism again in the chapter on ‘Buddhist spirituality’. However, at this point we can note that the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was deeply troubled by the suffering caused in the Vietnam War and taught that responding to human suffering was inherent to Buddhist mindfulness meditative practice. In Jewish mystical traditions, the connections with ethics are fairly explicit. For example in orthodox Kabbalah, the starting point is the Torah. This is at the same time the Pentateuch or fi rst five books of the Jewish bible and ‘the Law’. As a broad remark, a key ethical teaching present in the Law is hospitality to ‘the stranger’ – a value that was later inherited by Christianity. Kabbalists also outline an immanent dimension to God alongside the divine ‘otherness’. This dimension is God’s interaction with humanity and with the cosmos. This interaction is through the medium of the sephirot – emanations or ‘attributes’ of the divine. These are used by God as the means of persistently improving the human condition and of provoking human society to ethical behaviour, not least assisting our fellow humans. To outsiders, certain versions of Hinduism (e.g. Advaita) may give the impression of pursuing a path of utter detachment from the everyday world which, in the end, is deemed to be of no significance. This is a one-sided interpretation. For example, the scriptures known as the Bhagavad Gita may be thought of as a mystical text but it is also deeply ethical in its teachings about how humans should exist and behave in the existential world. While the spiritual ideal is calm, balance and detachment from any particular results (‘success’) of our activity, we should not abstain from action in the everyday world. A modern Hindu movement, the Ramakrishna Mission, looks back to the nineteenth-century spiritual teacher Sri Ramakrishna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, both of whom are considered mystics by some people. Following their teachings, the Mission works actively for the benefit of the poor and for the overall improvement of society. Finally, while most people associate Mahatma Gandhi with the non-violent campaign against British imperial rule in India, others would point to the deep and even mystical religiosity which underpinned his broader views on social justice, social discrimination associated with the caste system and a quest for social equality.

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Conclusion The concept of mysticism is clearly a complex one not simply because it has significant variations across different religious traditions but also because it is ambiguous in its overall focus. This applies even within the religious tradition, Christianity, within which the word and the concept of ‘mysticism’ have their origins. What can safely be said by way of summary is that to limit the notion of mysticism or the mystical path to individual, interiorized experiences is far too narrow. Mysticism may also be bound up with questions of language or the use of imagery in reference to God or to a more undefi ned Absolute. To what degree is it valid to attempt to speak of ‘God’? How important is it as a matter of principle that these attempts are balanced with denial, negation and imagelessness? Finally, how essential is it to relate the mystical path to the wider question of our presence and action in the everyday world? In other words, the notion of mysticism is not only linked to ethical action and social transformation but, in the minds of some commentators, is a vital principle in any effective quest for social justice.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Spirituality, beliefs and practices As we saw in the opening chapter there are serious questions about whether in practice we can separate the idea of ‘spirituality’ entirely from belief systems, worldviews or theory of some kind. By ‘belief system’ I mean the varied ways human beings adopt frameworks of meaning and values by means of which they ‘read’ the world and in the light of which they attempt to conduct everyday life. It is important not to make the mistake of assuming that the concept of ‘belief’ and ‘reason’ are mutually exclusive processes even if ‘values’ and worldviews inevitably take us beyond purely empirical observation and verification. However, having said this it is important to emphasize that, even in the context of world religions, spirituality is not concerned primarily with doctrines or abstract theories. While spirituality is related to systems of belief of some kind, religious, philosophical, ethical or other, it is also primarily concerned with how to live our lives meaningfully, reflectively and usefully. In other words, spirituality relates most explicitly to practice and action. Even in a religion such as Christianity which developed a core of explicitly defi ned doctrines at a fairly early stage, the emphasis on theological defi nition should not be seen in isolation. It arose originally from the desire of the Christian community to protect its understanding of the way of life to which it believed that its founder Jesus of Nazareth had called believers.

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Spirituality and frameworks of meaning Spirituality cannot be completely separated from beliefs and value systems whether these are explicit or merely implicit. In the context of the world religions, spiritual traditions and practices arise from or directly relate to the distinctive beliefs of each religion. In that sense, the study of spirituality necessarily has to engage with religious beliefs. Equally, but differently, non-religious or secular spiritualities often embody other frameworks of meaning, for example, philosophical ones, and these too need to be taken into account. It is true that ‘spirituality’ is a concept that is nowadays regularly detached from any overt framework of religious beliefs. However, the sharp polarization that is sometimes made between ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’ is inaccurate and unhelpful. Apart from my earlier questioning of the presumption that spirituality will eventually replace religion, there are two other significant problems about sharply distinguishing ‘spirituality’ from ‘religion’. The issue involves precisely how we define both ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’. In the case of ‘spirituality’, this is sometimes assumed to be merely a set of practices, sometimes specifically ‘spiritual’, sometimes more generally life-shaping, that are distinct from any systems of belief. Spirituality may be broadly associated with values (e.g. the concept of human ‘well-being’ that appears in discussions about spirituality and health care) but such values are treated as entirely free standing or self-evident rather than based on prior assumptions about the meaning and purpose of human existence. In reality, everyone operates in relation to some kind of ‘belief about life’ or worldview – whether this is explicit or implicit, conscious or unconscious. This worldview gives rise in practice to a hierarchy of values. Such worldviews are clearly not self-evident (or all humans would have the same view) but are in fact based on an implicit acceptance of some kind of belief system, however loosely defi ned. Our belief systems are usually derived from a mixture of factors. These include our personal life experiences, our childhood ‘formation’ plus a range of social and cultural values and perspectives. Whether we are aware of it or not, many of the latter are derived from the historic religion foundations of a particular society – for example, centuries of Christian influence in Western

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Europe. All of these factors have been absorbed unconsciously into the bloodstream. Conversely, the distinction between ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’ depends on a reductionist view of religion – even a caricature of it. Thus, one recent American commentator on the contemporary phenomenon of spirituality in Western countries notes that, whatever the deeper reality, ‘religion’ in the popular mind is increasingly associated with complex and unhelpful dogmatic systems, heavy and judgemental moralism, authoritarian clerical hierarchies, the constraints of social expectations and an excessive concern with buildings and money.1 Part of the problem is that a religion like Christianity has not always done itself any favours in terms of making its rich and varied spiritual traditions accessible either to its own adherents or to unaligned spiritual seekers. In that sense, both groups of people may end up dissatisfied with Christianity’s apparent over-concentration on institutional systems and on abstract or moralistic styles of religious teaching. A more nuanced approach to the different world religions reveals that behind formal structures and institutions all of them are fundamentally based on some kind of spiritual vision. Indeed, all the world religions have given rise to varied traditions of spiritual wisdom that offer not merely spiritual practices but a ‘map’ or pathway for the spiritual journey. The institutionalization of the various religions is generally a later fossilization of what began as more fluid and dynamic approaches to spiritual wisdom. For this reason, many people who have traditionally had religious affiliations eventually become dissatisfied with the institutional side of their religion. However, even in this case, for example, in Western Europe, this is not the same as a full-scale separation of spirituality from inherited religious beliefs or from the broader influence of historic religious cultures on their society. We also need to bear in mind the positive side of frameworks of meaning and belief systems. For example, in simple terms, the more fluid and optional approach to spirituality that tends to arise from a separation of ‘spirituality’ from ‘religion’ leaves spirituality less capable of addressing the ‘big’ questions of human meaning to the same degree as the long-standing and highly developed spiritual wisdom traditions present in the world’s historic religions. Equally, optional or free-floating approaches to spirituality do not as yet suggest frameworks or a language to assist people to

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make judgements about the difference between constructive or unbalanced versions of ‘the sacred’ or of ultimate meaning. In contrast, the positive value of belief systems, critically interpreted, is that they offer criteria for judging not merely the practical effectiveness of spiritual practices but the healthiness or otherwise of approaches to ‘happiness’ or ‘self-development’. While the association of beliefs with spirituality is particularly explicit in Christianity with its tradition of clearly and explicitly defi ning religious doctrines, the spiritualities of all the world religions are associated with foundational beliefs, albeit sometimes in a more informal or implicit way. All religions have an understanding of God or of some sense of the ultimate and transcendent. Equally, religions have a view of the world and the cosmos either as the context for spiritual development or as a barrier to it. Finally, in relation to beliefs about God and the world, all religions have an understanding of human identity, not least the relationship between the spiritual dimension and the bodily. The relationship between religious spiritualities and foundational beliefs will be developed further in later chapters specifically on spirituality in the different religions. The growth of interreligious dialogue during the twentieth century has been an important and highly positive development. However, given the connection between spirituality and fundamental beliefs in the world religions, this process of dialogue also raises new questions. This is particularly significant in the context of shared spiritual practice, for example, joint meditation sessions, or in the ways one religion nowadays ‘borrows’ from another, for example, the use of Hindu yoga practices or Japanese Zen meditation in a Christian context. What implications does this process of fusion have for the integrity of different religions? What does it mean for a religion to share its spiritual resources and what does it mean for a religion to receive spiritual resources from beyond itself? Can practices be ‘borrowed’ without specifying the underlying religious content?2

Everyday life as spiritual practice Overall, the historic religions have understood the spiritual path as a whole way of life rather than merely as a set of detached

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practices. One corollary of this understanding of spirituality as a way of life is that ideally everyday life itself becomes the context for spiritual practice. This theme is implicit in the Christian spiritual tradition known as Ignatian spirituality, based on the text of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius Loyola, the sixteenth-century Basque founder of the Jesuit Order. These Exercises, a guidebook for a month-long retreat, contain many individual spiritual practices of the usual kind from various methods of prayer and meditation to fasting and so on. However, more interestingly, one of its dominant spiritual values is a growing ability to ‘fi nd God in all things’ and a number of ways in which such a sensibility might be nurtured in daily life. 3 This theme is further developed by two twentieth-century exponents of this spiritual tradition. The French Jesuit Maurice Giuliani was one of the most important and influential exponents during the 1960s and 1970s of new approaches to the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. One of Giuliani’s most striking themes was that, in the Ignatian approach to spiritual practice, the whole of everyday life was intended in itself to become a spiritual exercise. Another French Jesuit, Michel de Certeau like many of his generation, was strongly influenced by Giuliani’s ideas. Apart from being a scholar of spirituality, de Certeau was arguably one of the most creative interdisciplinary intellectuals of the late twentieth century. Interestingly, his later social scientific and urban writings were implicitly influenced by Ignatian spiritual values and themes, not least the spiritual potential of everyday life. In the Conclusion to his collection of essays on political themes, Culture in the Plural, the ‘everyday’ has an almost transcendent, even mystical quality. As he put it, daily life was scattered with marvels. His principal collaborator Luce Giard explicitly notes that in his social scientific project, published as The Practice of Everyday Life, de Certeau was predisposed to see wonder in the everyday ordinary by the Ignatian Exercises. She also suggests that de Certeau’s essays disclose ordinary life as mystical.4 While the idea of everyday life as spiritual practice is particularly strong in certain traditions of Christian spirituality, it should be noted that parallel values are present in the spiritualities of other world faiths as we shall see in more detail in later chapters. However, by way of brief summary examples, rabbinic Judaism applied the Torah to everyday life and arguably contemporary

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Jewish spirituality is dominated by an everyday householder style which places a great deal of importance on outer social behaviour. In Islamic spirituality, the personal commitment to God that lies at its heart refers above all to obedience and faithfulness to God in and through daily life. Spiritual practices, such as prayer five times a day, are intended to motivate people to obey God’s will in the everyday world. Hinduism is such a varied collection of traditions and groups that it is difficult to summarize. Equally, there is a sense in some elements of Hindu religion that there is a need to transcend the everyday world of ordinary events and phenomena. However, the Ramakrishna Mission, for example, teaches that the deeper meaning of religion is to serve God through serving our fellow human beings. At the heart of Buddhist spirituality lies the ideal of universal compassion which is one of the hoped-for results of the practice of spiritual disciplines.

Spirituality and ethics The subject of everyday life as itself spiritual practice raises the question of how we relate spirituality and ethical behaviour. The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, an important thinker about religion, spirituality and social issues, firmly rejects any understanding of spirituality that limits it to the exploration of private and spiritualized experiences. He clearly suggests that a proper understanding of spirituality will relate it to every area of human experience and action, including the public and social world, and that it will necessarily reflect on moral issues.5 One ancient Greek philosopher with considerable impact on later European thinking was Aristotle. Among other things, his thought underlines the important relationship between spirituality and ethics. Spirituality is not simply concerned with religious devotions or with spiritual practices but also with how we are to live in a virtuous way. Conversely, a proper appreciation of ethics does not limit it to issues of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ actions. Ethics is also concerned with people’s dispositions of character. In other words, both spirituality and ethics focus on the quality of our basic humanity. The contemporary study of spirituality and ethics increasingly explores understandings of ‘virtue’ and ‘character’. The concept of ‘virtue’ involves the qualities that enable us to

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become fully human or to act in accordance with our true nature. The concept of ‘character’ points towards what we should seek to become rather than simply do if we are to be fully developed people. Put simply, we are to become ethical people rather than simply do ethical things. For this reason, character formation and the cultivation of virtue become central concerns. If we read Aristotle’s famous work, Nicomachaean Ethics, we find that the main characteristics of the morally virtuous person are in fact spiritual ones. For Aristotle, wisdom and knowledge includes creativity and open mindedness. Courage includes integrity. Cultivating humanity includes love and a commitment to the good of society. The notion of justice includes fairness and civility. Temperance includes prudence and modesty. Finally, transcendence is full of hope and gratitude for life itself. In terms of practising a spiritual life, there are useful guidelines in Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom and prudent judgement. For Aristotle, this form of wisdom is not abstract but is based upon intuition, imagination, emotional engagement and desire. Aristotle suggests that this kind of wisdom actually develops by means of our immersion in everyday human affairs. Equally, this wisdom is applicable particularly to social existence and to the promotion of what he calls the ‘common good’. Aristotle is clear that human beings actually need relationships with other people in order to become fully themselves. Our true fulfilment as human beings places demands upon us that go beyond purely individual satisfaction. Two books of the Ethics (Part IX: Books 8 and 9) discuss human relationships. These contrast mere self-seeking with true self-love which is related to the quest for real friendship or true society. A fulfilled life is not merely pleasurable but is also ‘noble’ because it involves some degree of self-giving. Aristotle’s ‘practical wisdom’ is also related to the achievement of eudaimonia which can be translated as ‘happiness’ or ‘fulfilment’. However, Aristotle’s notion of ‘happiness’ is not the same as mere pleasure. Rather, it consists of thoughtfully living out a virtuous life within society.6

Spiritual practices Although the four types of spirituality which were outlined in Chapter one as well as specific religious spiritual traditions are

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associated with theories or values, they also tend to promote particular spiritual practices. What I mean by spiritual practices are those regular, disciplined activities related to the quest for spiritual development. These practices are at the same time ways of expressing a particular spiritual vision and also of consolidating it through an intentional framework of action. The discipline of regular spiritual practices enables people to progress along a path towards God or whatever they understand to be the ultimate goal of human life. However, to undertake a discipline of spiritual practices is neither easy nor merely comforting. The discipline needed clearly involves a degree of self-sacrifice in that it means setting aside time and energy which might have been given to more immediately pleasurable or seemingly productive activities. All the great traditions of spirituality suggest certain spiritual practices. It is this aspect of spirituality that appears to offer particular satisfaction to many contemporary people. However, it is important not to think of this as the spiritual equivalent of the drivenness of contemporary culture – enabling me to feel that I am actually doing something productive. In fact, the extraordinary range of spiritual practices taught by the great traditions, as well as those invented more recently, are humanly creative rather than narrowly result orientated. Apart from religious rituals (e.g. ritual washing in some traditions) or public liturgical activities directed at the worship of God, there are a wide range of other activities that come under the heading of spiritual practices. Among the most common are different forms of prayer or meditation, devotional practices, pilgrimage and bodily disciplines such as fasting or abstinence from meat, alcohol or sexual activity. Some bodily disciplines are not self-evidently spiritual (e.g. various forms of abstinence) but are considered so because of the motivation that underpins them. For example, a food-related practice such as fasting could be dieting to lose weight. Vegitarianism may be motivated by animal welfare. On the other hand, both activities may also be spiritual practices when they are directed at avoiding foods that are seen as spiritually polluting, or at cultivating detachment from material pleasures or as a form of self-denial. It is impossible to list every other example of a spiritual practice but these include artistic practice (e.g. painting, sculpting, pottery, making music or writing poetry as explicitly spiritual activities),

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going away on solitary retreats or undertaking a pilgrimage to a religious shrine or place of spiritual power.

Prayer The practice of prayer implies worship of, or communication with, God or some kind of personalized spiritual entity such as a saint or a guardian angel or a deceased ancestor or other relative and so on. Prayer may be communal or individual. It may also be ritually structured, conducted at prescribed times of the day (e.g. morning and evening prayer in a number of religions) and in designated places or it may be entirely spontaneous. Sometimes there are common or even prescribed postures and movements such as kneeling, prostration, swaying or facing in a particular direction for example. Sometimes prayer is accompanied by physical devotional activities such as lighting candles, burning incense, or venerating (sometimes kissing) a sacred picture such as an icon or a statue of a saint or divine figure. Because of their overlapping understandings of God, the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, share certain features in common. In Judaism, or at least in its observant forms, prayer is conducted three times a day, there are particular prayer patterns on special holidays, there is a prayerbook used worldwide and communal prayer – whether in the synagogue or in the home – is preferred. In Christianity, there is great variety. Various churches such as the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran have formal liturgies for which fi xed texts are used. There is a devotional tradition of praying in the morning and evening as well as before meals. Certain kinds of community, such as monastic groups, used structured communal prayer to mark the periods of each day. There are also devotional forms, such as the rosary. Alongside this there is a rich variety of spontaneous prayer which is often petitionary or intecessory. In Islam ritual prayer (salat) is prescribed five times a day, using set forms and texts from the Qur’an, facing towards Mecca and accompanied by physical postures such as standing and prostration. There are also other standard invocations to be used at various times such as before meals and more spontaneous prayer of communication with God and petition.

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In Hinduism prayer also has many forms. These include ritual chanting or recitation of sacred texts, prayers to various deities, whether the single supreme Brahman or other divine manifestations, mantra prayer (a word or phrase linked to rythmic breathing) or other forms of formless meditation. The physical gesture of joining the palms of the hands together is common. While Buddhism overall is understood as a non-theistic religion, prayer or devotion is nevertheless practised, albeit in a somewhat secondary role in comparison to meditative forms. In Tibetan forms, it seems that deities are somehow existent although some commentators seek to downplay this. In any case the precise role of such deities in prayer (a superior being, an equal or a symbol of human ‘deification’) is somewhat ambiguous. In a wider context, many Buddhists in Asia in practice pray to the Buddha in devotional terms or by way of intercession.

Meditation Styles of meditation and contemplation are very varied. Some involve visualization – for example, in Christianity entering into a gospel scene in the Ignatian tradition as a starting point for contemplation. Others focus primarily on cultivating inner and outer silence by adopting a still posture, emptying the mind of distractions and cultivating peacefulness or attentiveness through various methods of concentration. Apart from posture as an aid to concentration, there are other meditative forms of bodily activity such as yoga, Tai chi, certain martial arts, walking meditation (e.g. around a labyrinth) or ritual dance, such as the whirling of Sufi dervishes. The meditative practices of Buddhism have become increasingly popular in the West. For example, Metta meditation in Theravada Buddhism focuses on the achievement of compassion and lovingkindness for oneself and then a desire and ability to spread compassion and loving-kindness to friends, enemies and ideally all sentient beings. ‘Mindfulness’ meditation cultivates a spiritual and psychological state of being on the way to enlightenment. This is associated with overcoming greed, hatred and delusion by means of an attentive awareness of the whole reality of things, not least the present moment in which I am, and a deep comprehension of

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what is and what is happening around me. This form of meditation has been adopted by a number of Western psychologists and psychiatrists as a way of alleviating certain psychological conditions and also by physicians in cancer treatment. However, as we shall see later, some Buddhists have serious questions about this process because it regularly makes no mention at all of the Buddhist origins of mindfulness meditation. Finally, in Japanese Zen Buddhism the practice of zazen, sitting meditation, has also become popular elsewhere. This meditative discipline calms the body and the mind and enables concentration so that deeper insight into the nature of existence may be gained. This is considered the heart of Zen practice. It involves just sitting, usually in a group in a meditation hall, trying to suspend all active thinking by letting thoughts and images come and then go without being drawn into them. A period of zazen may alternate with a time of walking meditation. Forms of meditation which link the repetition of a significant word or phrase to rythmic breathing appear in a number of traditions, for example, the mantra in Hinduism, certain Sufi practices and the well-known Christian example of the Jesus Prayer. The latter grew out of the Eastern Orthodox movement known as hesychasm, from the Greek word for stillness or quiet. The Jesus Prayer seeks both inner silence and a deepening of the person’s relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. It involves the rhythmic repetition of a phrase ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’ or the shortened ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy’. The Jesus Prayer may be practised as a formal meditative exercise or it may more informally accompany ordinary daily life. The tradition became familiar in the West via the famous nineteenth-century Russian story of an anonymous spiritual seeker, The Way of the Pilgrim. There are other forms of meditation without explicitly religious associations. For example, some people undertake nature meditation by focusing on a landscape view or on the sound and rhythms of the sea. Other people may listen to certain kinds of music, sit in front of a work of art or use a candle as a visual focus. All the classic meditation practices are directed at some understanding of spiritual development and particularly spiritual freedom. Meditation not only cultivates stillness, attentiveness and awareness but is psychologically demanding and is not to be undertaken lightly. Equally, the great religious traditions, Buddhist, Christian or other, relate this spiritual practice to a transformation

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of perception and ultimately on our way of being in the world whether this is understood in terms of personal ethics or of greater social awareness. The prolonged practice of meditation may lead to enhanced consciousness. However, the ancient wisdom traditions also speak of the impact of meditation and contemplation on a growing freedom from disordered attachments which are ultimately destructive of the self and of healthy relationships with other people and the world more generally. In turn, this growth in inner freedom makes people more effective as compassionate and transforming presences in the world. As we saw in the last chapter, even the great mystical traditions do not teach that the intense experience of union with God or the Absolute is self-focused or an end in itself. Rather, in encountering transcendent reality, however we understand this, we do not fi nd an escape from wider reality but that we are actually united with, and responsible for, all other things.

Pilgrimage Another spiritual practice involves taking time out in the form of pilgrimage and visits to sacred sites or sacred spaces. Pilgrimage is a journey undertaken in search of spiritual meaning or enhancement. This practice goes back to ancient times and continues to play a central part in world religions. There are some notable examples. To visit the holy city of Varanasi (Benares) and bathing in the sacred river Ganges is an important pilgrimage for many Hindus. The hajj (literally ‘pilgrimage’ in Arabic) to Mecca is a religious duty for able-bodied Muslims, to be undertaken at least once in a lifetime, expressing submission to God and solidarity with fellow believers. Another example from Islam is the shrines of Sufi saints in some of the mosques of Marrakech in Morocco which continue to attract devout pilgrims from all over the world. Finally, prayers at the remaining wall of the Jerusalem Temple (destroyed by the Romans), the ‘Wailing Wall’, has become an intense pilgrimage for many religious Jews. In Western cultures, the practice of pilgrimage along ancient pilgrim routes continues to increase even in the midst of a decline of conventional religious practice. A prominent example is the growing popularity of walking the camino (or ‘way’) across

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northern Spain to the historic shrine at the supposed burial place of the Apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. For some people this may be purely an interesting hiking holiday or a form of heritage tourism. However, the research evidence plus a number of TV documentaries suggest that the reality is more complex. For many people the road to Compostela, or a similar popular pilgrim journey to the Isle of Iona off the coast of Scotland, has some kind of spiritual resonance even among those who do not consider themselves as conventionally religious. In Western Europe, many visitors to traditional sacred spaces such as cathedrals seek, perhaps in an implicit way, something spiritual. In a sense, this continues in new guises the ancient form of sacred pilgrimage journey. In earlier times – and for some people today – pilgrimages are focused on visiting the tombs or shrines of holy people and saints. In England, at Durham cathedral there are two surviving examples at either end of the building which continue to attract visitors and also explicit pilgrims – the tomb of the famous historian monk the Venerable Bede at the west end and the shrine of St Cuthbert, the great Northumbrian monastic saint, behind the high altar. Of course, many people in the Englishspeaking world were introduced at school to one of the early great examples of English literature, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – the partly serious, partly scurrilous, partly amusing stories supposedly told to each other by a group of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. There are several motivations for such pilgrimages to shrines. It may be inspired by the memory of an exemplary person. Or it may be to absorb by association something of the power of a spiritually realized being. Finally, some people continue to seek the intercession of holy people through prayer – even perhaps to hope for a miracle of some kind particularly in the case of those saints who in their lifetime had a reputation for powerful healing. Contemporary ‘pilgrimage’ may also sometimes be related to often ambiguous secular icons. There are visits to Graceland in Memphis Tennessee for Elvis Presley fans, or to the grounds at Althrop Park in the English midlands where Princess Diana is popularly said to be buried. We must not forget the contemporary phenomena of ‘spiritual tourism’ or ‘sacred travel’. ‘Spiritual tourism’ is sometimes promoted in terms of the contemporary fascination with spirituality. It is choosing enlightenment over the

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beach! Such spiritual tourism may involve a visit to a conventional religious site (a monastery guesthouse) or to other places that have become associated with ‘the spiritual’. This may be the challenging spirituality of desert landscapes or the reputation for spirituality of a country like India. The related concept of ‘sacred travel’ takes people to ‘spiritual hotspots’ around the world such as the longlost Inca city Macchu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes, the Egyptian pyramids, ancient stone circles such as Stonehenge or Avebury in England, and Celtic sites which have both pre-Christian and Christian spiritual associations such as the mountain Croagh Patrick in the West of Ireland or the island of Iona in Scotland.7

Sacred spaces Many of the focuses for pilgrimage and for a more diffuse sense of spirituality are historical and traditionally religious sacred places. Among other examples, there is a striking increase of visitors to the great medieval European cathedrals which are rich repositories of sacred architecture, complex geometry and cosmic references. While the majority of people these days who enter medieval churches may have little sense of the original meaning of the buildings, this does not imply a total loss of spiritual focus. The research of an English sociologist like Professor Grace Davie has noted that all over Europe the historic cathedrals attract more interest than ordinary museums. A residual sense of the sacred not only draws visitors to such buildings but also makes people uncomfortable with entry charges. When asked, many people believe that cathedrals are not just a historical heritage. Sacred space is in some sense public space, even if it is not used by most people on a regular basis for any overt religious activities. In the great city cathedral, the intention was that heaven was not only invoked symbolically but also in a sense brought down from heaven in material form in the spirit of the New Testament Book of Revelation, Chapter 21. For medieval people – and in a more diffuse sense for contemporary visitors – to enter such a building was to be transported into a vision of heaven on earth by the juxtaposition of vast spaces and intimate spaces, by the progressive dematerialization of walls with a sea of glass and a flood of light. For Abbot Suger of St Denis in Paris in the twelfth century, one

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of the greatest patrons of early Gothic, the church building had to be more impressive than other city buildings because it stood for a transcendent vision. The art of the medieval cathedrals acted as a microcosm of the cosmos and sought to evoke and invoke a peaceable oneness between the Creator and creation. This was a utopian space in which an idealized vision of harmony, to be realized fi nally only in heaven, was offered in the here and now. Gothic space in particular has been characterized as, among other things, dematerialized and spiritualized. It thereby expressed the limitless quality of an infi nite God, for example, through the soaring verticality of the arches and the ceiling vaulting. These features were a deliberate antithesis to human scale. The medieval fascination with the symbolism of numbers cannot be ignored either. Thus, the basic three-storey elevation of Gothic church architecture (main arcade, triforium and clerestory) is not the result purely of developments in medieval engineering. Important medieval writers such as Abbot Suger drew explicit attention to the way the three-storey elevation symbolized and evoked the image of God as Trinity. However, later Gothic buildings, such as King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, are also notable for another striking characteristic. The stonewalls that support the chapel have been reduced to a minimum and replaced by vast expanses of glass. The biblical stories portrayed in the stained glass of the fifteenthcentury windows were no doubt intended to teach the pilgrim much about the Christian doctrines of God and of the history of salvation. However, there was also a sense in which this lateGothic stained glass, with its patterned effect on the stonework of the interior of the building, expressed what came to be described as a ‘metaphysics of light’. In other words, God was increasingly proclaimed as the one who dwelt in inaccessible light yet whose saving light illuminated the world. At its best, the medieval cathedral promotes more than a twodimensional, static, ‘map’ of the surrounding city. It also portrays the other dimension of human existence – movement through space from earth to heaven and our human transformation through the process of time. Interestingly, a famous feature of the great French Gothic cathedral of Chartres has captured the imagination of people who are not conventionally religious. This is the labyrinth etched on the floor of its nave and originally intended as a microcosm both of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for those who did

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not have the means to undertake it and of the pilgrimage through human life to our eternal destiny. Versions of this design appeared in other medieval cathedrals either in a form that enabled walking meditation or, as at Lucca in Italy, in miniature on the wall at the cathedral entrance. The pilgrim would presumably trace the design with a finger before entering the sacred space. The walking labyrinth design of Chartres is nowadays reproduced around the world not just in centres of spirituality but also in parks and city squares. To walk the meandering labyrinth cultivates attentiveness, persistence and stillness but also symbolizes the quest for ultimate enlightenment. Because there are no false avenues or dead ends in a labyrinth (as opposed to a maze), the conclusion of the walking meditation is always to arrive at the centre. Sacred space is also deeply connected to memory. For example, traditional religious buildings such as cathedrals or other city churches are repositories for the cumulative memory and the constantly renewed hopes of the community. They are what may be called a ‘memory palace’ – a constant reminder that memory in itself is vital to a healthy sense of identity, individually and collectively. This is expressed structurally through civic monuments or the tombs of holy people, and more subtly through an intangible atmosphere engendered by generations of pilgrims and visitors. Even today, to enter such a building is to engage with centuries of human pain, achievements, hopes and ideals. A place like Westminster Abbey in London, the place of coronations and of memorials to public and literary figures, clearly embraces a nation’s memories. These also include deliberately ambiguous and painful memories symbolized by the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior whose body was rescued from anonymous slaughter of the First World War. The American philosopher Arnold Berleant suggests that the great urban cathedrals acted – and may still act – as guides to what he calls an ‘urban ecology’ that contrasts with the monotony of the modern city ‘thus helping transform it from a place where one’s humanity is constantly threatened into a place where it is continually achieved and enlarged’. Cathedrals may still act as effective centres for contemporary cities. Such an urban centre offers communion with something deeper than the need for an ordered public life or efficient city systems. Cathedrals deliberately speak of ‘the condition of the world’.

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Apart from evoking transcendence, sacred spaces also bring us in touch with the ideals, aspirations and creativity of our human communities. These days what count as sacred spaces are extraordinarily varied. For many people landscapes and seascapes or, in cities, parks and rivers speak to people of ‘the numinous’. For others, art galleries, museums and public libraries are a kind of sanctuary for quiet and reflection set aside from the frenetic pace of everyday life. For some people, the intensity of community, shared commitment and loyalty associated with sports clubs is a kind of spiritual experience and the stadiums have become the new cathedrals. Many sacred spaces embrace local or national memory, both celebratory and painful. Religious buildings may do this but so do war memorials and certain symbolic public buildings.8

Conclusion As we have seen, the concept of ‘spirituality’ cannot be completely separated from beliefs or value systems, whether these are explicit or implicit. This only raises the question of how beliefs and a search for a spiritual life relate to each other. In terms of the historic world religions, the example of Christianity, and its development of a system of defi ned doctrine, provides an interesting illustration of how it was a concern for spirituality that actually gave rise to the felt need to clarify formal beliefs. In the major world religions everyday life is ideally itself a form of spiritual practice. This means that in the five religions we shall explore in Part two spirituality and ethics have a fundamental relationship with each other. However, in contemporary contexts, there is a particular concern for spiritual practices – that is, regular disciplined activities related to a search for spiritual development. As we have seen these are very varied in form. Finally, the mention of pilgrimage as a spiritual practice with contemporary popularity led us to consider the nature and role of sacred space.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Jewish spirituality Judaism is a world religion that draws together both an intentional faith community and ethnic identity in what is known technically as an ethno-religious grouping. Judaism has approximately fourteen and a half million adherents worldwide. The largest single Jewish community is in the United States, followed closely by the state of Israel. Other communities are scattered across a host of countries. As a religion, contemporary Judaism embraces a varied range of categories or what some people might call ‘denominations’. These range from different groups of observant Orthodox Jews through a spectrum of conservative and reformed groups to liberal Jews who seek to re-read Jewish tradition in the light of contemporary social and cultural perspectives. Two major groupings emerged after the various Jewish population dispersals beyond the Middle East from the Roman Empire onwards. These groups arose in different geographical contexts and historical circumstances and also had distinctive experiences in relation to wider society. The Sephardic Jews (or Sefardi) are broadly speaking those whose ancestry reflects the Mediterranean world, particularly the Iberian Peninsula, and also the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa who continued to exist under relatively tolerant Islamic rule. The Ashkenazi Jews are those who trace their ancestry particularly to the establishment of Jewish communities in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe and who often existed in a ghetto experience under less sympathetic Christian majority rule.

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Origins The Jewish religion traces its origins back some 3,000–4,000 years to Mesopotamia and the supposed period of the prophet Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, who is also honoured by Christianity and Islam. According to the Hebrew scriptures, because of his faithfulness to the one God, Abraham was promised that his son Isaac would inherit the land of Canaan which many centuries later became known as Israel. Because of this narrative, Judaism is the ‘parent’ among the so-called Abrahamic faiths alongside Christianity and Islam. The other critical dimensions of the Jewish mythic historical narrative are, first, liberation from a period of enslavement in Egypt and a 40-year period of ‘exodus’ wandering in the desert of Sinai. On Mount Sinai, the leader of the people called Moses is said to have received the divine law in a quasi-mystical encounter with God in a cloud. This law included what became known as the Torah or the fi rst five books of the Hebrew bible which constitute the foundations of Jewish law and life. Then, second, the historical narrative of origins has the exodus period of wandering and purgation end with the entry of the Jewish tribes into the Promised Land of Israel. Here they eventually established a political kingdom with God’s ‘seat’ situated in the Jerusalem Temple. This period of political stability ended with military defeat, the exile of the people to Babylon, another period of corporate purging and then eventually a return to the Promised Land. However, after further periods of occupation by Greeks and Romans, and a second destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 ce, the Jewish people were ultimately dispersed throughout the Roman and then post-Roman worlds. This sense of mythic historical pedigree is not incidental to an understanding of Jewish spirituality because history is not treated by Jews as simply the story of the past. For religious Jews the historical narrative of their community is also a story of God’s relationship with humanity and particularly with the Jews as the ‘chosen people’. Thus, this sense of history is commemorated or, more accurately, repeated and ‘made present’ year upon year in holy days and rituals that shape the identity and the religious life of observant Jews in the contemporary world. In a very profound sense, the spirituality of contemporary Judaism derives from the collective religious experiences and

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expressions embodied in the history and myths of the people of ancient Israel. At the heart of Jewish spirituality is a personal and also strongly collective response to a God whose guidance and ultimate care is the common thread running throughout what is otherwise a chequered history. There is a sense that the vocation of the Jewish people is to seek the face of God, to strive to live in God’s presence and to focus on the pursuit of holiness that is appropriate to living truthfully in the present world.

Fundamental teachings At the heart of Jewish spirituality lie certain fundamental teachings about God and the nature of human life. Classical Judaism is monotheistic, believing in a single God who is wholly incorporeal, wholly other and mysterious. This God is the ultimate source (i.e. the ‘creator’) of, and the sovereign power underlying, all that exists. Because of the foundational myths and historical narratives of the Jewish people, God is also understood as a redeemer. This redemptive aspect of God acts as a perpetual symbol of human hope, whatever the limitations or pain of our current circumstances. It also stands behind a belief in the eventual arrival of God’s Messiah. This ‘anointed one of God’ will usher in a new age in which God’s sovereignty will prevail over evil and when the dispersed Jewish people will gather together once again in the Land of Israel. This essentially theological and spiritual narrative of gathering the dispersed has unfortunately become confused in the minds of some people with radical Zionism, whether among some Jews or among certain groups of fundamentalist Christians. Zionism is not to be confused with the legitimacy of a reasoned defence of the right of the contemporary state of Israel to exist as a political entity. The sad paradox is that the Zionist narrative is opposed by some Orthodox Jews on the grounds that it misses the more important theological point while it is strongly defended by some nonreligious Jews. In addition, there are debates about the concept of a Messianic age between what might be called the ‘particularists’ and the ‘universalists’. For the former, the Messiah relates solely to the Jewish people. For the latter, the Messiah narrative ultimately applies to the whole of humanity, albeit mediated through the Jewish people as the special bearers of God’s message.

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In Judaism, although God is wholly ‘other’, God is also one who nevertheless seeks to communicate with humanity. This is the fundamental vision portrayed by the Jewish tradition of prophecy that began with Moses. It is also the vision of God expressed by the notion of the Torah, or law, as a revelation of God’s desire for the Jewish people. In this sense, Judaism like Christianity and Islam is a religion of revelation. There have been debates in Judaism as in other faiths between those fundamentalists who see the texts of the Hebrew scriptures as the literal and dictated ‘word of God’ and those who understand that God’s ‘word’ is mediated through human words which need to be properly interpreted. This vision of God as redeemer and communicator as well as the ultimate source of everything runs counter to any ‘deist’ understanding of God as wholly detached from the world and from human events. On the contrary, in Judaism God relates intimately to human attitudes and human actions at all points. This understanding of God has profound implications for the Jewish approach to spirituality and to leading a spiritual life. As a result, these have strongly ethical and everyday dimensions.

Sources of spirituality The two great sources of Jewish spirituality are the two ‘books’ of the created world and of the Torah. The Torah stands for the fi rst five books of the Hebrew bible (known as the Pentateuch) which are understood to contain the foundations of Jewish law. Indeed, the term Torah is sometimes used more broadly to refer to Judaism’s overall written and oral law. Apart from the TorahPentateuch, the Hebrew bible has two other parts, the Prophets and the Hagiographa which includes such well-known texts as the Book of Psalms, the Book of Proverbs and the Song of Songs. These had a massive impact on mystical literature both in Judaism and even more strongly in Christianity. Apart from the scriptures, the other main source of Jewish teaching, and therefore of spirituality, is what is known as the Babylonian Talmud dating from approximately the fi fth century ce. This is an extensive collection of rabbinical traditions of teaching. In addition, there is the so-called Palestinian Talmud and also what is known as ‘midrash’ or commentaries on biblical texts.

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Historically, the spirituality of Judaism has embraced great variety. In the Hebrew scriptures there was the ritual worship of God in the Jerusalem Temple. In addition, there were the countercultural voices of the prophets. Later there was a sect known as the Pharisees and also rabbinic Judaism. Both of these groups applied the Torah to everyday life. Also, there was, and is, a strong intellectual philosophical tradition throughout the centuries. This includes such major figures in the history of philosophy as the late-classical figure Philo, the medieval Maimonides in Spain who had such an impact on the Christian thinker Thomas Aquinas and the twentieth-century philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. All of these have had a great influence on the intellectual life as well as ethical-spiritual perspectives of Christianity in addition to Judaism. There have also been ascetical movements such as the Essenes and a rich mystical tradition embracing Kabbalists and the rigorous yet more populist system of Eastern European Hassidism. Finally, the city of Jerusalem remains a deeply spiritual focus for all Jews. However, with the fi nal destruction of the second Temple by the Romans (70 ce) and its global dispersal, Judaism transformed itself into a distinctive, everyday householder spirituality. This translated the approaches to holiness that had been shaped by an inherited sense of sacred space, sacred times and the creative tension between interiority and outer social behaviour.

Leading a spiritual life While historic Judaism has a clear and explicit belief structure and worldview, its rituals, ethics and spiritual practices are more vital indicators of spirituality than any collection of defined doctrines. For observant Jews, everyday life is structured around the rituals and laws of the community (known as halakhah). These shape Jewish responses to God as well as attitudes to fellow human beings and to the wider world. For this reason, revisions of the halakhah or attempts at modernization are not incidental or merely matters of taste and style. Lifestyles, liturgy, rituals and dietary laws all express fundamental Jewish values. In terms of the ethical dimension of spirituality, it is worth underlining that ethical practices are not only a question of morally right or wrong actions but are closely allied to the central idea of

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‘virtue’. This concerns the important characteristics and values associated with ‘being Jewish’. Typically, such virtues include justice, truth-telling, peace, kindness, compassion and self-respect balanced by respect for other people. In terms of prayer, communal prayer is given a high priority. The traditional location for this exercise is the synagogue. In a synagogue, the main sanctuary for prayer generally focuses the building towards the ‘ark’ or container where the scrolls of the law (Torah) are housed. Facing this is a lectern where whoever is leading the prayers stands. There is also a reader’s desk from where the text of the Torah is read. Usually there is a perpetually lighted lamp as a symbol of divine presence. In Orthodox Judaism the celebration of common prayer demands the presence of ten adult males. Other Jewish denominations include women as full participants in worship and in liberal Judaism women are also nowadays ordained as rabbis. The formal tradition of Jewish prayer prescribes it three times daily with a fourth period added on the Sabbath (Shabbat) and on other holy days. Apart from formal prayer services (or solitary recitations outside the synagogue), many traditional Jews say devotional prayers, often of blessing, at different points during the day. For example, key moments are immediately after waking, before and after meals, or while performing various daily tasks. Having said this, outside the more traditional Jewish communities both the content and the timing of prayers may vary considerably. The famous skullcap (kippah in Hebrew and yamulka in Yiddish) is worn by many Jewish men during prayer, while reading religious texts or while eating and is worn at all times by more Orthodox Jews. A prayer shawl is also often worn during prayer services. Some authorities believe that there is evidence of meditative practices in Judaism from the earliest times. However, formal meditation in some form is more obviously present in Jewish mystical movements and will be mentioned in relation to the Kabbalah and to Hassidism. Another important element of Jewish worship and spiritual practice is the observance of various holidays in the calendar. These relate either to maintaining the memory of important moments in Jewish history or to vital themes in Jewish beliefs about God’s relationship to the world and to humanity. The best-known example

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is the weekly Sabbath or Shabbat. Essentially, this commemorates God resting after the six days of creation as portrayed in the Book of Genesis. Consequently, the Sabbath is a day of rest. However, in Orthodox Jewish communities, the understanding of what constitutes ‘work’ extends to the prohibition of a wider range of everyday activities. The Sabbath also acts as an important focal point for family life. The Sabbath lasts roughly from sundown on Friday to Saturday night. It begins with the lighting of candles and recitation of a blessing. The main celebratory meal is on Friday evening and begins with blessings over a cup of wine and over bread. The other best-known Jewish holiday is the Passover which commemorates the exodus from slavery in Egypt and is centred on what is called the Seder. This involves a formal set of rituals at home and then a shared meal. Among the other important holidays are some that are relatively well known outside Jewish circles such as Sukkot (or Tabernacles) which commemorates the people of Israel wandering 40 years in the desert, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement which focuses on fasting and prayers for forgiveness for sins and failings, and Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. The latter was not originally a major Jewish commemoration but has become more important in recent times not least because it occurs very near to Christmas. A further expression of Jewish practice that comes under the broad heading of spirituality is what is known as kashrut or the dietary laws. These are observed by Orthodox and other traditional Jews but more sporadically or not at all by some members of liberal groups. However, conversely, some non-religious Jews are known to use kosher food (i.e. food prepared according to the laws). The concept of food being kosher or not may apply to certain categories of food or combinations of food (e.g. pork is forbidden) or to how the food is prepared (e.g. whether animals are slaughtered correctly) or to whether the food has been prepared by non-Jews or using utensils that have been used for non-kosher food. The original motivations for some aspects of the dietary laws are not always entirely clear. However, the spiritual motivations that have been suggested include maintaining the distinctiveness of the community (which may also relate to concepts of ritual purity as a way of creating a religious-spiritual ‘boundary’), a form of ascetic self-discipline, obedience to God and other motives that commend

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themselves to the modern mind such as reducing cruelty to animals. All rabbinic authorities and historic commentaries on Jewish law are clear that however important the dietary laws are they may be broken when human life is at stake. Overall, if we think in terms of the four types of spirituality which I mentioned in the opening chapter, Jewish spirituality is predominantly active-practical in form, closely associated with the spiritual practice of everyday life. For example, Jewish spirituality views family life as a spiritual context and places great emphasis on domestic rituals and on the shared meals we have already noted, such as on the Sabbath or at Passover. However, it is also important to emphasize that from the earliest times Judaism has not only had a highly developed view of its own community life and practices but at the same time has strongly promoted a vision of duty to outsiders. Judaism may have historically seen itself as God’s chosen people but in a fundamental sense this had to be related to a sense of a universal, humane vocation of being receptive to and at the service of others. One example is that the theme of a duty of hospitality to strangers is critically important. This eventually shaped similar views in Christianity. There are many examples of supporting texts to choose from but at the heart of the Torah, in the Book of Leviticus, is a short passage that is unequivocal in this regard. ‘Aliens’ or strangers (i.e. non-Jews) must not be cheated but treated as citizens – even loved as if they were one of our own family. Indeed, the people of Israel should identify with aliens since they too were once aliens in the foreign land of Egypt. ‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God’ (Book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 33–4). Further, there is a wonderfully ambiguous narrative in the Book of Genesis about Abraham’s hospitality to three strangers who appear outside his tent at Mamre. Here it seems from two of the verses that one of the strangers is actually God. Beyond the story itself, the message addressed to the reader contains the clear advice never to neglect the stranger because in him or her you may in fact be giving hospitality to God (Genesis 18, 1–15).

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Everyday life as spiritual This theme of hospitality to strangers underlines two other important elements of Jewish spirituality overall. These are, fi rst, its inherently ethical dimension and, second, its close association with a spiritual vision of everyday life. We shall briefly explore some more obvious forms of Jewish mysticism a little later but there is a sense in which daily Jewish life can be understood as a form of practical or ordinary mysticism. At the heart of Jewish spirituality lies a desire to live perpetually in God’s presence and to be holy in a way that is appropriate to everyday existence. Rabbinical Judaism focused on how the Divine law, the Torah, could be applied to daily life. The everyday world ideally involves personal experiences of God that are not dependent on extraordinary spiritual practices or on esoteric beliefs but simply on the ways of life common to all Jews. This may include giving thanks that we have food to eat, gratitude for the day itself as a manifestation of God’s love, opportunities for imitating the love of God in being gracious or merciful to others and our avoidance of violence or other evils. However, if we think once again in terms of the active-practical type of spirituality, one specific and striking Jewish example is the Musar movement. This originated in Eastern Europe during the nineteenth century and is associated with the figure of Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter (1810–83). The movement developed out of a sense that ordinary Jewish observance was overall in decline and that those who continued to adhere to the law had very little emotional connection with its inner, and especially its ethical-spiritual, core. As a word, musar is a transliteration of the Hebrew from the Book of Proverbs (chapter 1, verse 2) and means instruction, discipline or conduct. This refers to disciplined attempts to promote ethical and spiritual development. Thus, Salanter taught that to observe Jewish rituals but not to develop a sense of responsible conduct towards other people is a parody of Judaism. The Musar movement consequently focuses on ethics, education and culture. The Torah, the religious law, is understood as a code for shaping the whole of life. For example, Rabbi Salanter suggested that Jews should be concerned that business and commerce is conducted in a kosher manner (i.e. properly or authentically) rather than merely concerned that food is properly

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kosher. Interestingly, Rabbi Salanter also wrote an essay on the idea of the subconscious (and the role that our inner processes play in moral functioning) long before Sigmund Freud. Importantly, in terms of explicit spirituality, the Musar movement promoted spiritual practices such as meditation and silence as the vital background to social action. This relates closely to the attitudes of some similarly socially orientated movements in Christianity in relation to the vital role of contemplation. For example, one recommended meditative practice involves reflective introspection on one’s character and its tendencies and another suggests a form of visualization that seeks to draw down into the unconscious particular matters from our conscious lives. The Musar movement continues in some religious education institutions (yeshivas) in Israel as well as through a recent notable revival in the United States. Although Musar ideals are grounded in Orthodox Judaism, some Jewish proponents of the movement now suggest that its message and ideals are in fact relevant to non-Jews and should be made accessible to them.

Prophetic-critical spirituality As a corollary to the strongly practical and ethical dimensions of Jewish spirituality, it is worth noting that the prophetic-critical or socially engaged type of spirituality is also present in Judaism. For example, the concept of tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means ‘repairing (or healing) the world’. This idea originated in the early rabbinic period but has been developed further in certain contemporary Jewish movements. There is some controversy over whether this value is actually expressed in some of the standard daily Jewish prayers. This relates to how certain Hebrew phrases are translated. However, whatever the case with the daily prayer, other Jewish prayers may be used to justify the importance of the concept. Jews also believe that the performance of ritual mitzvot (i.e. the commandments or other religious obligations) is a means of tikkun olam, that is, helping to perfect or heal the world. For example, the observance of the Sabbath not only is a response to the account in the Book of Genesis of God resting after creation but also releases a positive power that has an impact on the rest of the week. It is said by some

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that the observance of the Sabbath will help Jews to renew their energies and commitment to bring love and mercy into the world. A nineteenth-century Jewish philosopher Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch promoted the idea of Jews acting as an influence for good among their non-Jewish neighbours. Hirsch focused particularly on ethical rather than ritual mitzvot in relation to the commandments of justice towards all living people and towards the natural world and also to the specific commandments of love. For some contemporary Jews, the phrase tikkun olam means that Jews not only are responsible for creating a model society among themselves but also have a responsibility for the welfare of society at large. This responsibility may be understood in religious as well as social or political terms. One example is the controversial Tikkun social justice movement in the United States with its magazine Tikkun, dating from 1986, and its politically left wing and progressive Jewish viewpoint. The movement articulates a twofold vision of the relationship between spirituality and social justice. In the fi rst place, the search for social justice must balance the advocacy of political rights with spiritual needs. In this context, the ‘spiritual’ means those deepest human values that lead us to challenge the ethos of selfi shness and materialism. Second, the call is to place at the centre of our lives such values as love, kindness, generosity, peace, non-violence, social justice, wonder at the grandeur of creation, thanksgiving, humility and joy. Finally, there are also some explicitly Jewish forms of liberation theology. A major example is the approach advocated by American Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis in his book Towards a Jewish Theology of Liberation. Ellis both advocates the potential contribution of Judaism to global justice and peace and, more specifically, offers a theological–spiritual framework for the healing of Jewish–Arab relations.1

Asceticism In the light of the strongly practical approach to spirituality present in Judaism, it is worth noting that among contemporary Jews explicit versions of the ascetical type of spirituality are often viewed with a great deal of suspicion. This is the case despite or

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perhaps precisely because of the fact that observant Jews overall lead a highly disciplined life of rituals and social behaviour. The suspicion of the ascetical way is really directed at any tendency to step aside from the obligations of everyday life to pursue a special lifestyle such as monasticism. Such views are partly related to the strong sense of duty in Judaism in relation to family life and procreation as the primary context for the transmission of religious faith. In contemporary Judaism, there are no current equivalents of structured monastic life of the kind present in a number of other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. However, it is arguable that historically there have been quasi-monastic groupings in Judaism. One controversial example is the sect known as the Essenes. Some of the details of their existence, numbers and practices continue to be debated but in broad terms the Essenes arose during the second century bce and continued to flourish into the fi rst century ce. Members of the sect lived in the towns of Palestine alongside other sects within Judaism. However, some groups formed ascetic communities which according to some testimony practised voluntary poverty and collective ownership, obedience to an elected leader, daily washing, charitable action and in some cases celibacy. Their motivations were associated with messianic hopes and a sense that the end-times were approaching when God’s kingdom would be restored. The Essenes are sometimes linked to the figure of John the Baptist in the Christian gospels and more controversially with the extensive library of documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These were found in caves at Qumran by the Dead Sea in 1946. The general evidence for the presence of Essenes by the Dead Sea comes from the Roman writer Pliny the Elder but this is not conclusive. More generally, what we might call the ‘ascetic urge’ in Judaism is more generally channelled into studying the Torah or law. In addition, there are ascetical practices in some of the classical devotional books but these are practised by only a minority of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Freely chosen celibacy occasionally exists among some people within the Hassidic spiritual tradition of Eastern Europe as a continuation of older spiritual paradigms. However, the practice of celibacy is not present in reformed or modern versions of Judaism.

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Jewish mysticism While Jewish spirituality in general has a strongly practical, ethical and everyday flavour, there is also a significant strand of Jewish mysticism that appears across the centuries. The fundamental basis of Jewish mysticism is everyday religious life and belief. As we shall see, this is taken to some greater depth in the mystical movement known as Hassidism. However, the very heart of Jewish life concerns more than merely existing in the material world. This ‘more’ is understood to be communication with and interaction with a personal God. This is the God who created all things and enters into a covenant relationship with humans (and particularly with the Jewish people). Human beings are understood to have a spiritual dimension (or soul) that is able to commune with God. However, God and humans always remain distinct. The covenant relationship is expressed in the Jewish practice of ritual circumcision and also in God’s gift of the Torah (the law).

Kabbalah The best-known form of Jewish mysticism is called Kabbalah. This should not be confused with later esoteric and syncretistic Western forms although during its history some adherents did stray into astrology and magic. Kabbalah is a set of teachings that seek to explain the relationship between an eternal, mysterious God and our fi nite lives. The sources for Kabbalah are not themselves esoteric but are simply the outcome of intensive study of and reflection upon the scriptures. There is no great emphasis on any other independent meditative, contemplative or ascetical practices beyond scripture. The mystical theology of Kabbalah teaches that the unperceived and the non-sensual dimensions of existence are actually the truly real. The teachings of Kabbalah seek to explain the inner meaning of the Hebrew scriptures, of later rabbinic writings and of ordinary Jewish observances. Thus Kabbalah is founded on the Torah and the observance of the commandments (mitzvot), the most perfect expression of God’s will and the most perfect means of relating humanity to God. Importantly the person

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who follows the Kabbalist path is not someone who seeks a solitary or self-focused spiritual journey but is one who through meticulous study seeks to unlock the deeper mystical content of the scriptures. In the Jewish Kabbalah, the quest is for a deeper realization of the Torah. There is an intimate connection between common rituals, ethical action and mystical experience. In that sense, Kabbalah is deeply orthodox even though it has sometimes been treated with suspicion within the wider Jewish community. Central to Kabbalism is God. Fundamentally, God has two aspects. One is the transcendent being of God who is necessarily beyond human perception and defi nition. The other aspect of God is immanent. That is, God is also in an interactive relationship with the world and with humanity. Within this latter immanent aspect of the divine is the concept of sefiroth or sephirot. These are emanations or manifestations of the divine. Functionally, the sefiroth channel the divine creative life force and reveal the unknowable divine essence to the created world. It is critically important not to personify the sefiroth as other gods. They are different manifestations of the One. They are, if you like, a hidden motivational force that connects with the development of a corresponding intellectual or emotional state in human spiritual experience – for example, wisdom, kindness or beauty. A central Kabbalist doctrine is the relationship between human action and these divine emanations. Thus, every sefiroth relates to an ethical counterpart. The perfection of ethical behaviour becomes the way towards our relations with the divine emanations. There are ten rungs of sefiroth. Prayer, allied with ethical and ritual behaviour, leads the human spirit on a journey upwards to a recognition of the true meaning of God’s ‘names’. The ultimate state (devekuth) of the mystic is that of ‘clinging to God’. This is a kind of equivalent of the concept of ‘union’ in much Christian mystical literature. However, this image of clinging implies that there is still a clear distinction between God and human beings. The ultimate mystical state is not one of absorption into the divine but rather is an experience of loving intimacy in which the eternal God nevertheless remains radically mysterious and ‘other’. One of the most important mystical texts of the Kabbalist tradition is The Zohar. This is not really a single book but rather is a collection of works in both Hebrew and Aramaic – the everyday vernacular in Palestine in the Second Temple period. The texts first

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appeared in Spain during the Middle Ages when Sephardic Jews were at the forefront not only of the synthesis between Jewish and ancient Greek philosophy (e.g. in the work of Maimonides) but also of the development of the mystical strand of Judaism. The work was edited and published by Moses de Leon (1240–1305 ce) who claimed that it was essentially the teachings of a second-century sage, Simeon bar Yochai. The precise origins of the text continue to be a matter of academic debate. The central part of the text is an analysis of the Pentateuch but there is also a discussion of the nature of the human soul and of the process of creation. There are also sections on good and evil. It is widely held that the key to the theology of The Zohar is the complexity of God who includes both male and female elements. Also, the created world has both visible and hidden aspects. The mystical involves unlocking this hidden aspect. The Talmudic rituals are re-interpreted as mystical contact points between humanity and God. Furthermore, the halakhic norms of Judaism become the principal means whereby the divine substratum that underlies the world is kept in a harmonious relationship with it. Also in the text, the practice of prayer is given a more personal focus beyond ritual duty as a means of reaching an intimate union with God. In the most fundamental sense, Kabbalah in associated with a deepened study of the Torah rather than with separate disciplines on the side. However, there is a branch of Kabbalah which also focuses on union with God through meditation – for example, on the names of God used in Judaism. In particular, this refers to the traditional four letters that constitute the Hebrew name for God in the Hebrew bible. This is transliterated as YHW (or V) H. While the original pronunciation is lost and the concept is not spoken by contemporary devout Jews, it may arguably be pronounced ‘Yahweh’ and means approximately ‘the one who causes all’. A figure such as the medieval Abraham Abulafia (1240–91 ce) wrote meditation manuals and is now thought to have influenced later figures such as Isaac Luria (1534–72 ce), the founder of modern Jewish Kabbalah, and a commentator on the text of The Zohar.

Hassidism Kabbalistic teachings continued to be a living movement within Sephardic Judaism. In the Ashkenasi Judaism of Northern and

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Eastern Europe, the Kabbalah had some influence but the more prominent traditions of spirituality tended to be fairly pietistic – that is, devotional, emotional and deeply personal. However, another more mystical form of Judaism did emerge in Ashkenazi Judaism. This is known as Hassidism (or Chasidism) and originated in Eastern Europe during the eighteenth century. While partly influenced by the Kabbalah, it is particularly associated with the teachings of Israel ben Eliezer (or the Baal Shem Tov). In some ways, it was a populist movement in opposition to what was perceived to be the scholarly elitism and excessive intellectualism of the rabbinate. In many respects, Hassidism was a spiritual reaction against the tendency within the institutional Judaism of the time to go along with a rather post-Enlightenment rationalist style of thinking. Hassidism is egalitarian in its teachings and emphasizes the worth of the ordinary unscholarly Jews and their devotions and actions. Prayer is a source of happiness rather than merely a ritual duty. Rather than follow Kabbalistic teaching on meditating on the divine names, the Baal Shem Tov adopted a more devotional approach, for example, to the fervent recitation of psalms while concentrating on the deeper meaning of each verse. In terms of serving God, Hassidism defends the viewpoint that what is more vital than a scholarly understanding of the tradition was the inner spiritual state of the worshipper. The teachings of Israel ben Eliezer advocated a strong emphasis on achieving the direct love of God who is present in all people and in all things in the universe. It was equally important to nurture respect and care for other people. Thus, our daily activity and all our human relations are potentially the medium for a spiritual, even mystical, interaction with God. In this way, even the humble everyday Jew could attain to the mystical state of devekut or inner ‘cleaving’ to God.

Conclusion Finally, by way of summary, the distinctive features of Jewish spirituality in broad terms stem from Judaism’s foundational beliefs about God. God is not only conceived of as the creator of all that is but is also the redeemer of the human condition and therefore symbolizes the promise of ultimate hope for humanity beyond the

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pains and failures of everyday existence. There is a dual aspect to God. God is wholly ‘other’, transcendent and beyond our capacity to fi nally know and defi ne. Yet, God is also one who is revealed not only through scriptures but also through relating intimately to the human condition. This vision of an immanent God active in human life underpins the essential aspects of Jewish spirituality. This has strongly ethical and everyday features. First, in Jewish spirituality its rituals, ethics and spiritual practices are more vital indicators of spirituality than any collection of defi ned doctrine. Although this varies a great deal between Orthodox and other communities of Jews, historically everyday life is structured around the rituals and laws of the community (halakhah). These shape Jewish responses to God as well as attitudes to fellow human beings and to the wider world. Second, Jewish spirituality places more emphasis on communal worship than on solitary spiritual practices or meditative exercises. The strong sense of community is also expressed in the calendar of holy days and festivals throughout the year including the association of a number of the holidays with memories of ancient Jewish history. It also gives a central place to the family, family rituals and family celebrations such as the weekly Sabbath meal. Third, Jewish spirituality is closely allied to ethical behaviour and the cultivation of virtue. This is closely associated with a spiritual vision of everyday life which is in a sense understood as itself a form of spiritual practice and even of what might be called ordinary mysticism. The everyday world involves personal experiences of God that are dependent simply on the ways of life and laws common to all observant Jews. For all these reasons, Jewish spirituality does not by and large offer a place for ‘special’ lifestyles aside from the common life of the community such as monasticism. There is a strong tradition of mysticism in Judaism but neither traditional Kabbalah nor Hassidism are dependent on esoteric beliefs and practices. People who follow the Kabbalist path fundamentally seek through meticulous study to unlock the deeper mystical sense of the scriptures. The second form of mysticism, Hassidism, is not only strongly egalitarian in its viewpoint but it emphasizes that daily activity and human relations are potentially the context for a mystical encounter with God. Even the ordinary everyday Jew can attain to the mystical state of ‘cleaving’ to God.2

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CHAPTER SIX

Christian spirituality As we saw in the opening chapter, the word ‘spirituality’ is Christian in its origins. Christianity is the largest of the world religions with some 2.2 billion members across most countries. In broad terms, there are four main Christian groups – the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the various Oriental Churches (e.g. the Copts in Egypt) and the Churches of the Reformation. Until the twentieth century and the end of European colonialism, Christianity had become predominantly European or North American in outlook. Gradually during the second half of the twentieth century, Christians in other continents sought to re-interpret traditions and practices in the light of their own cultural perspectives and needs. While spirituality in Christianity embraces certain common values and features, it has also produced a range of approaches and traditions.

Origins Christianity originated with the life of a Jewish teacher Jesus of Nazareth in fi rst-century Palestine. The belief grew among his early followers that he was the ‘anointed one of God’ and hope-for messiah of the Jewish people and, even more radically, that he was the actual incarnation of God in human history. Over time, this belief and the acceptance of non-Jewish converts led Christianity to break from Judaism and to become a distinctive religion. Gradually, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire

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and, after many years of being persecuted, eventually became the official religion of the Empire under the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century ce. The main centres of the Church were in the major imperial cities and were often said to have been founded by one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles or senior followers. Over the subsequent centuries, Christianity spread beyond Europe to become a global religion. A number of Oriental Churches which continue to exist today departed from the mainstream as a result of theological disputes about the person and status of Jesus Christ in the aftermath of major Church Councils in the fourth and fifth centuries ce. A major split between Eastern and Western Christianity began in the eleventh century as a result of disputes about the focus of authority in the Church but also because of a gradual cultural and political separation of Eastern and Western Europe. This schism took time to solidify into a permanent separation between the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Western Catholic Christianity. A further major split in Western Christianity took place during the sixteenth-century Reformation as the result of disputes about the bible, doctrine and papal authority. The result was the birth both of explicitly reformed Churches and of the more ambiguous Church of England which gave birth to a global Anglican Communion. Those Christians who continued to accept the authority of the Pope in Rome became known as the Roman Catholic Church. During the twentieth century, the ‘ecumenical movement’ emerged as an ongoing process of dialogue and reconciliation between the various elements of Christianity. The basis of belief and practice for all the Christian churches is the Bible which is made up of what are called the Old Testament (Hebrew scriptures) and the New Testament. The Hebrew scriptures, shared with Judaism, are still used regularly in public worship. However, the distinctive source for Christian belief, spirituality and common worship is the New Testament. This includes the four gospels, the letters of St Paul, a range of other early letters and the Book of Revelation. While the gospels have a narrative form that uses the life of Jesus as their framework, they are not fundamentally ‘biographies’. Written by different authors and originating in the context of different early Christian communities, the gospels are basically distinctive presentations of the fundamental teachings of Jesus. The letters of St Paul and the

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other letters are further interpretations of aspects of Jesus’ teachings as well as additional reflections on belief and practice in the light of the needs of the various communities of early Christians to which they are addressed. The more controversial Book of Revelation is a prophetic, visionary and allegorical reflection on the end of history and the ultimate destiny of humankind. Beyond the biblical texts, the main basis for Christianity and its spiritual practices are certain foundational beliefs that are either derived directly from the scriptures or a result of later theological debate and defi nitions of doctrine in early Church Councils.

Fundamental teachings Christian spirituality grew out of Judaism and is unequivocally monotheistic even though it uses the complex image of God as Trinity – that is, a communion of ‘three persons’ in one essence. There is one God who is the creator and source of all things. However, the distinctive starting point is the teaching of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. While Christianity has complex doctrines, its desire to speak of the nature of God and God’s relationship with humanity is not abstract but closely related to maintaining a balanced spiritual vision and practice. In particular, God is both a transcendent mystery and understood as present within creation and engaged with human life. This belief is expressed by two additional teachings. First, is the notion of God’s ‘incarnation’ (becoming human) in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth who was eventually given the title of ‘Christ’ or ‘anointed one’ by believers. Second, is the notion of God indwelling as Spirit at the heart of every person and, indeed, of all things. As we shall see, a key New Testament concept in spirituality is ‘discipleship’ which implies a call to follow the way of Jesus. Although Christianity has a strong ascetical tradition, it is not fundamentally world-denying in its spirituality. Both the natural world and human embodiment are contexts for God’s self-disclosure and for encounters with the sacred. Yet, alongside this fundamentally positive evaluation of everyday life, Christianity also recognizes the reality of disorder in the world and in human behaviour – that is, sin. However, Christianity also believes that God heals human disorder, offers the possibility of spiritual transformation and promises ultimate

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fulfilment beyond the limitations of time-bound existence. The biblical roots of Christian life are not individualistic but are both communal, within the community of believers, and social, expressed in the ideal of the love and service of humanity.

Sources of spirituality If all Christian spiritual traditions are rooted in the bible, where should we begin? Behind the New Testament lie the Jewish scriptures (known to Christians as the Old Testament). Obviously, Jesus and his fi rst followers were Jews and so Christianity began as a form of Judaism. Equally, what became the Christian scriptures built upon the Jewish scriptures. The Hebrew texts also continued to have a major impact on Christian spirituality across 2,000 years. In what sense are the bible texts foundational to all Christian spirituality? Christian spirituality implies a faithful response to the founding story of Jesus of Nazareth. Yet, at the same time, all historical forms of spirituality are also particular to their own times and places. They are not simply identical repetitions of the life of Jesus and his fi rst followers. Rather, they are reinterpretations of what are seen as the essential spiritual values of the religion. The fundamental biblical image for Christian spirituality is the concept of ‘discipleship’. This became virtually interchangeable with the notion of leading a Christian life. Thus, Christian spirituality is not reducible either to devotional practices or to an abstract framework of beliefs. It implies a total way of life. Indeed, the New Testament book, the Acts of the Apostles, refers to Christians as ‘people of the way’. This ‘way’ of discipleship is regularly expressed in the New Testament texts by the Greek word for ‘a person who learns’. This is more than simply a question of passing on spiritual wisdom but implies that the disciple absorbs a way of life by somehow being alongside the teacher. So the concept of discipleship demands that Christians ‘follow after’ the way of Jesus. In the four gospels, this has two related elements. First, there is a call to conversion in response to the coming of God. Thus, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news’ (Mark chapter 1, verse 15). Second, discipleship is to follow the way of Jesus. This consists both in a way of life and working to

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build the Kingdom of God as we see in the call of the first disciples portrayed in the gospels, for example, in Mark chapter 1, verse 17 or Matthew chapter 4, verses 17 and 19. The call to discipleship in the gospels demanded a radical break with the past that involved leaving family, previous work, possessions, indeed everything (see Luke chapter 5, verse 11), for the sake of the gospel. It also implied sharing in the work of Jesus to bring God’s Kingdom into being. Thus, Jesus’ instructions to the disciples in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, as they leave to spread his message list their work as proclaiming the good news, curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers and casting out demons. To share in Jesus’ work and life is associated with the ideal of service as in the Gospel of Mark chapter 9 or even giving up one’s life out of love in the Gospel of John chapter 15. After Jesus’ death, in the early Christian communities, the understanding of discipleship had two strongly related elements. First, Christians are not simply those who follow the teachings of Jesus or who model their lives on the pattern of Jesus. They are also those who are profoundly united to Jesus and through him united to God. Second, there is an emphasis on discipleship as membership of a community. Membership begins with baptism and is nurtured in celebrating the Eucharist together (see, e.g., Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12). Apart from the scriptures, the other important sources of Christian spirituality are the core doctrines of the Christian Church. These express a particular understanding of God, of the natural world and of human nature. However, spirituality grew out of the actual practice of the Christian life rather than out of intellectual concepts. The development of the characteristic Christian beliefs about God and about Jesus Christ did not arise from a change of intellectual horizons but from the ways in which the fi rst generation of Christians after Jesus’ lifetime experienced his continuing presence with them. They then expressed this experience of a resurrected Jesus Christ, and their new existence ‘in Christ’, through prayer and their attempts to live in obedience to God in the pattern of Jesus. Doctrine and life went together. For all these reasons, it is not surprising that clarity concerning beliefs about the nature of Jesus Christ, and his relationship to God, was a critical theological issue in the early Christian period. The doctrine that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth there was

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a true union of the divine and the human not only governed all other Christian beliefs but also became the fundamental bedrock of Christian spirituality. In reality, it took the first 400 years of the Christian era for this to be explicitly defi ned. The motivation was largely in order to prevent inauthentic ways of pursuing the Christian life. Thus, the Council of Nicea (325 ce) condemned the heresy of Arianism because, among other things, it suggested that while Jesus was Son of God he was a created and subordinate being. Later, the Council of Chalcedon (451 ce) condemned the so-called Monophysite heresy which suggested that Jesus Christ, while the Incarnation of God, had only a divine nature. In the end, the origin of all this debate was practical – the nature of how we are to understand human life and then to seek to live it. In the person of Jesus, God was understood to have taken on human bodily nature and to have entered human history thus enabling humanity to be drawn ever more into the divine life. As a corollary, the orthodox understanding of God and God’s relationship to humanity also sought to preserve a positive understanding of the world and of material, bodily existence.1

Leading a spiritual life: Asceticism The four types of spirituality described in Chapter one are clearly present in Christianity. The ascetic approach to spirituality is explicit in the long-standing structured monasticism of the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Broader ascetical disciplines such as fasting and charitable giving are also present in parts of the Protestant and Anglican traditions. Structured monastic life with its rules (e.g. the famous Rule of St Benedict) traces its origins to early ascetics in Syria and Palestine and to the famous hermits and monastic groups in Egypt which appeared during the mid-third century ce. The Rule of St Benedict, written in sixth-century Italy, became the most influential monastic guide in the Western Church. Very little is known about the person of Benedict of Nursia apart from the fact that he lived in the mid-sixth century ce, reputedly founded the still-existing abbey of Monte Cassino and compiled a monastic rule. While the Rule of St Benedict is relatively moderate and balanced, it nevertheless presupposes a life of withdrawal from the outside world. The Rule

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is practical rather than an inspiring collection of spiritual wisdom. Its popularity is explained by its well-organized structure and the healthy balance of work, prayer and rest. The central task of the monk is ritual prayer in common (made famous by the eventual development of Gregorian chant) supplemented by personal meditation, spiritual reading, silence and manual work. Over the centuries, monasticism in Western Christianity gave rise to numerous other communities, rules of life or an austere reinterpretation of the Benedictine way of life known as the Cistercians. A further seventeenth-century reform of the Cistercians, known as the Trappists, counted the famous writer Thomas Merton (1915–68) as a member. Another example are the hermit-monks known as the Carthusians, who were the subject of the widely acclaimed art film Into Great Silence. Monastic life has also revived in parts of the Anglican Communion and other Churches of the Reformation. During the twentieth century, new monastic movements have appeared. For example, the Fraternités de Jerusalem, with groups of men and women living alongside each other, practise the monastic life in the heart of modern cities. The ecumenical Taizé Community in Burgundy founded by Roger Schutz (1915–2005) has become a world famous centre for interreligious reconciliation and work for global peace. One spiritual practice of Western monasticism that eventually became formalized as a method of meditation is known as lectio divina. The process is classically described in terms of four dimensions or stages. The fi rst stage, lectio or reading, refers to reading a scripture passage meditatively including pronouncing it quietly with the lips. The second stage, meditatio, or meditation, embraces a range of options as a way of interiorizing the meaning of the text. These include memorization or the repetition of certain words or phrases so that they are inscribed in the heart. This leads towards oratio or prayer. This implies a heart-felt and spontaneous response to God. The fi nal stage is contemplatio or contemplation. This is really beyond structured method as it implies being drawn ultimately into silence and the presence of God. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, monastic life for both women and men follows a single Rule of St Basil. A famous male monastic colony, Mount Athos in Greece, has a range of large monasteries and smaller settlements. Mount Athos became famous because of its association with the well-known collection of spiritual texts

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known as The Philokalia and also with the spiritual tradition known as ‘hesychasm’ (from the Greek for quietness or stillness, hesychia). By the late thirteenth century ce, partly under the influence of Mount Athos, ‘hesychasm’ became a distinct spiritual tradition. One result was a growing emphasis on a spiritual practice that is popularly known as the Jesus Prayer (or the Prayer of the Name). The Jesus Prayer is thought to be particularly helpful in the pursuit of inner silence. In broad terms, it involves the frequent repetition of an invocation ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’ which may be shortened to ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy’. The Jesus Prayer may be treated as a formal exercise of prayer or it may informally accompany ordinary daily life and work. The prayer is not understood purely as a spiritual practice but involves a challenging inner transformation and needs careful spiritual guidance. This becomes clear if we read the famous nineteenth-century Russian story of a spiritual seeker, The Way of the Pilgrim. 2

The practical type If we turn to the active or practical type in Christian spirituality, there are a range of notable examples. One of the most famous even beyond the boundaries of Christianity is Francis of Assisi (1182– 1226) and the Franciscan movement that grew from him. Francis was very much the product both of the new urban renaissance and of the spiritual ferment of his times. He came from one of the new wealthy merchant families in the central Italian hill town of Assisi. Francis’ spiritual emphasis on material poverty was partly a reaction to the excessive concern for material success that was characteristic of his social class. However, it also reflects a desire to practise a life inspired by Jesus and the early disciples. Francis’ key theme was imitation of Jesus Christ, the brother of all, by serving him in poor and marginalized people. A famous story concerns Francis embracing a leper on the road. His embrace of the leper was not merely a response to human suffering but, in medieval terms, was the acceptance of a marginalized person. Lepers had a terrible disease but people also projected onto them a variety of fears about evil that they sought to exclude from the community. Francis is also famous for his Canticle of Creation. This is more

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than a romantic love of the natural world. The fi rst nine verses speak of our cosmic fraternity with all our fellow creatures. For example: Let everything you have made Be a song of praise to you, Above all, His Excellency the Sun (our brother); Through him you flood our days with light. He is so beautiful, so radiant, so splendid, O Most High, he reminds us of you. However, verses 10–11 have a prophetic edge because they celebrate the peace that comes from mutual reconciliation. Be praised, my Lord, Through those who forgive for your love, Through those who are weak, In pain, in struggle, Who endure with peace, For you will make them Kings and Queens, O Lord Most High.3 For Francis, the world should be a space where there is no room for violence or contention. Another notable example of the practical type of spirituality is the tradition associated with Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Jesuit order and author of the famous text of the Spiritual Exercises. This shapes the main values of Ignatian spirituality and became one of the most influential Christian spiritual texts of all times. Even though the book is Catholic in origin, it is nowadays used as a medium for spiritual guidance across a wide spectrum of Christians. The text is not intended for inspirational reading but is a series of practical notes for guiding or undertaking a month-long retreat. There is advice about the structure and focus of prayer periods and also teachings about spiritual discernment and making good choices in life. The structure of the retreat is intended to assist a dynamic process of growth in spiritual freedom from all worldly attachments. The explicit aim is to enable a person to respond to the call of Jesus Christ to follow him in discipleship and in building

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up the kingdom of God. There are four phases of the retreat, called ‘Weeks’, each of which has a specific focus that enables the process to further unfold. There are certain key values in Ignatian spirituality. First, God is to be encountered in the midst of everyday life. Second, Ignatius’ theme of ‘fi nding God in all things’ promotes a growing integration of spiritual experience and everyday action. Finally, Ignatius’ most famous teaching is on ‘discernment’. This is a form of spiritual wisdom that involves learning how to understand which of our desires are actually life directing and which are ultimately destructive. Ignatius’ teaching indicates how to become free from the destructive impulses and then how to make life choices in ways that are aligned with our true selves.4

Mysticism in Christianity Christianity has a strong mystical tradition. The actual word ‘mysticism’, like the word ‘spirituality’, derives from Christianity although the concept is now used widely in other religions and beyond. While the noun fi rst appeared in France in the early seventeenth century, the adjective ‘mystical’ is more ancient as a qualifying word in relation to elements of Christian thought and practice. By the second century ce, beginning with a theologian called Clement of Alexandria (c 150–215), the word ‘mystical’ signified the hidden realities of the Christian life, the deeper meanings of the Bible or the inner power of Christian rituals such as the Eucharist. Then in the third century ce the important scholar Origen (c 185–254) was strongly influenced by Greek Neoplatonist philosophy. He taught a threefold pattern of spiritual progress, via a contemplative interpretation of scripture, away from the material world towards union with the God who dwelt in inaccessible light. The term ‘mystical theology’ then appeared in the earlysixth-century writings of an anonymous Syrian monk known as pseudo-Dionysius. Mystical theology indicated a kind of ‘negative knowledge’ of a God who is ultimately beyond all our images. Pseudo-Dionysius was perhaps the single greatest influence on the development of Christian mysticism. What is important is that this early tradition of ‘mystical theology’ described the spiritual path of every Christian, rather than of an elite few, towards the ‘mystery’

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of God through their baptism and exposure to the scriptures and to religious rituals. It is suggested that mysticism in a subjective experiential sense fi rst flourished in Western Europe during the ‘Twelfth Century Renaissance’. This term is commonly used to describe an extraordinary flourishing of creative intellectual, spiritual and artistic energies. In terms of spirituality, several features stand out. First, there was a growing emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. This led to shifts in devotional and artistic emphasis including the suffering of Jesus on the cross and devotion to his mother, the Virgin Mary. Second, the Christian humanism of the twelfth century led to an increased interest in human subjectivity and experience. Third, and partly as a result, the period also saw a striking cultivation of the theme of love. In secular culture this was expressed as courtly love and in religion the emphasis was on divine love and on a human loving response. All of this fed into an increased interest in the individual spiritual journey and into the development of subjective, affective mysticism. One example, in the spiritual writings of the lay women’s movement known as the Beguines, became known as ‘love mysticism’ or ‘bridal mysticism’. The Beguines emerged towards the end of the twelfth century in the towns and cities of northern Europe. They created associations for mutual spiritual support as an alternative to traditional convent life. The Beguine life offered educated women the possibility of shaping their own spiritual experience and a degree of freedom from control by the clergy. Some continued to live with their families while others banded together in city houses obtained through their own resources. The women supported themselves with lace-making and weaving and also worked with the poor. There were several significant mystical writers in whom the central features are affectivity, devotion to the Eucharist and an emphasis on the humanity and passion of Jesus Christ. The mysterious figure of Hadewijch may be taken as a classic example of Beguine mysticism. She was Flemish, was probably writing in the fi rst half of the thirteenth century, was clearly well educated and was familiar with courtly love lyrics. Her known writings are collections of poems, letters of spiritual guidance and 14 visions. Hadewijch’s mysticism presents love as the truth of God’s own nature and teaches that we can only lay hold of God by loving in return.5

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The fourteenth century is particularly rich in mystical writers. Two key figures may be taken as examples: Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich. Meister Eckhart (c 1260–1328) was a German Dominican theologian and preacher. He is the object of a great deal of contemporary interest even outside Christianity because of his paradoxical religious language. On the one hand, there is an absolute abyss separating us from a transcendent God. Eckhart therefore speaks of the necessity of negating our concepts of ‘God’ in order to touch the divine ‘ground’ or what may be called the ‘God beyond God’. However, Meister Eckhart also made some daring assertions about the mystical identity of humans and God. His obscure language led to suspicions of heresy although this is now considered to be a misjudgement.6 Julian of Norwich (c 1342– 1417/20) is the most original of the group of ‘English Mystics’ who flourished during a period of immense social and religious upheaval. We know little about her life and even her name is taken from the dedication of the Norwich church where she became a solitary sometime after an almost fatal illness in 1373. During this illness, Julian had 16 visions or ‘showings’. Her writings, the Showings (or Revelations of Divine Love), have a Short Text and the more famous and popular Long Text. The overall teaching, addressed to all Julian’s fellow Christians, is that love rather than judgement or anger is God’s reality. Julian famously uses the imagery of God as Mother. She also seeks to articulate something of how God sees – beyond the limitations of how we experience reality. Thus, Julian offers a radically alternative vision of human existence. This results in two striking assertions. First, there is no anger or judgement in God. Second, in the last analysis God does not ‘see’ our sin but only the bliss that will be ours. For in God’s sight this is the ultimate truth of human existence.7 As a fi nal example of Christian mysticism, we may take the two famous Spanish mystics of the sixteenth century, Teresa of Avila (1515–82) and John of the Cross (1542–91). Both were members of a contemplative religious order known as the Carmelites and it is now widely acknowledged that both also had Jewish ancestry. Teresa wrote several works. In her greatest classic, The Interior Castle, she vividly describes the spiritual journey in terms of progression through the different rooms or mansions of the ‘castle’ of the soul until the pilgrimage culminates in rooms 5–7 in which there is a transforming union with God leading to what she calls ‘spiritual

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marriage’. In one sense, her mysticism is orthodox Christian. However, the possible influence on her of the Jewish mystical text The Zohar is now regularly mentioned. While a visionary mystic, Teresa was also a down-to-earth person with a strong emphasis on the spiritual quality of daily work and of charity to other people. John of the Cross’ writings are generally denser than those of Teresa but include poetry of the highest order as well as commentaries on the spiritual journey such as The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Spiritual Canticle. John emphasized a process of stripping away our desire for ‘things’ that are, by defi nition, less than ‘everything’ and which stand in the way of union with God who is ‘all’. To reach satisfaction in all desire its possession in nothing. To come to possess all desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all desire to be nothing. To come to the knowledge of all desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to the pleasure you have not you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. To come to the knowledge you have not you must go by a way in which you know not. To come to the possession you have not you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to be what you are not you must go by a way in which you are not. . . . The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, chapter 13, 11. There is also some suggestion that Al-Andalus Sufism had an influence on the imagery and symbolism of John of the Cross, although the details are still debated.8

Prophetic spirituality The prophetic-critical approach to spirituality moves beyond an engagement with everyday life as spiritual practice to a socially

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critical stance. It also views social transformation as a spiritual rather than purely political task. This type of spirituality is basically the product of the twentieth century. An early example of prophetic spirituality is Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45), a German Protestant pastor and theologian who was executed by the Nazis. Bonhoeffer has become an iconic figure of resistance to totalitarianism and of political martyrdom. Probably his best-known book of spirituality is The Cost of Discipleship where he outlines the painful consequences of following the Christian spiritual path. For Bonhoeffer, costly discipleship implied both a disciplined life of prayer and critical engagement with surrounding social realities. Although a pacifist, Bonhoeffer became involved in anti-Nazi activities. While Bonhoeffer was teaching in the United States, he voluntarily returned in 1939 out of solidarity with his fellow Germans. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, Bonhoeffer spent the last two years of his life in prison. From there he wrote many letters of spiritual wisdom which became a great classic, Letters and Papers from Prison. Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945 at Flossenbu˝rg concentration camp.9 Probably the best-known example of modern prophetic spirituality is liberation spirituality. This originated in Latin America in the late 1960s and embraces a spectrum of reflection based on a critique of unjust social structures and the struggle to overcome them. Liberation spirituality suggests that the promotion of social justice is integral to the spiritual path. Liberation spirituality also questions the ways in which society creates structures that undermine the human dignity of certain categories of people such as the socially marginalized and the materially poor. Despite criticisms by some people, the basis for liberation spirituality is not Marxism but the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Especially important are the Book of Exodus, with its theme of God leading the chosen people from exile to the Promised Land, and the theme of redemption in the New Testament gospels. The Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez (born 1928) may be taken as a key representative of liberation spirituality. As a priest, Gutiérrez both taught in a university and lived and worked in a Lima slum. This dual experience led him to bring together spiritual reflection with the experience of living with the poor. Gutiérrez developed his thinking on spirituality initially in the book We Drink from Our Own Wells. Gutiérrez outlines five key

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features of a spirituality of liberation: conversion and solidarity, gratuitousness and efficacious love, martyrdom and victory over suffering, spiritual childhood (which implies commitment to the poor) and fi nally community. For Gutiérrez, true spirituality is the spirituality of a people rather than of isolated individuals. Another of Gutiérrez’s books relevant to spirituality is On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. His interpretation of the Book of Job in the Hebrew scriptures underlines clearly that contemplation is essential to effective social engagement. In Gutiérrez’s interpretation, Job is the classic example of the suffering of the innocent. Yet Job confronts God fearlessly and so encounters the limitless compassion of God. Job does not receive a simple answer from God to his robust questions but receives something much deeper than he had sought. For Gutiérrez contemplation is not separate from social practice but is the key element of it. A key concept in liberationist spirituality is that God’s love, while all-embracing and non-exclusive, is manifested differently. God’s love is inherently disturbing and always challenges people to change. The ‘poor’ are to be empowered rather than allow themselves to be passive victims. The ‘rich’ (whether materially or socially dominant groups) are called to recognize their need for conversion in order to embrace solidarity with everyone.10

Feminist spirituality Finally, another form of prophetic-critical spirituality, particularly but not exclusively, in Europe and North America, is called feminist spirituality. An important stage of secular feminism arose from the political upheavals in Europe in the late 1960s and from the Civil Rights movement in the United States in both of which women played a prominent part. By the 1970s and 1980s, feminist studies and its critical analysis of gender stereotyping soon began to influence Christian thinking and spirituality. A fundamental insight of feminist spirituality is that everyone’s relationship with God and approaches to spiritual practice are deeply influenced by gender and how this is constructed within a given culture. The fi rst step in feminist spiritualities, as it is in all liberation spiritualities, is to identify fundamental ways in which people’s humanity is undermined. Feminist spirituality suggests

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that women’s identity in particular has been restricted by important elements of traditional spirituality (e.g. suspicion of the body, excessive intellectualism, the bypassing of sexuality, an emphasis on passivity and so on). These limitations are then legitimized by imaging God purely as male. The next step in feminist spirituality, as with all liberation spiritualities, is to reconstruct alternative ways of talking about God and of understanding our relationship with God. This reconstruction is resourced by two critical features. First, we begin to understand about God as we begin to understand how we have been able (or unable) to relate to God. The specific nature of women’s spiritual experience and ways of relating to God become a vital source of spiritual wisdom. This leads naturally to a second aspect of reconstruction. Following a liberationist model, this involves reflection on experience in the light of the scriptures and Christian tradition. However, our understanding of both has been affected by selective interpretations and so an important step is to retrieve a more complete picture. The work of feminist scripture scholars sensitive to spirituality has been an important tool. In terms of re-readings of classic spiritual texts and traditions, the important work of the late Grace Jantzen on Christian mysticism is a good example.11 In recent years in the United States, new forms of feminist spirituality have appeared applicable specifically to AfricanAmerican experience (known as womanist spirituality) and Hispanic experience (known as mujerista spirituality).

Conclusion Like all religious spiritualities, Christian spirituality has never been either static or a single reality. It is fundamentally based on the Hebrew scriptures and particularly on the life and teachings of Jesus in the New Testament scriptures (not least the concept of discipleship). There is also a close relationship between Christian spirituality and key foundational beliefs as defined in the early Christian centuries. However, fresh wisdom teachings with particular emphases and ways of leading a spiritual life have consistently emerged over the centuries. These innovative spiritual traditions were in response to new historical contexts or cultural circumstances. Equally, Christianity has developed over the

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centuries into four major groupings, Oriental Churches, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and the Churches of the Reformation. Their differences are partly theological, partly structural and partly cultural. All of them have produced distinctive forms of spirituality as ways of leading a Christian life. Overall, the four ‘types’ of spirituality are present in Christianity, ranging from structured forms of asceticism (monastic life) to socially and culturally critical liberationist and feminist spiritualities. After being dominated by European and North American ways of thinking and behaving for some centuries, Christian spirituality is once again in process of adjusting to the challenging context of an increasingly globalized and multicultural world. Christians in other continents are no longer purely passive recipients of spiritual wisdom from elsewhere. They are developing their own response to the Christian tradition from their particular social and cultural contexts. Another important change in Christian spirituality during recent decades is a growing sense of the vital importance of peaceful dialogue between Christianity and other world faiths.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

Muslim spirituality Islam is the third of the so-called Abrahamic religions which also include Judaism and Christianity and which trace their lineage back to the Prophet Abraham. Islam honours both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures although it also believes that these became distorted either textually or in their interpretation. Islam traces its specific origins to the person known as Muhammad in Arabia in the seventh century ce. The religion of Islam is strictly monotheistic and God is honoured as ‘the One’. In itself, the word ‘Islam’ in its religious context implies submission to God and service of God. The designation ‘Muslim’ for the adherents of Islam is ultimately derived from the same verb. The foundations of Islam are mainly articulated through the book of the Qur’an (anglicized as Koran) which is believed to be divine revelation directly dictated to Muhammad. Islam originated in what is now Saudi Arabia and was initially closely associated with the Middle East and North Africa. However, Islam is now a global religion. It numbers some 1.5 billion adherents and is the second largest religion after Christianity. The two main groupings within Islam are the Sunni (approximately 80%) and the Shia (up to 20%) with smaller minorities belonging to other sects. These two main divisions predominantly involve differences of historical lineage more than of fundamental belief or spiritual practice. The most mystical form of Islamic spirituality, Sufism, crosses the boundary between both traditions. There are further well-known offshoots of Shia Islam such as the Ishmailis whose largest subgroup, the Nizaris, is led by the Aga Khan who is both a hereditary imam and a hereditary prince. There is also the

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smaller group of Shia Alawites or Alawis, a mystical branch based in Syria. Another offshoot of Shia Islam is the Druze community who eventually became a separate esoteric religion.1

Origins Islam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad (c 570–632 ce) who is considered by Muslims to be the last and greatest of God’s Prophets. According to early lives of Muhammad, in the last period of his life when aged about 40 he saw visions or received revelations from God that were conveyed directly to him by the Archangel Gabriel. The Archangel Gabriel had earlier appeared in the Christian scriptures as the messenger of God to Mary the mother of Jesus. The content of these revelations was initially passed on orally by the Prophet’s companions, eventually written down and then became known as the Qur’an. Muhammad is recorded as preaching to the people of Mecca and asking them to abandon their traditional polytheistic religion and to worship the one true God. These views were opposed by the governing elite in Mecca on the grounds that Muhammad’s preaching was destabilizing the established social and political order. This quickly led to the persecution of Muhammad and his enforced departure to the city of Medina (which became known as the city of the Prophet) with his family and those who had converted to Islam. There, during roughly the last ten years of his life, Muhammad established both his religious and political authority. What is often overlooked or made obscure is that while Mohammad actively combated the traditional polytheists, the legal constitutions of the city of Medina recognized the rights and responsibilities of all three of the monotheistic faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, embracing them within one community, known as the ummah. At that point, the concept of the ummah was not limited to adherents of Islam. Muhammad eventually became the political leader of much of Arabia and recaptured Mecca in 630. The Prophet was succeeded after his death by a leadership known as ‘caliphs’ who were understood to be his deputies. Islam rapidly spread across North Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, into the Middle East, Iran, the Caucasus, what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan and on into India. The period leading to the establishment of the majority Sunni body of Islam, and its

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mainstream orthodoxy, culminated in the work of al-Ash’ari (died 935). The other major group in Islam is Shia or Shi’is. This is the ‘party of Ali’ who was the son-in-law of Muhammad. Originally, this was a predominantly political distinction based on those who supported Ali and his descendants as the legitimate successors of the Prophet. This movement became centred on Iran and eventually parted company from the majority Sunni Muslims. A central belief of Shia Islam was that for each generation there was a single, infallible, Imam. After Ali, there was a succession of 12 Imams but this was replaced in c 879 ce by a collection of scholars known as ayatollahs while awaiting the return of the defi nitive Imam at the end of time. Shia Islam eventually developed its own commentaries on the Qur’an and its own legal system.

Fundamental teachings In Islam, certain beliefs and practices are both creedal and prescriptive. In broad terms, the most fundamental is that Muslims believe that God is one and that the purpose of human life is to be obedient to God, and to serve God. While the notion of a duty of obedience to God’s laws had greater prominence, the image of a God who loves humanity and the human duty to love God in return has also been emphasized by some elements within Islam. Muslims also believe that Islam is a defi nitive faith that completes and corrects the tradition of divine revelation that embraces Abraham, Moses and Jesus who are considered as earlier Prophets. The text of the Qur’an is understood to be the final and complete revelation of God. Islam is fiercely monotheistic. In chapter, or sura, 112 of the Qur’an, God is the one and only, the eternal, the absolute and incomparable. As a result, Islam has profound difficulties with Christianity and its belief that Jesus was the incarnation of God and that God was to be imaged as Trinity – a communion of persons in the one God. This appears to stray into the polytheism that Muhammad rejected. However, although for Islam God is beyond comprehension, it has a plurality of names for God or attributes that it relates to God, such as ‘Creator’, ‘Mighty’, ‘Wise’, ‘The Compassionate’ or ‘The Merciful’. God is the creator of everything that is, simply by divine command, and so the purpose of all creation is to worship or to give glory to God.

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Apart from the narrative of the Archangel Gabriel dictating the word of God to the Prophet Mohammad, Islam believes more generally in the existence of angels as obedient messengers of God. There is also a category of invisible spirits known as jinns or djinns. Like humans and unlike angels they have free will and may therefore be good, evil or neutral. In different traditions of Islam, there are human spiritual teachers, such as the shaykh in Sufism, or leaders of worship and community known as imams. However, in strict terms there are no authoritative intermediaries between God and human beings, such as a privileged category of clergy, who are to be treated as the official channels for God’s communication to the believing community as is the case in some versions of Christianity. Rather, God has an intimate relationship with all people and this relationship with each human is direct rather than mediated. Alongside the oneness of God, another central belief of Islam is that there will be a final judgement of humanity on the ‘day of resurrection’. This judgement will be in relation to people’s conduct in this present life. Humanity was originally created by God from the clay of the earth in a similar way to the narrative of creation in the Book of Genesis. Orthodox Islam maintains a balanced view on the question of whether humans are intrinsically good or intrinsically sinful. From birth all humans are capable of both good and evil. Consequently, humans are persistently tested throughout life. Islam also maintains a careful balance between the doctrines of divine predestination and human free will. That is to say that while God permits, or has full control over, all that takes place, this does not absolve human beings from moral responsibility and making right choices. Like Christianity, Islam posits that human beings possess free will, by divine decision, and so have an ability to choose between good and evil actions. The timing of the final day of judgement is known to God alone. The result of judgement will lead to humans going to hell or to heaven. While disbelief in God is one sin that normally leads to hell, repentance may nevertheless result in forgiveness if God so wills it. Apart from faithfulness to prayer, the criteria for reaching heaven embrace the social virtues of charity and compassion to others. While heaven implies the fullness of the believer’s presence to God and of God to the believer, the joys of heaven are usually described in quite pleasurable and physical terms. This relates closely to the fact that Islam believes in a ‘resurrection of the body’ and that embodiment is an essential aspect of human existence rather than incidental or a purely temporary state.

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Sources of spirituality The sources of Muslim spirituality are largely textual. The fundamental and indispensable source is the Qur’an or sacred scriptures. In the Qur’an there are 114 units or chapters of different length which are known as ‘suras’. Each of these begins with the formula ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate’. Unlike the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the Qur’an organizes these suras in the order of their length rather than as separate ‘books’ or by theme. This structuring of the text is widely agreed by scholars not to date to the time of Muhammad even though the content of the Qur’an itself is generally understood to go back to him. Unlike both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, there is strictly speaking no critical edition of the text of the Qur’an. After the text of the Qur’an, the next most important source for the spirituality of Islam is the multi-volume collection of reported sayings or actions of the Prophet Mohammad which are known as ‘hadiths’. These provide an authoritative guide for most aspects of Muslim daily life. There are six canonical collections of hadiths dating from the ninth and tenth centuries ce. Modern scholars are divided on the question of whether all the hadiths go back to Muhammad himself. Some of them appear to have originated in legal and theological debates long after the time of the Prophet. Others appear to reflect somewhat later developments in Islamic practices. In addition to knowing and being faithful to the foundational texts and their requirements, it is arguable that a de facto source of spirituality in Islam is everyday life. Certain spiritual values inform the approach of Muslims to life as a whole and not merely to ritual practices in isolation. As we shall see in the next section, the notion of personal commitment to God should pervade the whole of life. Everyday life itself is intended to be a ‘spiritual’ context that persistently reminds us of our duty to God. Equally, aspects of the five Pillars of Islam clearly suggest that it is how we shape everyday life rather than merely conduct religious rituals which is the essential matter. For example, rather as in Christian monastic practice, a regular pattern of five periods of prayer per day at designated times across the day from rising to evening in effect spiritualizes the whole day. Prayer periods act as reminders within the rhythm of everyday life of God’s presence and our call

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to respond to God. Equally, the practice of almsgiving points to a sense of social responsibilities as a spiritual ideal. Also fasting is not an ascetic practice in isolation but concerns the need to bring discipline to the whole of life as well as being a means of countering disordered attachments and false desires. 2

Leading a spiritual life As a general remark, Islam rather like Judaism focuses mostly strongly on what may be called an everyday, householder model of spirituality. Islam has used a range of expressions for the English word ‘spirituality’. These include such concepts as ‘inwardness’, ‘the real’, ‘the world of the spirit’, ‘the presence of divine grace’, ‘a sense of moral perfection’, ‘a sense of the beauty of the soul’ and ‘recollection of God’. Some scholars argue that, properly understood, spirituality is actually the heart of Islam and is the key to understanding its many aspects. Following God’s laws and observing the key practices of faith and life are more important than merely a verbal or creedal affi rmation of faith. Equally, Islam is seen as a complete religious and social system embracing the whole of life rather than merely the performance of explicitly spiritual or ritual practices. There is no distinction between the sacred and secular dimensions of our existence. Above all, spirituality in Islam is founded on personal commitment to God. The personal relationship with God embraces both fear and love. Thus, the core of spirituality consists of attentiveness to God, seeking knowledge of God, obedient submission to God’s will, the virtues of acceptance and commitment (taqwa) as well as faith, hope and charity as in Judaism and Christianity. These fundamental principles govern the path of explicit spiritual practices. There are five basic rituals or spiritual practices expressive of a commitment to lead the spiritual life. These are known as the Pillars of Islam. The fi rst and most fundamental Pillar is the shahada, or profession of faith, ‘there is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet’. This latter affi rmation that Mohammad is ‘the’ Prophet and not simply ‘a’ Prophet distinguishes Islam from Judaism and Christianity. This creedal statement is pronounced when someone converts to Islam but is also performed at each prayer period.

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The second, and most familiar, Muslim spiritual ritual is the practice of prayer five times a day (salat). It seems that there may have been originally two prayer periods in the morning and the evening. Then a third was added at midday. Finally, from about a century after the Prophet Muhammad’s death, this became five prayer periods in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset and fi nally in the evening. However, there is some degree of controversy within Islam about these prayer periods and particularly about their timings. Apart from the opening statement of faith, prayer essentially consists of recitations from the Qur’an. Ritual washing before prayer is prescribed as are six physical actions or postures including standing, bowing, prostration and sitting. It seems that Muslims may have originally prayed while faced towards Jerusalem but this was changed to facing in the direction of Mecca. Thus, Muslim places of common worship, or mosques, each have a niche which indicates the direction of Mecca. The well-known call to prayer proclaimed from the tower (minaret) of mosques applies both to daily salat and to attending the mosque on Fridays. Besides the five periods of formal prayer, there is the broader practice of remembering or silently reciting the names for God (dhikr) during the day. As we shall see, in certain versions of Sufism this practice is sometimes conducted in a ritualized and shared ceremony, accompanied by singing, music or dance and even using incense, and may lead to an ecstatic trance. The third spiritual practice is almsgiving or zakat. This obligation is mentioned both in the Qur’an and in the hadith. The practice of charitable giving is based on accumulated and surplus wealth (‘whatever you do not need’) and is obligatory for everyone who is able to share wealth with the poor. This is considered to be a personal responsibility for all Muslims and is aimed both at easing hardship and at ultimately eliminating inequality. In some Islamic countries, this duty of almsgiving is formalized as a tax. The fourth Pillar or practice is fasting or sawm. This consists of refraining from eating or drinking during daylight hours and is practised especially during the 30 days of the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar calendar year in Islam. Because this lunar year is 12 days shorter than the solar year used in Western calendars, across time the feast effectively migrates through the seasons. ‘Fasting’ also embraces sexual abstinence and refraining from smoking or from anything else which may be a

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physical comfort or a distraction. The purpose of this ‘fast’ is to learn to focus wholeheartedly on the relationship with God (Allah), on developing piety and more broadly on disciplining one’s life and ordering one’s desires. It is also customary during Ramadan to recite one-thirtieth of the Qur’an on each of the 30 evenings. The fifth and final Pillar or practice is to go on the Great Pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj. The obligation for every Muslim is to undertake this pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime if health and finances permit. The hajj occurs during the twelfth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and consequently its timing in terms of the Western calendar also varies from year to year. There is a prescribed timetable of rituals including walking round the Kaaba, a cube-like building that is said to have been erected originally by Abraham as the first building dedicated to the worship of Allah. This contains the Black Stone which is believed to have fallen to earth from heaven and to have been given to Abraham by an angel. For this reason, the Kaaba is seen as the axis mundi or centre of the world, with the Gate of Heaven directly above. In other words, the Kaaba marks the point where the world of the sacred intersects with the everyday world and is therefore a direct link between heaven and earth. In addition, the hajj includes ritual visits to local mountains, the desert and a ritual of stoning the devil. Overall, in Islam there is something of an emphasis on what might be called the ascetical type of spirituality. The closest word for this is zuhd meaning ‘detachment’ in Arabic. This implies that in broad terms Islam encourages the avoidance of luxury and the pursuit of a simple life. The Qur’an is full of verses that remind believers that our present life is a fleeting one in comparison with eternal life. The Prophet Muhammad is known to have spent periods in solitary vigil and fasting and to have generally commended simplicity of life. He is reputed to have said ‘What have I to do with worldly things? My connection with the world is like that of a traveller resting for a while underneath the shade of a tree and then moving on’. Despite its ascetic elements, Islam does not allow monasticism in the technical sense of the word not least because it separates people from the normal social duties of marriage and child bearing. However, certain Sufi groupings or devotional ‘orders’ emerged over the centuries, gathered around a spiritual master or shaykh, and met for spiritual sessions. The shaykh was not simply a person who taught spiritual skills or practices but, like the ancient

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Christian monastic ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers’ in the Egyptian desert, taught most profoundly by the example of his life. These Sufi orders have sometimes had elements of what may be considered to be the monastic style of life, including on occasion a quasi-communal existence. A famous example would be the Dervish orders, probably originating in Persia, which are known for their extreme austerity, especially material poverty and begging, similar to medieval mendicant (which means begging) friars in medieval Christianity. The motivation for mendicancy is to learn humility and whatever money is collected is then given to the poor. The different orders of Dervishes trace their origins to Muslim saints and sages. Some orders chant the Qur’an in groups or perform ritual dance like the famous ‘whirling Dervishes’ of the Mevlevi order in Turkey. The purpose of dance or music is not entertainment but a search for spiritual ecstasy. The great Persian Sufi poet Rumi was himself a Dervish and his shrine is in modern-day Turkey. In terms of religious devotions beyond those that are obligatory, there are some striking parallels in Islam to the Christian practice of devotion to saints. This especially includes the category of wali, which means a protector or a helper. Orthodox Islam is very careful to subordinate the importance of such exemplary women and men to the great Prophets, and particularly the Prophet Muhammad. However, in various Sufi sects the most important ‘saints’ are venerated as high exemplars of the spiritual path of purification. In some places, for example, in Marrakech in Morocco, there are shrines in local mosques associated with the tombs of Sufi saints. Here there may be the ritual observation of festival days, the practice of pilgrimages to the shrines and a tradition of asking the saints to intercede with God. There are even reports of miracles of healing as a result of saintly intervention.

Prophetic-critical spirituality Apart from the everyday spiritual and ascetic practices of the majority of Muslims, the most famous element of Islam is mystical. This will be addressed shortly. However, it is worth noting that there is also some modest evidence in Islam of what may be called a form of prophetic-critical spirituality. A striking example is the figure of the Iranian Ali Shariati (1933–75). He was an important sociologist of religion and an influential intellectual. Indeed, many

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people consider him to have been one of the key thinkers behind the original Iranian Revolution that eventually overthrew the Shah. However, in ways similar to the reaction to liberation theology in Latin America by political and religious conservatives, Ali Shariati was caricatured simply as a political Marxist. However, this is too simplistic a viewpoint because Shariati was a deeply religious person. He sought to bring the fundamental principles of his Shia Islamic faith into close dialogue with the challenges of social justice. While he was certainly influenced by elements of Marxist theory, this was mixed with Islamic puritanism and with religious faith. Shariati also engaged with sociological theory and with existential philosophy. It also seems that he may even have been influenced by exposure to the writings of such Christian liberation theologians as Gustavo Gutiérrez from Peru.

Mysticism in Islam Mystical ideas appeared fairly early in Islam not least in reaction to a growing emphasis in mainstream Islam on the formalism of rituals as well as on obedience to divine law. The most famous mystical form of Muslim spirituality, known as Sufism, crossed the boundaries between the Sunni and Shia communities. Its adherents defi ne Sufism as simply the internalization of Islam by connecting with its inner core. Sufism is believed to originate with Muhammad himself. In the fi rst place, mystical insight derives from constant recitation and meditation upon the Qur’an. Then, second, Sufism implies a strict emulation of Muhammad’s own intense connection to God. Finally, it is said that the teachings of Sufism were actually transmitted orally by the Prophet to those who he judged had the capacity for such knowledge of the divine. Essentially, Sufism, without rejecting normal Islamic practice, turns inwards and emphasizes a life of love and of pure devotion to God. The objective of Sufism is to convert the human heart from all that is not God. The disciple seeks to travel into God’s presence and to purify the inner self. Each person potentially has an ability to relate to God in ecstatic union (fana). Over time, Sufism developed the notion of a spiritual path with different stages or spiritual ‘states’ that in a number of ways paralleled classic Christian theories of spiritual stages or a ‘ladder of perfection’.

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According to one teaching, the Sufi path has four stages: fulfi lling the law (repentance), the way (renunciation), gnosis or spiritual wisdom (trust and patience) and, fi nally, reaching reality or fi nal satisfaction. This comes close to classic Christian mystical teaching on the ‘three ways’ of purification, illumination and union. Because the idea of stages of spiritual progress also led to a sense that only some people reach the highest stage of union with God, this connected with the development within Sufism of the concept of ‘sainthood’ including a belief that saints may perform miracles. In Sufism, the concept of spiritual stages sometimes led to a teaching concerning how the concept of fana involved spiritual annihilation. That is to say that when a Sufi practitioner has been purified of material desires and is lost in the love of God, it is said that he or she has ‘annihilated’ the ego and individual will and left earthly existence to dwell only in God and for God. Some Sufi teachers went much further and seemed to suggest a kind of absorption into, or identification with, the divine. However, the celebrated Sufi teacher al-Ghazzali (died c 1111 ce) rejected any literal understanding of annihilation of the self by becoming absorbed into God because it was incompatible with orthodox Islamic theism. Much later in the early nineteenth century, a Moroccan Sufi teacher Ahmed ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760–1837) suggested that the only legitimate goal for a mystic was union with the spirit of Muhammad. Overall, fana is best understood as the progressive loss of personal ego – that is, an escape from disordered attachments to the material world. ‘Annihilation’ also involved a trusting submission of the human will to God who will provide all that is necessary in life. Fundamentally, while Sufism embraces a range of spiritual practices, it is not simply a matter of cultivating special meditative or other spiritual techniques that lead to enlightenment. Specific Sufi practices, such as breath control, may be the occasion for, but not the automatic cause of, a deeper mystical knowledge. The foundational key to the orthodox Sufi spiritual path is, first of all, simply to be a devoted Muslim who follows the normal laws and practices of Islam. However, the Sufi mystical tradition also suggests that the Qur’an has complex spiritual meanings beyond the obvious surface interpretation which may only be appreciated through intense spiritual practice. Sufi spiritual practice also includes a particularly rigorous adherence to the norms of prayer

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five times a day, fasting and extra practices derived from the life of the Prophet. These practices sometimes lead to ecstasy although that is not their purpose. One spiritual practice that was strongly commended by some Sufi orders was dhikr, that is, focusing on the name or names for God. While this regular remembrance of God is commanded of all Muslims, in Sufism it is sometimes ritualized or related to specific techniques of meditative concentration. The purpose was to focus the mind and heart increasingly on God alone. The practical means were quite varied. Sometimes it involved a silent exercise of focusing the mind on God’s names, and sometimes it was done together with other people by rhythmically repeating the names out loud. It might also be accompanied by music or dancing. Many Sufis use sets of beads to repeat a traditional listing of 99 names for God, broadly drawn from the Qur’an. The point, however, was to recall the name of God by various techniques of concentrating the mind and of excluding distractions. In the end, the purpose of this practice is self-purification – that is, the elimination of all concern for the self and more generally any concern for the world of the senses. More broadly within Sufism, there is the practice of muraqaba which varies in form. This can be likened to meditation practices in Christianity. One example is to concentrate all the bodily senses, then to silence all preoccupations that fill the mind and heart, and fi nally to turn full awareness towards God. The phrase ‘My God, you are my goal and your pleasure is what I seek’ is recited three times. The heart is then focused on the name of God, Allah, remaining in a state of awareness of God’s all-encompassing presence. Some Sufi traditions also meditate by linking the repetition of God’s name to breathing. As we shall see, there have been suggestions that this Sufi practice may have influenced similar practices among late medieval Spanish Christian mystics and other spiritual teachers. According to Sufism, the spiritual seeker must find a teacher or shaykh not only because such guidance is critically important but also because this is a guarantee of authentic wisdom via an unbroken line of spiritual teachers going back to the Prophet. Parallel to early Christian desert asceticism, the serious seeker lives over a period of time alongside the teacher. The Sufi emphasis was on the transmission of spiritual teachings personally, one to one, rather than solely on the observance of official corporate

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laws and ritual practices. The sayings of Islamic mystics are also stylistically close to the aphorisms of the early desert monks. Such sayings are not merely about experience but are based on the two keys of Islamic theology: tawhid, the unity of God, and dhikr, remembering and uttering God’s name. This interpersonal process and experiential discipline, rather than intellectual knowledge, is the key to reaching mystical depths. Further, because what stands in the way of spiritual development is the disordered human ego; submitting oneself to the spiritual guidance of the shaykh was an important discipline alongside countering one’s self-importance through service of other people. This approach was very similar in spirit to the teachings on obedience to the spiritual father or mother in early Christian desert monasticism.

Sufi teachers Three historic Sufi teachers may be used to summarize important aspects of the tradition. In chronological order these are Rabiah al-Basri (c 717–801 ce), Abu Hamid Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzali (c 1058–1111 ce), known in the West simply as al-Ghazzali, and the great poet Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Rumi (1207–1273 ce) who became known in the Western world simply as Rumi. Rabiah al-Basri was born in Basra in what is now southern Iraq. She is remembered as a saint and mystic. She came from a poor family and it is said that early in her life she became an indentured servant or even a slave. Eventually, her reputation for holiness and intense spiritual practice alongside her household duties led her master to free her. She then went off into the desert and became a solitary ascetic, spending long hours in solitary contemplation. Despite offers of marriage, she was clear that she intended to remain a celibate and to dedicate her life solely to God. Her spiritual reputation drew many disciples to her, both female and male. Although Rabiah left no written books, a range of poetry was attributed to her although much of this is in fact of unknown origin. Equally, many anecdotes were recorded as were her basic teachings. Her overarching teaching was on love of God. God should be loved simply for God’s own sake and not out of duty or fear. While all are called to repentance for sin, Rabiah also

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taught that God offered repentance as a gift. As a consequence, her message was also one of hope. Al-Ghazzali was of Persian descent and became a major theologian, philosopher, expert on Islamic law and ultimately a Sufi mystic. It is said that initially he helped to change the course of Islamic philosophy. However, he underwent an intellectual and spiritual crisis in mid-life which led to a major change of direction. He disposed of his wealth and adopted an ascetic and wandering lifestyle. After a visit to Mecca, he spent some ten years in Syria and Palestine. Eventually he returned to Persia where he lived a life of simplicity and seclusion, writing, meditating and teaching in a madrassa. He also founded and built a khanqah, or centre for study, sometimes loosely referred to as a ‘Sufi monastery’. Such centres were designed as gathering places for a Sufi brotherhood, a space for spiritual retreat and sometimes as the residence for a shaykh as well as for Sufis who wished to lead lives of spiritual practice in quiet and solitude. Overall, al-Ghazzali brought together orthodox Islam and a systematic approach to Sufism in constructive ways. He wrote more than 70 books. One of his most important and influential works was his spiritual autobiography written towards the end of his life and known in English as Deliverance from Error. In particular, he discusses his intellectual crisis and his experience of being illuminated by God. In the end he found deep value only in the mystical way associated with Sufi practice. Al-Ghazzali was a significant influence on the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. Sufism also has a literary tradition which amplifies the teachings of the Qur’an through devotional poetry focused on love of God and through musicians dancing zhikrs and singing quawwalis. The famous Persian mystic poet Rumi believed in the creative power of words simply in themselves. Thus, he noted that when he spoke of spiritual matters in public even some non-Muslims went into ecstasy. As Rumi commented, the words themselves evoked ‘the scent of their Beloved and their Quest’. Rumi was a theologian, jurist and Sufi mystic but is best known as an important poet whose poetry has been translated into numerous languages. Once again in mid-life after some years as a jurist and teaching in a madrassa, Rumi underwent a profound spiritual change and became an ascetic. As a result of his bereavement after the murder of his intimate companion, Shams, he composed a collection of lyric poems.

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It was a later companion, Hussam, who persuaded Rumi to write more. While living in what is present-day Turkey, Rumi dictated six volumes of a masterwork. After his death Rumi’s son and followers founded the Mevlevi order of Dervishes famous for its meditative and ecstatic dancing. Rumi’s Spiritual Couplets in Persian are considered by many to be one of the greatest works of mystical poetry both in Sufi Islam and more generally. Additionally, Rumi composed a further major collection known as the Great Work. While in some senses Rumi taught a spirituality of divine love that is universally attractive, he is not really non-denominational as some people assume but is a thoroughly orthodox Muslim. 3

Influence of Sufism At different times, Sufism has had a significant impact beyond Islam, specifically on Judaism and Christianity, with its music, poetry (e.g. by Rumi), meditative techniques, ritual dance and ‘orders’ such as the Dervishes. In relation to Judaism one example is Abraham Maimuni, the son of the twelfth-century Spanish Jewish philosopher Maimonides (the author of the original ‘Guide for the Perplexed’). He believed that Sufi practices were congruent with the tradition of biblical prophecy. He is also credited with bringing the Sufi practice of dhikr, the meditative recitation of God’s names, into Jewish spirituality. Maimuni’s followers in Egypt fostered a Jewish Sufi movement which survived into the fi fteenth century, practised spiritual retreats, solitude, fasting and undertook other ascetic practices. The movement, or brotherhood, also looked to a spiritual guide similar to a Sufi shaykh. In terms of Islamic influences on Christianity, one reasonably familiar example is the thirteenth-century Catalan Christian theologian Ramon Llull. It is now accepted that he learnt Arabic in order to dialogue with Islamic thought rather than to convert Muslims to Christianity. Islamic thought had a particular influence on Ramon Llull’s mystical writings. This is especially true of the influence of al-Ghazzali. Indeed, in his great mystical work, The Book of the Lover and Beloved, Llull explicitly admits that he was inspired by the Sufis. Some recent scholarly work suggests that Andalucian Sufism, with its emphasis on spiritual illumination and

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spiritual drunkenness, influenced a number of Christian spiritual groups and writers. For example, it seems to have had an impact on Franciscan spiritual writers such as Francisco de Osuna (1497–1541) and Bernardino de Laredo (1482–1540) both of whom influenced Teresa of Avila, the great sixteenth-century Carmelite mystic. More controversially, some scholars believe that Sufism also had a direct influence on the language and imagery of John of the Cross, the other great Carmelite mystical writer and important poet. For example, they cite the image of ecstatic fi re and burning flames of love in the poem Llama de amor viva, and the imagery of flowing water and the fountain of the soul in the prose treatise the Spiritual Canticle. Finally, a more speculative but credible possibility is that ‘the prayer of the breath’ in Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises was influenced by the Sufism of Al-Andalus.

Conclusion As a general summary, spirituality in Islam focuses strongly on what may be called an everyday, householder model. The foundations of Islamic practice are essentially the book of the Qur’an, which is believed to be divine revelation directly dictated to Muhammad, and the hadith, a multi-volume collection of reported sayings or actions of the Prophet. Spirituality in Islam is understood to embrace the whole of life rather than merely to involve the performance of spiritual practices. There is no distinction between the sacred and secular aspects of life. Personal commitment to God should pervade the whole of life. The call is to follow God’s laws and to observe the key practices of religious faith. There are five basic rituals or spiritual practices that express a person’s commitment to the spiritual life. These are known as the Pillars of Islam. The most fundamental aspect of Islamic spirituality is to affi rm that God is one and that the purpose of human life is to be obedient to God, and to serve God. While this notion of obedience has great prominence, some elements within Islam have also emphasized the image of a God who loves humanity and our duty to love God in return. Mystical teaching also appeared fairly early on in Islam, and the most famous mystical spirituality, Sufism, crosses the boundary between the two major divisions of Islam, the Sunni and Shia communities.4

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Hindu spirituality Of all the world religions, Hinduism is perhaps the most perplexing. It is difficult to summarize accurately because it has no clear founder or identifiable ‘fi rst moment’. Nor does it have a single agreed belief system but a plurality of approaches to the understanding of God, world and human nature. Equally, there is no single moral code or straightforward understanding of the spiritual life and spiritual practices. The label ‘Hindu’ itself derives, via Persian, from the Sanskrit word Sindhu which relates to the River Indus. Sanskrit is the historic literary and religious language of India. The River Indus originates in Tibet and runs through Pakistan into modern-day India. In other words, the title ‘Hindu’ has geographical resonances and since the nineteenth century has effectively denoted the religious traditions that are native to the Indian subcontinent. In practice, Hinduism covers a range of religious sub-traditions, each with its own framework of beliefs and characteristic practices. However, Hinduism is the dominant religion of India and Nepal with significant minorities in some other Southeast Asian countries and somewhere in excess of 650 million adherents worldwide. This makes it the world’s third largest religion after Christianity and Islam. Rather than being a single, systematic system, Hinduism is more accurately to be thought of as a complex of religious and philosophical traditions, scriptures, devotional or folk religion and ascetical movements. What follows is therefore a somewhat tentative and selective attempt to summarize a few key points that relate to what we call ‘spirituality’.

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Origins With a variety of origins, Hinduism is overall deemed to be the oldest surviving world faith. Some scholars date it to the Indus valley cities as long ago as around 2500 bce. However, even its origins and periods of development are contested. That said, in very broad terms it is possible to divide the development of Hinduism into five successive phases. First, there is what is often called the original Pre-Vedic phase that runs forward until about 1750 bce. It seems that there may have been worship of both a male God and a female Goddess. Whether and how these relate to classic Hindu concepts of the divine is contested. Certain practices, such as the emphasis on the elements of fi re and water, may also originate in this early period. Second, there is what is known as the Vedic period which lasted until about 500 bce. Some scholars further divide this into early, middle and late periods. During the Vedic period, as the title indicates, foundational texts known as the Vedas emerged. The oldest and one of the best known of these is the Rig-Veda. The texts centre on worship of various Gods and on rituals such as fi re sacrifices and chanting mantras. Later in the Vedic period the texts known as the Upanishads appeared. These are the foundational texts associated with classical Hinduism and are known as the Vedanta. Eventually, the speculative thought of the Upanishads came together into an explicitly theistic framework of belief in another famous scriptural text, the Bhagavad Gita. The third phase is characterized by a number of scholars as a time of ascetic reform and lasted roughly until about 200 bce. Socially and culturally, this was the period of the early growth of Indian cities. Religiously, this phase was characterized by new ascetic movements which challenged the dominance of ritual practices. It is thought that this period also saw the birth of the concept of a cycle of birth, death and rebirth (samsara), depending on our deeds and behaviour (karma) in the present life. The fourth phase is usually referred to as ‘Classical Hinduism’ and runs for nearly a thousand years from about 200 bce to around 1100 ce. The period is characterized by several features. The famous mythological epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were compiled. As we shall see, these mythic tales proposed clear religious and philosophical teachings. Legal systems were codified and the dominance of the Brahmans or Brahmins was established as the highest ranking of

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four social classes (varnas). The fi rst Hindu temples were built and a specific tradition of religious architecture and design emerged. This phase also saw the emergence of the bhakti movement with an emphasis on intensity of religious devotion. Later in the period, Brahmanic ritualistic ‘Hinduism’ fragmented and Hindu religiosity effectively regionalized. Various devotional as well as theistic differences emerged such as Shaivism (revering the God Shiva as supreme) and Vaisnavism (emphasizing Vishnu as Supreme Lord). From about 1100 ce onwards, Hinduism was affected by the conquest of much of India by Muslim rulers and then in the early nineteenth century by the growing dominance of the British East India Company leading to the foundation of a political British Raj or imperial rule. Hinduism overall tended to move away from the dominance of more abstract philosophical concepts such as Brahman, the universal spiritual principle, in the direction of a more passionate devotion to personalized divine manifestations (avatars) such as the figures of Krishna or Rama. The British Raj ran alongside or even provoked a Hindu renaissance in the nineteenth century which created the concept of a single Hinduism, based on the Vedas, and with a unified framework of religious and spiritual practice. This neo-Vedantic semi-mystical re-reading of Hinduism was further promoted by such major Hindu teachers as Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

Fundamental teachings In the broadest terms, roughly six types or styles of contemporary Hinduism may be detected. First, forms of local or folk Hinduism which stretch back for millennia still exist. These continue to focus on the cult of local Gods and involve local worship traditions. Second, there is the devotional style of religion known as bhakti. Third, there is Vedic religion as practised by traditional Brahmins. Fourth, there is Vedantic religion based on a more philosophical approach expressed notably in the Upanishads. Fifth, there are the various forms of yogic religion which imply far more than physical practices. Thus, bhakti yoga is the way of love and devotion, karma yoga is the way of right action, raja yoga is the way of meditation and jnana yoga is the path of wisdom. These are not understood as mutually exclusive ways. Finally, there is the religion of everyday ethics and righteousness known as dharma.

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In terms of ‘spirit’ and ‘God’ Hinduism embraces a range of approaches. Some Hindu religious philosophies are theistic – that is, there is a divine reality which created the cosmos and sustains it. Depending on one’s sect this may be a single supreme God (monotheism) or a variety of Gods (polytheism) or a sense that all reality is somehow divine (pantheism) and so on. Some versions of Hinduism are said to be atheistic but it would be more accurate to describe them as non-theistic in that they do not as a whole actively deny or seek to disprove the existence of the divine but merely set aside the existence or otherwise of a God or Gods. Human progress is not inherently related to a divine reality. As we shall see, this viewpoint is similar to Buddhism. A fairly broadly held belief within Hinduism is that the soul or true self of each person (atman) is eternal. For some non-dualist Hindus, this human spirit is ultimately identical with Brahman or the supreme soul or eternal-infi nite principle. Thus, the goal of life is to realize this profound identity between the self and Brahman and thereby to reach freedom (moksha) from imprisonment in a recurring cycle of birth, death and rebirth (known as reincarnation, samsara) as the result of human actions or human deeds (karma). For other dualist Hindus, Brahman is a more personal divine being who is to be distinguished from the human spirit or soul. Brahman is to be worshipped as, for example, Vishnu or Shiva and so on depending on one’s sect. In this theistic approach to belief, the atman, the eternal human spirit, is in a dependent relationship with God. Consequently, moksha, or ultimate freedom, is built upon the human love of God and on God’s generosity in return. Some of the great Hindu religious epics also refer to God coming to earth in bodily form in order to liberate and to guide human beings. Such a manifestation of God is known as an avatar. For example, Vishnu appears as Rama in the Ramayana and as Krishna in the Mahabharata. Another prominent feature of much Hindu belief is the contrast between what presents itself as real in the contingent world and the discovery of what is truly real in eternal terms. Thus, a famous phrase in the Upanishads asks: Lead us from the unreal to the real Lead us from darkness to light Lead us from death to immortality

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As we shall see, this sense of the unreal and the real involves the believer in a journey from the unreal towards the real via distinctive approaches to the spiritual path. Overall, the important point is to treat contingent reality merely as a transitory means towards ultimate integration. This also demands a progressive loss of ego and of ego consciousness. The various spiritual paths are not simply techniques of self-actualization but are also ways to true enlightenment.1

Sources of spirituality Because of the extraordinary breadth of Hinduism, there are many supposed ‘sources’ of Hindu spirituality. What follows is therefore merely some fairly broad remarks about one important category of sources – that is, the variety of Hindu scriptures. These were originally transmitted orally and derive from different places and times. The ‘scriptures’ are widely understood to be in two categories. The fi rst category is what many Hindus see as the divinely revealed texts or, if not divinely revealed, as the eternal laws of the spiritual world (Shruti). These include the Vedas which focus primarily on rituals and also the Upanishads which focus more on philosophical teachings about the cosmos and human life or on spiritual insights. The second category of wisdom texts are later ones and are thought of as humanly created wisdom texts (Smritis). These include the mythological narratives such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The fi rst narrative text includes the famous Bhagavad Gita. Among other things, this presents the philosophical and mystical teachings given by Krishna, a manifestation of the God Vishnu, to Prince Arjuna prior to battle. Krishna is acting as Arjuna’s charioteer. The narrative of the battle, Arjuna’s doubts about war and Krishna’s response are really metaphors for the battle everyone has as they seek to lead a moral life in the midst of a highly ambiguous world. The advice is not to cease acting in the world but to do so without wishing for a particular outcome. In other words, the teaching is in favour of abandoning desires, seeking spiritual detachment and striving for balance and moderation in everyday life. In this category of humanly created texts are also the sutras (500 bce to 100 ce), which are texts on yoga and on right conduct, and the Purana mythologies which date from around 900 ce.

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Leading a spiritual life Hinduism is often characterized as not merely a complete way of life but also as sadhana – a way or process that leads towards self-realization and spiritual freedom. A prominent feature of Hindu spirituality is the desire to move from what presents itself as real to the discovery of what is truly real. As we shall see, this journey towards reality involves distinctive approaches to the spiritual path. However, the fundamental notion is some form of renunciation. This is true even for those who do not adopt an explicitly ascetical lifestyle. The call is to live in the world while learning to be ‘world-less’. This means treating all contingent reality merely as a transitory means to integration and, as we have seen, demands a progressive loss of ego. Thus, the most widely read Hindu scripture is probably the Bhagavad Gita. As we have just seen, this mystical and metaphysical text is situated within a narrative drama of conversations between Prince Arjuna and the divine Krishna. It is effectively a practical manual on how to live well. Krishna’s advice is to cultivate detachment. Such detachment is a key element of Hindu spirituality. This process of interacting with the world, while devoting all one’s work to the eternal spirit Brahman, is a pathway to the knowledge of God that provides an alternative to renouncing the world entirely. One of the most detailed and traditional theoretical frameworks within Hinduism for leading a spiritual life is the notion of progressing through one’s life via various phases or stages. This is the concept known as the four ashramas or orders of life. The fi rst phase is Brahmacharya or studentship. During this stage, the student is under the guidance of a guru and leads a disciplined and celibate life dedicated to contemplation and building up spiritual knowledge. The second phase, Grihastha, is known as the ‘householder stage’. Here the person marries and experiences legitimate sensual pleasure (kama) and pursues material prosperity in a virtuous way (artha) and perhaps becomes involved in public or political life. There are moral obligations such as care of one’s parents, the rearing of children and hospitality to visitors, particularly holy ascetics. The third stage, Vanaprastha, is one of gradual detachment from the material world. This involves retirement from a life of work,

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handing over certain duties to children and spending much more time on explicitly religious activities. Finally, there is the stage of active asceticism, Sanyassa, during which a person (or even a married couple) renounces all worldly attachments and leads a life of material renunciation dedicated wholly to the divine through spiritual pursuits. Thus, the Bhagavad Gita refers to giving up activities based on material desire (including sexual activity) to pursue a life of contemplation. Some Hindus choose to adopt the way of Sanyassa at an earlier stage and this may be thought of as a form of monasticism. Such Hindu monastics are committed to a life of material simplicity, celibacy, detachment from all worldly pursuits and contemplation. Some live together in monasteries while others are solitaries who wander from place to place begging. The sadhus are known for their extreme forms of self-denial. These may include physical practices such as standing on one leg or holding an arm in the air for months or years. The motivation is to attain spiritual purity, enlightenment or to indicate reliance on God to take care of our physical and material needs. Sadhus seek to spread universal compassion without regard for the status or wealth of people. It is seen as particularly meritorious for householders to provide sadhus with food. Sanyasi or sadhus (women are sanyasin or sadhiva) generally wear ochre-coloured clothing. The two main categories of monastics correspond to the major theistic sects within Hinduism. Thus, Vaisnava monks worship God as Vishnu and his manifestations or incarnations as Rama and Krishna. Such ascetics tend to shave their heads apart from leaving a small topknot at the back. Saivite monks worship Shiva as Supreme Being and let their hair and beards grow uncut. The famous yogic tradition within Hinduism embraces a range of methods and approaches including meditation, mantras and physical postures. In broad terms, these physical, mental and spiritual disciplines focus on attaining a state of perfect peace. Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism and constitute one of the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. The term ‘yoga’ fi rst appears in part of the Upanishads around roughly 400 bce . Here it is defi ned as the control of the senses and cessation of mental activity leading to a closer identifi cation with the inner self, soul or atman. In other words, yoga is a process of interiorization or an ascent of consciousness. In the early

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centuries ce , the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali systematized diverse practices and theories into a formal philosophy. This focuses on the notion of ‘concentration’. Yoga is defi ned as the cessation of the ‘perturbations of the mind’. This is understood in the Yoga Sutras as a necessary condition for humans to transcend intellectual reasoning in order to become one with spirit or the transcendent self. All of these techniques are directed at uniting the individual to the Divine or to universal Brahman. The Bhagavad Gita highlights three main types of yoga. Karma yoga emphasizes devout action and works dedicated to God. Bhakti yoga offers a path of devotion whereby prayers, rituals and mantras focus our thoughts on God. Jnana yoga emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge of God. In the West, it is the techniques and postures of what is often called Hatha yoga that are best known. This emerged during the eleventh century ce and developed across the following centuries. It has a number of variants and together they are the style that many people nowadays associate with the word ‘yoga’. A well-known movement with Hindu origins and a worldwide following is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, known more popularly as the Hare Krishna movement. This was founded in 1966 in New York by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and now has several hundred centres around the world. The movement undertakes work with the poor and also has a range of educational centres. This is a monotheistic movement based on devotion to Krishna, a manifestation of the God Vishnu. It is famous for its devotional mantra that devotees sing or repeat quietly: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Spiritual practices In everyday terms, Hinduism has developed numerous spiritual practices which take place in the midst of daily life. Indeed, these practices act as a ritualization of daily life itself. The performance

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of rituals acts as both reminder and means of bringing about religious values at every level of existence. The life phases of birth, marriage and death also have quite elaborate religious customs and ritual practices (samskaras) associated with them. Up to ten of these may be performed which sanctify all major phases in a person’s life. One that is particularly well known to people outside Hinduism is the marriage ritual of walking as a couple seven times round a sacred fi re. There is also a rite of initiation in which boys (and sometimes girls) of the Brahmin and other higher classes or varnas are invested with a sacred thread and introduced to a mantra or sacred formula. This is associated with the concept of becoming ‘twice born’. The second birth is a spiritual one and introduces the male members of the higher classes into their religious and social status and duties. Twice born, particularly Brahmins, are expected to undertake daily complex rituals. Pious Brahmins perform the whole range of rituals but many simply observe a somewhat abbreviated form. There is a sequence of rituals to be performed at dawn, midday and in the evening and these include ritual bathing, meditating with breath control and the recitation of certain prayers. The latter includes the repetition of a verse from the Vedas addressed to the supreme deity, often accompanied by the use of beads. The Hindu concept of puja or worship may be practised at home or in a temple. In many Hindu households, there is a shrine with the statues or other icons of the family’s chosen deities or manifestations of God. There are a number of common daily religious rituals such as lighting a lamp before the family shrine. Temples usually have a primary deity at their heart. There is no concept in Hinduism, as there is in the Abrahamic religions, of a weekly holy day when attendance at a place of worship is an obligation. Many Hindus would only visit a temple on special religious festivals. Worship in the temple is essentially private rather than publicly liturgical. Quite a number of Hindus also adopt a kind of congregational worship. This may include singing bhajans or devotional hymns, chanting mantras or a recitation of scriptures. The latter is often done by a priest in front of an audience who have sponsored the performance. In devotional forms of Hinduism, when devotees gather together to chant bhajans, the process of chanting together along with the rhythmic music and intense atmosphere of devotion can result in a trance-like state among the devotees.

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Many Hindu devotees also go on pilgrimage to an extraordinarily wide range of sacred sites throughout India. All over the country pilgrimage takes place daily to local or regional shrines or to national pilgrimage sites such as to the city of Varanasi (Benares) in the state of Uttar Pradesh on the River Ganges. This is effectively the spiritual capital of India. Alongside pilgrimages there are a range of religious festivals throughout the year. Again, many are local but some take place all over India and, indeed, wherever there is a significant community of Hindus. Well-known examples are Diwali or the festival of lights in October or November and Holi which is a wildly noisy Spring festival. The mantra is among the better-known spiritual practices derived from Hinduism but which has had an impact on people beyond the boundaries of Hinduism. The word ‘mantra’ was originally a Sanskrit term for a sound, word or group of words (usually starting with Om) that is understood to be capable of enabling spiritual transformation. The types of mantra and their use depend on the particular school of Hinduism associated with the mantra. In the Upanishads, the syllable Om represented Brahman or the supreme spirit. Thus, such sounds were manifestations of ultimate reality. Om is seen as a manifestation of Brahman and therefore the most powerful mantra. It is added at the beginning and end of all Hindu prayers. The meditative repetition of a mantra specific to each practitioner is a central spiritual practice in the neo-Hindu movement of Transcendental Meditation. 2

Wider influences A number of spiritual practices derived from Hinduism have now spread more widely around the world and even beyond the boundaries of religion. Two examples are Transcendental Meditation and Hatha yoga. Transcendental Meditation originated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918–2008). In 1955 he began teaching a traditional meditation technique that he had learnt from his spiritual teacher Brahmananda Saraswati, head of the Jyotir Math monastery in northern India. The Maharishi referred to it as ‘transcendental deep meditation’. The practice involves the use of a mantra, linked to breathing, while sitting with eyes closed. It is recommended to

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be practised for 15–20 minutes twice a day. This practice became the centre of a movement. The Maharishi taught thousands of people during a series of world tours between 1958 and 1965. It became famous and popular because it attracted such celebrities as the Beatles. Eventually TM teachers were trained in the technique and this led to even wider dissemination so that by the time of the Maharishi’s death it had been taught to literally millions of people worldwide and was one of the most widely practised techniques of meditation. TM has been interpreted in a range of ways as religious (specifically Hindu in origin), as a non-religious practice aimed at self-development, as a spiritual movement in itself and even as a new cult. There have been some inconclusive attempts to research the impact of TM on health or on the overall quality of life of practitioners. Hatha yoga derives from the wider yogic spiritual path already mentioned. According to legend, it was originally promoted by the Lord Shiva. However, Hatha yoga focuses explicitly on physical exercises and postures. In early texts, for example, the fifteenthcentury ce Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Yogi Swatmarama, the bodily practices are promoted as a form of physical purification that prepares the practitioner for the higher stages of meditation. Many modern approaches to Hatha yoga, inside and outside India, result from the work of such teachers as Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (died 1989) and Swami Sivananda (1887–1963). Traditionally, Hatha yoga is a holistic spiritual practice which includes postures, purification actions, gesture, breathing control and meditation. It attempts to balance mind and body, to calm the mind through meditation in order to reach a higher state of concentration and, indeed, elements of mystical experience. However, Western practice of Hatha yoga focuses mainly on the asanas or postures which are interpreted as essentially physical exercises, detached from any religious, philosophical or ethical framework, as a means of reducing stress and improving a person’s physical well-being.

The guru In terms of following a spiritual path, the concept of a guru is widely associated with Hinduism. The word has now passed into popular usage in reference to any kind of inspiring or charismatic

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authority figure. In Sanskrit, the noun ‘guru’ means a teacher in the sense of one who imparts transcendental knowledge or spiritual wisdom. The guru is one who dispels the darkness of ignorance. An iconic example is the dialogue between Krishna and his friend Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna recommends to Prince Arjuna that he fi nd a guru. The latter is described as a ‘self-realized master’ – in other words, one who has achieved enlightenment rather than simply a counsellor or a theoretical expert in spiritual techniques. The relationship between the inquirer and a guru is not merely a casual encounter but is characterized as discipleship – that is a process of following the way of the guru. A guru awakens dormant spiritual knowledge within the pupil. Gurus are respected people who are deemed to have what might be called saintly qualities. The true guru is characterized in the Upanishads in terms of five signs that become apparent in the disciple: knowledge flourishes, sorrow diminishes, joy wells up without reason, abundance dawns and all of a person’s talents become manifest. The famous late-nineteenthcentury Hindu teacher, Swami Vivekananda, noted that there are many incompetent gurus. He went on to say that a true guru understood the spirit of the scriptures, had a pure character and should be selfless without seeking either fame or money. A number of modern Hindu gurus have become well known beyond Hinduism. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918–2008) was famous for his connections with The Beatles and is associated with introducing Transcendental Meditation. Sai Baba (1926– 2011) founded the Sathya Sai organization which sponsored free hospitals, water projects and schools, but also faced accusations of fraud and sexual misconduct. Maharaj Ji (1900–66) founded the Divine Light Mission in 1960 to give structure to a growing spiritual movement. There was a strong emphasis on the unity of all religions and on world peace. Rajneesh (1930–90) had a particularly strong following in the West and influenced New Age spiritual thinking. Four major, and contrasting, figures who have made a major impact on Hinduism and its direction over the last hundred years or so may be taken as examples of influential teachers. These are Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Vinoba Bhave.

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Ramakrishna Ramakrishna (1836–86) came from a poor Brahmin family in Bengal. He became a noted teacher and perhaps the most famous Hindu mystic of the nineteenth century. Although he was literate and attended school, Ramakrishna had little interest in formal education. He reputedly had ecstatic experiences when as young as six years old and relished his contact with ascetics and spiritual teachers who passed through his home village. He became well versed in the scriptures, and his trance-like states became gradually more frequent. Eventually, his older brother moved to Calcutta to serve as a priest and Ramakrishna followed him as an assistant. When his brother died in 1856, Ramakrishna succeeded him as the priest of the Kali temple. In the Tantra tradition, Kali is the goddess of time and change and the consort of, or arguably the feminine expression of, Shiva. While technically married, Ramakrishna remained celibate and became a monastic sanyassi. His wife Sarada Devi became a leading figure in his spiritual movement. Ramakrishna was initiated into Tantra which is difficult to describe accurately. It has esoteric and even sexual forms but essentially teaches the reality rather than the illusory nature of the material world. It seeks to break down the barriers between the spiritual and mundane-bodily aspects of life. However, Ramakrishna also carefully distinguished between the dark forces of the material world, such as evil passions or selfish action, and the higher forces such as selfless action, spiritual virtue, love and devotion. Ramakrishna was also trained in the non-dualist Advaita Vedanta form of Hinduism. Ramakrishna was something of a universalist who developed a sympathetic relationship with both Christianity and Islam. It was through one of his Christian contacts in Calcutta that he was introduced to Narendra Nath Datta who became his disciple and a monk and eventually adopted the name Swami Vivekananda.3

Swami Vivekananda As just noted, one of Ramakrishna’s best-known and influential pupils was Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902). Vivekananda was

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born in Kolkata (then Calcutta), the son of a Bengali aristocratic family. His original name was Narendra Nath Datta and the name Swami Vivekananda was adopted later as his monastic title. Even at an early age Vivekananda became deeply interested in the Hindu scriptures as well as in Western philosophy. His spiritual journey took him via Freemasonry eventually to study with the mystic Ramakrishna after meeting him at a lecture in 1881. Before taking this step, Vivekananda had something of a struggle with the more ecstatic aspects of Ramakrishna. After his father’s sudden death, Vivekananda more wholeheartedly embraced the spiritual path. Ramakrishna in turn became terminally ill and Vivekananda came to lead the community of monks, taking vows in 1886. However, in 1888 Vivekananda left to become a wandering sanyassi and travelled across India for the next five years. During this time, he developed a deep sympathy for the poor and resolved to work on their behalf. Ramakrishna had previously taught him that service of others was the most perfect worship of God. His religious sympathies were inclusive. He mixed freely with Christians and Muslims as well as taking Jesus Christ as one of his life models. He also carried with him, along with the Bhagavad Gita, the latemedieval Christian spiritual text, The Imitation of Christ. From 1893 to 1897, Vivekananda left for an extended visit to the West, fi rst attending and speaking at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago where he made a huge impression. Subsequently, Vivekananda toured the United States and England to give lectures and attracted a range of Western followers whom he taught the Vendanta as a religious-humanist philosophy. During all of this time he remained in contact with the monks in India, sending them funds as well as spiritual advice. Vivekananda returned to India in 1897 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta dedicated to social service of various kinds including combating poverty, contesting the caste system and promoting industry. Apart from the original Ramakrishna math (or monastery), he founded two other monasteries. From 1899 to 1900 Vivekananda paid a second visit to England and the United States, where he founded Vedanta Societies and an ashram, and then addressed the Paris Congress of Religions. On his return to India, despite poor health, Vivekananda continued to coordinate the work of the Ramakrishna Mission and to undertake pilgrimages to Varanasi and Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha) is said to have

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attained enlightenment. He eventually died while meditating in July 1902. According to Vivekananda, the Vedanta taught that all humans are potentially divine. The goal of human life is to make this divinity manifest both inwardly and outwardly. We do this through worship, work or philosophy. However, religious doctrines, rituals and temples are only secondary manifestations of religion. Following his teacher Ramakrishna, Vivekananda taught unequivocally that serving our fellow human beings, particularly the poor and despised, is to serve God and therefore is the deepest meaning of religion. For him, the Hindu Vedanta implied that no one can be truly free until all humans are free. Vivekananda not only contested British imperial rule while having many British friends and followers but also maintained that the elimination of poverty was the only basis for true nationhood. The Ramakrishna Mission which continues to promote Swami Vivekananda’s Vedanta Movement currently conducts extensive work in a wide range of social contexts. Examples are health care, work with the handicapped, disaster relief, involvement in rural development, countering the impact of caste and in combatting communal conflict, setting up youth movements and promoting vocational training and education at all levels.4

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) is widely known as the founder in 1926 of the well-known Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the then French settlement of Pondicherry in South India. He was also the inspiration for the foundation in 1968 by his collaborator and successor, Mirra Richards (known as ‘The Mother’) of the international township of Auroville. The town, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is dedicated to world peace and has over 2,000 members from many countries. Aurobindo Ghosh, like Vivekananda, was born in Calcutta, was sent to England to be educated and then studied at Cambridge University. He subsequently entered the Indian Civil Service in which he served for a number of years. Eventually he became involved in nationalist politics and was imprisoned by the British for writing against imperial rule. There he was visited by Vivekananda and had a number of spiritual experiences which led him to leave politics

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and to immerse himself in spirituality. He moved to Pondicherry in 1910. After spending four years in virtual seclusion practising the way of yoga, Aurobindo started a monthly journal in which he published a series of important spiritual works. In later life he revised these in book form. Gradually Aurobindo also attracted followers and the Ashram was founded in 1926, the same year that he adopted the title Sri Aurobindo. During the subsequent period up until his death in 1950, Sri Aurobindo wrote thousands of letters of spiritual guidance to his disciples, later published in three volumes, edited his magazine essays into a book and completed the Savitri, a great spiritual poem. Sri Aurobindo’s essential spiritual vision was inspired by his study of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, by years of meditative practice and insight as well as by aspects of modern science. His major work, The Life Divine, synthesizes Western philosophy and Hindu spirituality plus his own personal spiritual insights. It focuses on the nature of the divine, human existence and how to overcome our divided nature, how to reach higher consciousness and the possibilities and means of human transformation. Sri Aurobindo promoted what he referred to as integral yoga which sought not merely to enhance spirit but to do so in such a way as to transform normal existence. The divine, and union with the divine, is the medium for overall transformation. The great historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, saw Sri Aurobindo as one of the most authentic representatives of the long Indian spiritual tradition. Overall, Sri Aurobindo was immensely influential in India and the West, not least on the human potential movement. Ken Wilber, the major American writer who bridges the worlds of developmental psychology, philosophy and mysticism, acknowledges the influence on him of Sri Aurobindo.5

Vinoba Bhave Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982), sometimes prefi xed as ‘Acharya’ or religious teacher, was both a leading spiritual teacher and a prominent political figure. He was born in Maharashtra but then went to Gujarat to study. From an early age he was deeply inspired by the Hindu scriptures, especially the Bhagavad Gita,

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the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. After meeting Mohandas Gandhi and corresponding with him, Bhave founded an ashram in 1921 based on Gandhi’s principles of non-violence and simplicity. He remained an intentional celibate all his life. Bhave’s spiritual life and political career were not distinct but interwoven. For example, he was imprisoned by the British imperial authorities in 1932 for conspiring against colonial rule. During his six months in jail he lectured to his fellow prisoners on the Bhagavad Gita. Bhave believed that the inspiration for his talks came from a divine source. These talks were later published as a book, Talks on the Gita. Until about 1940, Bhave was not known nationally but in that year Gandhi issued a statement commending him as a major exponent of the non-violent philosophy of resistance. He took an active role in the Quit India Movement. His later political involvements were more controversial because it was felt that he was too uncritical of the policies of Indira Gandhi and the Congress party. After India became independent, Bhave started the Bhoodan Movement (1951) which encouraged rich landowners to donate land to the poor for them to cultivate. He believed that any lasting solution to the prevailing social and poverty problems needed to have a clear spiritual foundation, not least one that embraced the values of compassion and non-violence. This philosophy pervaded his Sarvodaya movement for the uplifting of all people. Apart from his essays on the Bhagavad Gita, and a translation of the text into the Marathi language, he had a generous understanding of religion and also wrote on the Qur’an and on the essence of Christianity.6

Conclusion While Hinduism is the dominant religious force in India, we have seen that it is a varied and even confusing mixture of different belief systems, scriptures, philosophies, attitudes to the everyday world, spiritual practices and esotericism. This makes it very difficult to summarize. Indeed, it is best to describe Hinduism as a broad ‘religious culture’ rather than as a sharply defi ned religion with clear boundaries. Interestingly, one result is that it is easy to pick and mix from the rich variety of worldviews and

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practices and this has enabled aspects of Hinduism, sometimes explicitly religious and sometimes not, to be adopted in the Western world. Well-known examples are mantra meditation, the physical postures of Hatha yoga and the concept of the guru or wise teacher.

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CHAPTER NINE

Buddhist spirituality The religion of Buddhism originated in India and derives in some respects from Hinduism. However, it is fundamentally a variety of traditions based on the life and teachings attributed to a person called Siddhartha Gautama who lived in North India between the mid-sixth and mid-fifth centuries bce. He eventually became known as ‘the Buddha’ or the enlightened one. There have been debates as to whether Buddhism should be described as a philosophy rather than a religion because some interpretations suggest that it positively denies the existence of a transcendent deity. As we shall see, such a defi nitively atheistic, as opposed to a non-theistic, position is itself questionable. Also, there are other devotional and transcendent elements to Buddhism which make it entirely appropriate to describe it as a religion. There are two main branches of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism (known as the School of the Elders) is widespread in Sri Lanka, Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia. Mahayana Buddhism (known as the Great Vehicle) is found in various forms in Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan and includes Zen. Because of its plurality of teachings and practices, and because ‘belonging’ can be variously defi ned, it is difficult to be precise about the number of Buddhist adherents. However, whatever the numbers, Buddhism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. It is now to be found across the world and probably numbers somewhere between 350 million and 550 million people. It is also arguably the world religion that is most intensely focused on spirituality rather than on dogmatic belief systems.

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Origins The foundations of Buddhism and of Buddhist spirituality originate, as the name suggests, with the religious figure known as the Buddha. The precise details of the life story of a person entitled ‘the Buddha’ are not entirely clear in that the traditions about him are broadly mythic and therefore do not conform to contemporary historical norms. However, in general terms, it is widely accepted by scholars that a person originally called Siddhartha Gautama (meaning a member of the Gautama clan) did indeed exist. The following elements of his life are generally thought to be the case. Siddhartha seems to have been a royal prince who was born around the fifth century bce somewhere near the present-day border of India and Nepal. He renounced his wealthy background in search of deeper fulfilment. After studying under various teachers, he tried to follow his own spiritual path by means of ascetic mortification. However, eventually he rejected this because he discovered that it offered no solution to the problem of human suffering. He then adopted what became known as the Middle Way or the way of moderation. As legend has it, Siddhartha achieved enlightenment after a night of intense struggle sitting in meditation under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya in the modern-day Indian state of Bihar. He eventually became known as the ‘Buddha’ or the ‘enlightened one’. The Buddha soon attracted followers and founded a monastic grouping. He spent the remainder of his life teaching the path of enlightenment and travelling extensively throughout Northeast India. It is believed that he died at the age of about 80 around 483 bce.

Fundamental teachings It seems to be the case that the Buddha made a quite conscious attempt to avoid the theoretical dogmas of other world religions. For him, what was essential was to be able to offer effective teachings about the spiritual journey. Whatever he considered to be unrelated to that ultimate objective was therefore excluded from his teachings as unnecessary or unhelpful. It is sometimes asserted that the Buddha taught that there was no God. However, to assert that Buddhism is fundamentally atheistic and that it actively denies the existence of a God or Gods

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is inaccurate even if individual Buddhist adherents may be atheists. To be more precise, the Buddha seems to have denied the existence of a creator God, from whom the universe arose and on whom the universe is completely dependent. This concept and other traditional theistic beliefs (e.g. that we are of necessity bound to interact with or be obedient to a personal God) are considered to be a hindrance in the quest for a release from suffering and the attainment of ultimate liberation and enlightenment, or nirvana. The Buddha did not set out actively to disprove the existence of the divine and Buddhism as a whole has not spent time in systematic arguments about the subject. Rather, the Buddhist religion is consciously anti-speculative and anti-dogmatic. What is clear is that the Buddha and Buddhism affi rm that we are not dependent on any God for our salvation. Some Buddhist teachers underline that the notion of God is not entirely incompatible with Buddhism. Equally, some variants of Buddhist philosophy express a belief in a primal and eternal Buddha who represents the omnipresent enlightenment within the universe and, indeed, is symbolic of the underlying nature of the universe as a whole. On a positive note, the Buddha’s teachings were intended to be a recipe for all sentient beings to become free from the suffering of material existence, to escape the otherwise inevitable cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara) and ultimately to achieve liberation and enlightenment (nirvana). Samsara arises from our actions in the present life that are a result of our ignorance (karma) and which cause our suffering and dissatisfaction. This state of ignorance is not the same as the concept of sinfulness in the Abrahamic religions. It therefore does not demand divine forgiveness, and liberation from such a state is a more impersonal process. The ideal of enlightenment implies that we eventually overcome ignorance. This ignorance means the ways in which we misunderstand the true nature of existence. Thus, the Buddha is said to have taught that there were three marks or characteristics of existence. These may be loosely described as foundational Buddhist ‘doctrines’. The fi rst mark of existence is ‘Impermanence’. All phenomena and all our experiences are contingent and contextual and therefore impermanent. As a consequence, nothing has a fi xed nature but everything is in flux. The mistake is to become attached to things as they are and the result of this is suffering. Thus, the second mark of existence is ‘Suffering’. This implies a

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state of disquiet, dissatisfaction or frustration. Finally, the third mark of existence is ‘No self’. This implies that a true understanding of reality leads us to realize that no phenomenon, including the human person, has an independent ‘self’ – an ‘I’ or an ‘it’. Overall, Buddhist spirituality promotes a commitment to (or an invitation to ‘take refuge in’) what are known as the Three Jewels – that is, the Buddha, the teachings (the Dharma) and the community (the Sangha). The different schools of Buddhism vary somewhat in their teachings about the nature of the path to liberation from suffering and the practices that assist this path. However, these teachings may be summarized in the famous notion of the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths are the main conceptual framework for Buddhist teaching. First, there is the truth of suffering which underlies life. This suffering has a number of dimensions: the simple fact of growing old, declining and dying; the stress caused by clinging to things that are constantly changing; and the sense that material reality does not measure up to our expectations or hopes. Second, the origin of this suffering is our material craving for ‘things’ caused by our ignorance of the true nature of reality. Third, it is possible to overcome suffering by achieving true understanding and proper discipline. Fourth and fi nally, there is an eightfold path that leads towards the cessation of suffering in an ultimate state of nirvana. These Four Noble Truths are then elaborated by the Buddhist teaching on the ‘no-self’ that has just been mentioned. At depth, this teaching implies that there is actually no pure essence (or ‘spirit’) in human beings or in anything else which has its own independent and permanent existence and which is analogous to the Western concept of the ‘soul’ or to the Hindu idea of ‘atman’. Thus, nirvana, or fi nal liberation, is the ultimate extinction of suffering in a state of enlightenment about the true nature of reality. In this state, the independent self is recognized as an illusory aspect of worldly existence. Nirvana is not an encounter with a transcendent God in heaven but is the absence of all separate identity, and thus is the achievement of ultimate tranquillity through becoming an accurate reflection of our true nature. In Buddhism, because there is no personal creator God, destiny is described in terms of freedom from passions or attachments, enlightenment, happiness and the achievement of the ‘true self’ in

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the state of nirvana. Unlike the Abrahamic faiths, where destiny relates to an individual self and personal eternal salvation, nirvana is much more enigmatic. It points beyond concepts of being or nonbeing. However, understood correctly, the concept of nirvana is not purely an absence of something or a state of negation. Rather, it expresses a notion of supreme freedom and therefore of happiness. The ultimate fate of those people who achieve the goal of nirvana is left unanswered because it is seen as a distracting speculation without any possibility of fi nal resolution. In this sense, Buddhism offers a middle path between a belief in individual immortality and a belief that death is the end and the point at which humans are simply annihilated.

Sources of spirituality In broad terms, the sources of Buddhism and its spirituality are textual or scriptural. These are varied, and different schools of Buddhism give priority to different texts. Most adherents and scholars agree that there is no single sacred or central text or ‘scripture’ that is venerated or used by all Buddhist schools. In this sense, Buddhism is wholly unlike the three Abrahamic religions. The attitude to the nature of texts also varies between veneration (the text is sacred in itself) and scholarly (the text is to be explored and interpreted for the practical teachings and spiritual practices it offers). In broad terms, Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand and more generally in Southeast Asia is deemed to be the oldest and more conservative school of Buddhism – hence the designation ‘School of the Elders’. This school of Buddhism honours as defi nitive the texts that are known as the Pali Canon. The various texts of the Canon contain, fi rst of all, rules to be followed by Buddhist nuns and monks together with explanations and justifications. Another text, known as the Sutta Pitaka, is reputed to contain the discourses of the Buddha himself. The fi nal part of the Canon consists of systematic commentaries on, and defi nitions of, the Buddha’s teachings. The Mahayana school embraces the Buddhism of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The Buddhism of North India, Nepal, Tibet and Mongolia is generally included in Mahayana, although

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some view it as a third tradition, Vajrayana, which embraces tantric practice as well as some elements of folk religion and local devotions. The Mahayana tradition focuses on the texts known as the Mahayana Sutras. These are held to be the original teachings of the Buddha. Some six hundred sutras survive either in Sanskrit or in Tibetan and Chinese versions. It is said by proponents that these sutras describe the Buddha’s more advanced teachings in relation to the liberation of all sentient beings from samsara.

Leading a spiritual life The fourth of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism is that there is an eightfold path that leads towards the cessation of suffering in a state of nirvana. This ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ is the basis of the spiritual journey. The Eightfold Path is a set of factors or conditions that are seen as interconnected rather than as a matter of selection and choice. They must be developed together so that suffering may cease. The Eightfold Path is then clustered into three groups of what are known as ‘higher trainings’. The fi rst group, or higher training, is Wisdom which purifies the mind (prajna). This includes the two paths of ‘right understanding’, which means seeing reality as it truly is rather than as it appears to be, and ‘right thought’ or ‘right intention’ which means renunciation and becoming free from craving. The second group is Ethical Conduct or abstention from unethical deeds (sila). This includes the three paths of ‘right speech’, free from lying, slander and malicious gossip, ‘right action’ which is to avoid killing, stealing and broadly to act in a non-harmful way and fi nally ‘right living’ by not using wrong or harmful means. The third and final group of higher trainings is known as Concentration. This includes the three paths of ‘right effort’ or striving to purify oneself from evil thoughts, ‘right mindfulness’ or becoming properly aware of how things really are, including the nature of one’s own body and mind, and ‘right concentration’ through the disciplined practice of meditation (Samadhi). In summary, the Buddhist seeks to reach nirvana through a combination of moral behaviour, concentration and wisdom. Because an unavoidable part of worldly reality is impermanence, a key aspect of leading a spiritual life and following the spiritual

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path is a growth in non-attachment to material things. This nonattachment also relates to how we perceive the true self. One goal of the spiritual path is to be transformed from self-preoccupation and an egocentric life. In a related way, the Buddhist spiritual path seeks to liberate practitioners from the suffering and discontent caused by a false craving for the multiplicity of ‘things’ that material existence offers us. Thus, while the Noble Eightfold Path promotes the purification of the mind and a form of mental discipline, Buddhist spirituality is also deeply moral as it teaches abstention from unethical behaviour and the ideal of universal compassion.1

Spiritual practices The aim of Buddhist spiritual practice is to achieve transformed spiritual insight, to become free from illusion and to learn universal compassion. Some versions of Buddhism practise devotions such as bowing, making offerings to statues of the Buddha, pilgrimages and chanting. However, the most common spiritual practice in Buddhism is meditation. ‘Mindfulness meditation’ and the Zen practice of zazen are particularly famous in the West. Meditation is not an end in itself but is directed at peacefulness, mindfulness and compassionate wisdom. The emphasis on ‘emptiness’ (sunyata) is sometimes assumed to refer simply to a meditative emptying of the mind. However, more properly the notion of ‘emptiness’ has more philosophical implications. It means that we are to come to a realization that nothing possesses the ‘fullness’ of autonomous identity. The practice of Mindfulness Meditation is nowadays employed in a variety of fields beyond religion, especially in Western countries. Thus in psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry, it is seen as a practice that can help alleviate various psychological conditions or dependencies. More broadly, it is thought to be a good recipe for relieving stress and worry. In addition, Mindfulness Meditation has been adopted in parts of the business world as a way of facilitating self-mastery as well as the development of more sensitive and effective leadership. There is an emphasis on the importance of developing attentiveness and on cultivating active listening. Some companies now provide training programmes in mindfulness and maintain meditation rooms. Other contexts where Mindfulness

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Meditation has been introduced include prisons where it is used as a way of reducing violence, in the American military as a part of providing coping strategies and in some American school systems as a dimension of student moral and psychological development. Simple methods are adopted such as watching our breathing or maintaining our attentiveness to some chosen object. All of these adaptations of Mindfulness Meditation are admirable on their own terms. However, many Buddhist adherents are concerned with the fact that the benefits sought in the use of such practices in social or professional contexts are purely worldly and arguably are centred too much on the enhancement of the self. In many of these contexts, the relationship of Mindfulness Meditation to Buddhism is not acknowledged at all. Nor are the underlying spiritual or ethical values that underpin Buddhist meditative practice addressed. Within Buddhism itself, the development of mindfulness as a spiritual faculty is intimately associated with seeking the path of liberation from false ways of seeing and of achieving fi nal enlightenment and therefore nirvana. Equally, the cultivation of mindfulness counteracts a natural greed for ‘things’ which then trap us in a false sense of the here and now. The point is that mindfulness is not merely concerned with the achievement of calm but is even more importantly related to developing the virtue of true discernment and practical wisdom. An important element of specifically Buddhist approaches to mindfulness also includes memory. This is an active recollection of, or calling to mind, what is of deepest importance in life. For some Buddhist adherents, this includes a specifically religious action of being mindful of the Buddha, of praying to the Buddha, of chanting the name of the Buddha (perhaps several thousand times a day and sometimes with the aid of beads) or of chanting the sutras. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is also the practice of visualization meditation as an aid to recollection. In the Japanese Zen tradition, fi nding the ‘Buddha nature’ (or the noblest qualities we possess) is particularly associated with specific forms of meditative practice as the way to self-realization. The key is that enlightenment comes not through intellectual reasoning but through meditation and a path of self-imposed discipline and ethical behaviour. The best-known form is called ‘zazen’ or literally sitting meditation. While superficially this calms the body and the mind, the process of concentration is intended

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to lead to insight about the true nature of things and of existence. Zazen is the heart of Zen Buddhist practice. ‘Sitting’ at its deepest level is to suspend rational thinking or judgement and simply to let the thoughts that come and go in the mind pass by without giving them active attention, even the active attention of struggling to dismiss them. The practitioners either watch their breath coming and going, or quietly observe their thoughts as they arise within consciousness and go away, or focus on a conundrum given by the teacher (known as a koan) that is deliberately beyond rational solutions. The setting for meditation and the posture adopted are important aids in the process of sitting meditation. Often the practice is undertaken in a corporate context, for example, in a meditation hall (zendo), rather than as a solitary activity. The meditators sit on cushions, using either a full lotus or half lotus leg posture with hands held together over the stomach and with an erect back. In some cases, one of the zen masters will pass along the line of meditators and will straighten people’s backs against a vertical stick where necessary. The period of meditation is often formalized before and at the end of the period of meditation with a bow in the direction of their seat and another towards fellow meditators. Equally, a bell may be rung to begin and to end the meditation period. In some contexts, periods of sitting meditation are interspersed with slow walking meditation.

The sangha The third of the ‘three jewels’ in which the Buddhist adherent is to take refuge is sangha or the community. As we shall see in a moment, there are explicit forms of monasticism in Buddhism but the concept of sangha is broader than monastic life and embraces the community of all people who have committed themselves to pursuing the ‘three jewels’ and have achieved some degree of spiritual enlightenment. Buddhist monasticism is one of the earliest surviving forms in world religions. Structured Buddhist monasticism traces its origins to the Buddha himself and is a major institution in Buddhism. The Buddha is reputed to have founded a sangha or community of ordained monks and nuns. Although mainly communal in form, the Buddhist monastic form of life developed from the lives and

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practices of earlier, broadly Hindu, wandering and eremitical ascetics. Indeed, early Buddhist monastics seem to have travelled around the villages. Under the Buddha, the monastic sangha was dependent on the wider community for food and clothes. Reciprocally, the monks and nuns guided others on the spiritual path. Eventually, buildings and gardens were given by wealthy donors, initially for the monastics to shelter during the rainy season. Out of this grew more permanent housing, often within gardens or parks, known as an arama. After the lifetime of the Buddha, monasticism moved towards a primarily communitarian form similar to later Christian styles. There are a large number of disciplinary rules which prescribe in detail the ways for monastics to live and how they are to relate to each other. Buddhist monasticism is divided into two assemblies, that of male monks and that of female nuns. The latter were not originally part of the Buddha’s followers. However, during his lifetime it seems that eventually women did become practitioners. It is said that these women included his stepmother. Generally, Buddhist monks and nuns begin their commitment with somewhere between a year and five years as a samanera or novice. Some monks enter the ascetic life as young as eight years old while women more generally begin the process as adults. Full ordination usually takes place only once a monk or nun is 20 years old or more. In certain parts of the Buddhist world, there is also a tradition of short-term or temporary monastic life. The monastic lifestyle is meant to be simple in order to encourage proper focus. There is often only one meal a day. With some local exceptions, for example, in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, all Buddhist monastics are celibate. The Christian monastic notion of the importance of obedience to an abbot, abbess or other superior is not present in Buddhism. In place of this there is the virtue of respect for senior members of the sangha and there are also teacher–student relationships within monastic groups. An abbot or abbess in Buddhist monasticism is essentially an administrator who oversees the daily running of a monastery. Decision making is usually collective through the medium of regular meetings of the community. In Buddhism, the approach to asceticism varies between the different schools. Theravada Buddhism tends to reject extreme asceticism because it stands in the way of our ultimate freedom from

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suffering (nirvana). The emphasis is instead on moderation where the needs of the body are met but luxury is avoided. Deprivation for its own sake is also avoided as it may actually indicate an attachment to renunciation in itself. Mahayana Buddhism, including Japanese Zen monasticism, has a slightly different approach to asceticism. Vegetarianism plays a significant role in China and Japan. The underlying reasons are many but one factor is that daily begging by ascetics, where one is bound to accept and eat whatever is provided, has largely disappeared. Mahayana Buddhist monks and nuns generally have their own kitchens where the diet is more controlled. A philosophy of self-sacrifice and austerity is also more common in Mahayana monastic practice. The primary role of Buddhist monks and nuns within wider Buddhism is to be the principal preservers of both doctrines and disciplines. Their lifestyle focuses on the study of the scriptures, the practice of meditation and a moral and austere life. In this way, they are also expected to provide a spiritual model for the wider Buddhist community.

Sainthood Buddhism, like all major religions, highlights certain individuals as ‘saints’ or the equivalent. On the one hand, such people are outstanding individuals who uniquely embody the values of the religion and have somehow risen above the limitations of mortality. On the other hand, they are held up as exemplars of, for instance, ‘the Buddhist life’, and their virtues are to be imitated as best one can. 2 Buddhists do not consider Siddhartha Gautama to have been the only Buddha in the sense of a fully enlightened or liberated being. In Theravada Buddhism, such a person is known as an arahant. After several lifetimes of seeking to lead a spiritual life, they are no longer caught in the cycle of death and rebirth. Some, but not all, arahants are also capable of teaching others. In Mahayana Buddhism the Buddha, and other celestial Buddhas, live on in another non-material plane of existence where they are able to help the enlightenment of all beings. In addition, Mahayana Buddhism believes in what are known as bodhisattvas or enlightened beings. The bodhisattva is both a

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wise and enlightened person and also someone who has achieved the virtue of deep compassion for all sentient beings. He or she therefore vows to continue to be reborn simply in order to help all other beings to become enlightened. There is therefore an ethical dimension to ‘sainthood’ which includes the vital quality of selflessness.

Engaged Buddhism The movement known as ‘Engaged Buddhism’ is a particularly striking contemporary expression of the strong ethical basis of Buddhism. It is sometimes referred to as Buddhist liberation spirituality. This is a diffuse contemporary movement or trend that seeks ways of relating Buddhist meditative practice and the Buddha’s teachings (dharma) to situations of social injustice, economic suffering and environmental issues. The concept was originally coined by the Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (born 1926) who was inspired by a humanist Buddhist reform movement in China. The concept was originally entitled as the equivalent of ‘Worldly Buddhism’. Thich Nhat Hanh studied comparative religion at Princeton and lectured at Columbia University but returned to Vietnam in 1963. There he and his monastic community sought to respond to the immense suffering caused by the Vietnam War. They believed that their response was a central part of their classic Buddhist meditative and mindfulness practice rather than something that was separate from it. Thich Nhat Hanh later visited the United States again and met Dr Martin Luther King whom he encouraged to denounce the Vietnam War. With the signing of the fi nal Vietnam peace accords in 1973, Thich Nhat Hanh was refused permission to live in Vietnam and has lived in exile in a monastery in France. He founded a number of monasteries and Buddhist practice centres in France, the United States and Germany. Finally, in 2005 Thich Nhat Hanh was permitted to revisit Vietnam and even to teach there. He visited again in 2007 even though some Vietnamese Buddhist groups considered this as a betrayal because of the imprisonment of some Buddhist leaders by the Vietnamese government. Thich Nhat Hanh has been highly influential in spreading Buddhist spirituality in the West where the notion of Engaged

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Buddhism has found a ready audience. He is active in the global peace movement and promotes non-violence as a medium of confl ict resolution. Broadly speaking, his teachings combine elements of Zen teaching with elements of wider Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and Western psychology. Thich Nhat Hanh has published some hundred books including one that outlines the 14 precepts of Engaged Buddhism and his overall philosophy. 3

Prayudh Payutto Another Buddhist teacher who relates spirituality to social engagement is the Thai monk Venerable Prayudh Payutto (born 1938). Prayudh suffered from severe ill-health as a child and continues to have some problems to this day. He left high school to enter a monastery aged 13 not least because in the monastery he could receive further education without the other usual strenuous school activities. He was ordained as a monk in 1962 and in the same year gained a bachelor’s degree in Buddhist Studies. After further studies, he became a university associate dean. Although he served as a deputy abbot of a monastery from 1973 to 1976, he resigned in order to pursue academic work. Prayudh is an intellectual and extensive writer as well as the current abbot of a temple. He is considered to be among the most outstanding Buddhist scholars to have come out of Thai Buddhism. He is a notable scholar of the Pali Canon of texts that are so central to the Theravada tradition. He takes quite a strict line against those people who he believes are damaging the integrity of the texts in order to serve their own narrow interests. Among other areas of writing, he has contributed notably to the engagement between Buddhism and contemporary social questions. His books explore such themes as the status of women, sexual ethics, the environment, education, peace (for which he received the 1994 UNESCO prize for Peace Education) and sustainable development. Prayudh is a strong exponent of the view that the Buddhist path is the most effective for achieving both peace and sustainable development. He has also argued that the Buddhist understanding of natural law really forms a basis for modern science.4

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The Dalai Lama A third and fi nal important Buddhist teacher in recent years is the present 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935). He has been a leading global figure in interreligious dialogue through the medium of his Buddhist spiritual teaching and practice. The 14th Dalai Lama has been named one of the most spiritually influential people in the world. The role of the Dalai Lama is as the high lama or senior monk of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Tibetan Buddhist belief, each Dalai Lama is the latest reincarnation in a long line of teachers who are understood to be the manifestations of the original bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara. The actual title Dalai Lama is said to have fi rst been accorded by the Mongols in 1578 to the then representative of the line of teachers. This account is contested by the present Dalai Lama and by other Tibetan Buddhists who are concerned to maintain against Chinese pressure that Tibet has historically been an independent country. Conventionally, Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama by a range of other names such as ‘Precious Victor’, ‘Presence’ or ‘Wish Fulfi lling Gem’. The designation ‘His Holiness’ was originally a relatively recent Western practice and echoes the traditional form of address for the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church. In practical terms, this line of Dalai Lamas began as spiritual teachers but later assumed political authority over the land of Tibet. From the seventeenth century ce until the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, the Dalai Lamas often directed the government of Tibet while based in Lhasa. The 14th and present Dalai Lama came from a farming family in a small village in a part of the Tibetan territory which had been assimilated into China and was originally known by the name Lhamo Dondrub. The traditional search for the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama is said to have been led to his home as the result of various miraculous or visionary signs. The boy was recognized as the authentic reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama when aged only two. After various attempts to prevent his removal to Tibet, Lhamo Dondrub was formally recognized and renamed as Tenzin Gyatso. He was not officially enthroned until he was aged 15. He then gained the monastic equivalent of

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a PhD in Buddhist philosophy but had to flee Tibet in 1959 and has lived ever since in exile in Dharamsala, North India. Apart from his former political leadership of the Tibetan government in exile, from which role he has now retired, he is the author of a number of books, regularly lectures publicly and had a visiting professorship in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Alongside his role as a Buddhist teacher, the Dalai Lama has dedicated himself in significant ways to interfaith dialogue with Christians of all types as well as Jewish teachers and leaders. Going back as far as 1973, the 14th Dalai Lama has met with various Popes both publicly and privately. More recently, he has collaborated in the foundation of Common Ground Project with Muslims. The Dalai Lama is a member of the Board of World Religious Leaders associated with The Elijah Interfaith Institute based in Jerusalem. Importantly, the 14th Dalai Lama has not confi ned himself to spiritual or philosophical matters but, as a spiritual teacher, has engaged with some of the main social and ethical issues of our age. He is notably outspoken in reference to human attitudes to the environment, saying that a concern for ecology should simply be part of our daily life. Equally, he has promoted vegetarianism and compassion to animals. He has also been an advocate of a person-centred approach to health. He also takes a strong stand on the weaknesses of capitalism, describing himself as more authentically Marxist in his social philosophy and moral ethics than many politicians, such as the government in China, who claim to be Communist. The Dalai Lama suggests that such regimes lack the deeper moral values, espoused by the philosophy of Marx, of human solidarity and compassion. More recently, in the face of the acute economic and banking crisis which overtook the Western world, the Dalai Lama has suggested how we should reconstruct our economic systems for the good of all. In terms of world peace, the Dalai Lama has been vocal in promoting non-violence, human rights, religious harmony and overall human tolerance throughout the world. More recently, he has been explicitly critical of fellow Buddhists in Myanmar (Burma) for their violence towards the Muslim minority. In terms of the future of the role of Dalai Lama, the present incumbent has resigned as a political leader in favour of democratically elected members of the Tibetan administration in

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exile. While there is no indication that he will resign as a spiritual leader, he has indicated his wish to return to a simpler monastic existence.

Conclusion In summary, Buddhism traces its fundamental inspiration and values to the teachings of the teacher known as the Buddha in the fifth century bce. The texts and scriptures honoured by both main branches of Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana, are claimed in different ways to originate with the Buddha – as a record of his actual discourses, as summaries of his teachings or as commentaries on his teachings. While the Buddha did not set out actively to disprove the existence of the divine, it is clear that the Buddha was essentially not concerned with the niceties of religious doctrine but simply affi rmed that we are not dependent on a God for our salvation. Instead, the Buddha’s teachings concentrate on the essential question of how all sentient beings may be freed from suffering and from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and achieve ultimate liberation and enlightenment. The concept of enlightenment relates to the ideal of overcoming ignorance – that is, the ways in which we misunderstand the true nature of existence. Buddhist teachings may be summarized by the famous notion of Four Noble Truths. First, there is the truth of suffering which underlies material life. Second, the origin of this suffering is our craving for ‘things’. Third, it is possible to overcome suffering by achieving true understanding and proper discipline. Finally, a Noble Eightfold Path, clustered into the three groups of what are known as ‘higher teachings’, leading towards an ultimate state of nirvana is the basis of the human spiritual journey. In summary, Buddhism teaches that to be liberated from suffering and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and ultimately to reach nirvana or enlightenment necessitates a combination of moral behaviour, meditative concentration and the cultivation of true wisdom.

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CHAPTER TEN

Secular spirituality and contemporary perspectives As we have already seen, although there are question marks about attempts to separate the two categories ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’, the concept of ‘spirituality’ is nevertheless increasingly used outside religious circles. Whether religious or not, people understand spirituality as a quest for values and practices that can be embraced in the pursuit of a meaningful life. ‘Spirituality’ may be related to systems of thought and frameworks of meaning such as philosophy or science. Nowadays, spirituality is regularly discussed in relation to stages of human development from childhood to old age or in relation to key aspects of human identity such as gender and of human behaviour such as sexuality, food and clothing. The impact of the internet and cyberspace on human identity is a further area of reflection in terms of spirituality. At other times, spirituality is associated with human creative activities such as the arts or sport and nature recreation. A significant area of development is the relationship between spirituality and professions such as health care, social work or business. In this context, a major concern is with the relationship between these professions, the concept of service and social and public values. Finally, another area of discussion in relation to both human public identity and social values is spirituality in relation to the urban.

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Non-religious spirituality An increasingly important category of contemporary spirituality embraces what are referred to as ‘secular’ or non-religious approaches. The word ‘secular’ was not originally opposed to ‘religious’ as the Latin word saeculum simply means ‘the present age’ or ‘the here and how’ and was used in Christian thought. However, in contemporary usage, ‘secular spirituality’ covers the ways spirituality is used in non-religious contexts. The four styles or ‘types’ of spirituality that have been described previously also appear in a variety of ways in non-religious spirituality. Arguably, the ascetical type is in some ways the most obvious. For example, there is a widespread non-religious practice of meditation as a disciplined way aimed at achieving mindfulness. Although ‘Mindfulness Meditation’ is derived from Buddhism as we saw in the last chapter, its religious value system is rarely mentioned in psychotherapeutic practice when it is recommended. The discipline of yoga, and specifically Hatha yoga, is also widely practised in ways wholly detached from its roots in Hindu religion. Self-discipline in relation to natural resources, for example, our use of heat and light, also appears in various forms of contemporary ecological spirituality. A kind of asceticism may also be found among those who seek a spiritual vision for sport beyond mere relaxation or the disciplines of training. For example, as we shall see, there are references to self-transcendence in nature sports such as mountaineering or skiing. The mystical ‘type’ of spirituality is also present in experiences of the sublime in nature recreation, in some modern understandings of encounters with wonder in science and strikingly in approaches to the impact of music on the human spirit. The active-practical ‘type’ fi nds a place, for example, in the emerging spirituality of social work in reference to respectful work with clients. Finally, the critical-prophetic ‘type’ is arguably detectable in some discussions of spirituality in relation to renewed visions of human care in the health professions and in the emphasis on public virtue in such areas as business and economics, urban planning, international peace and social justice and even in calls to renew the world of politics. The search for non-religious spirituality also embraces a desire for what might be called ‘secular saints’ – a category that has become

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increasingly common in recent years. The term ‘secular saint’ refers to someone who is respected either for their selfless contribution to great causes or for their inspiring life. Some secular saints may also be sages and wise teachers. One of the most obvious examples of a secular saint during the last century is Mohandas Gandhi (1869– 1948), the prominent leader of the Indian independence Movement under British imperial rule. He espoused a philosophy of strict non-violence based on his Hindu religious principles. Gandhi is given the title ‘Mahatma’ from the Sanskrit word for ‘Great Soul’ and, like the festivals of religious saints, his birthday on 2nd October is commemorated in India as a national holiday. A further modern example might be Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929–68), the leading figure of the American Civil Rights Movement and a disciple of Gandhi’s non-violence. Sometimes the status of secular saint is associated with the sacrifice of life for a great cause. This is true of prominent figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who were both assassinated. Many unknown heroes are also sometimes treated as examples of secular sainthood such as the unnamed New York fi re department personnel and police who died trying to help others in the aftermath of 9/11.

Frameworks of meaning: Philosophy Many of the non-religious contexts which use the concept of ‘spirituality’ do not address the question of frameworks of meaning. However, an important alternative to religious frameworks of meaning is the world of philosophy. Again, philosophy and religion should not be seen as mutually exclusive. Many of the greatest philosophers, for example, in European or in Indian cultures, have been religious in some shape or form. Equally, religions like Christianity or Hinduism have valued philosophy as one way of articulating their perceptions of meaning and value. In the past, philosophy has often overlapped with what we would call ‘spirituality’. An important Chinese example is Confucianism. Confucius (551–479 bce) emphasized the importance of cultivating moral virtue, especially the virtues of humanity, civility and decorum. These behaviour values exemplified what it meant to be a truly noble person. For Confucius, proper order and harmony in the world begins with properly ordered relationships within

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the family. From there harmony and virtue spread into wider society. Confucius believed in an underlying philosophy of cosmic harmony and that this was to be reflected in daily affairs. Thus, the ordinary features of everyday material life are sacred. A sense of Heaven or The Ultimate is not entirely absent from the thought of Confucius but his focus is far more on being more truly present in the world. Not surprisingly, Confucianism places a high value on cultural forms, on education, on governance and on agriculture, all of which are seen within the overall life-giving processes of the universe.1 In Western philosophy, ancient Greek Stoicism may be seen as a spiritual way of life of the ascetical type. Among the Stoics, as in some other Greek philosophies, the contemplative life is of paramount importance in relation to the development of moral values. In pursuit of this, people are to free themselves from all that is misaligned in their lives. For the Stoics, the contemplative life sought to connect people with the wider cosmos. ‘Philosophy’ was therefore primarily concerned with making the human will conform to the truth of universal nature. In order to bring about this conformity, people were to undertake intense meditation, to examine their conscience and to live wholly in the present moment by letting go of the past and by imagining a notional future. Interestingly this philosophical movement had a strong presence in Alexandria in Egypt during the early Christian era and had an impact on key figures in the development of early monasticism. Several contemporary philosophers engage with the idea of spirituality. An important example is Pierre Hadot, the eminent French historian of philosophy, who wrote a remarkable study on spirituality and philosophy, Philosophy as a Way of Life. This presents a history of ‘spiritual exercises’ from the Greek philosopher Socrates to the post-modern French thinker Michel Foucault. For Hadot, philosophy is not a purely theoretical discourse but seeks to cultivate the art of living and to achieve the transformation of human existence. He argues that ancient philosophy was fundamentally based on a way of ‘being-in-the-world’. This was not merely focused upon the transformation of each individual person’s life but was also concerned with some sense of universal human community and the pursuit of the ‘common good’, as in Aristotle. If the word ‘philosophy’ implies the love of wisdom, Hadot suggests that true wisdom according to classical Greek and

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Roman philosophy does not merely imply intellectual knowledge but also how we learn to exist more effectively in society.2 Another modern philosopher who is interested in spirituality is the Englishman John Cottingham who engages philosophy with matters of human self-discovery, personal experience and transformative awareness. Several philosophers adopt explicitly atheist or agnostic approaches to spirituality, for example, the Frenchman André Comte-Sponville and the American Robert Solomon. Comte-Sponville argues that atheism is no reason to deny a spiritual or metaphysical dimension to human life. A philosophical approach to spirituality promotes a desire to engage with ‘the whole’ and with human fullness. Finally, Solomon bases what he calls a ‘naturalized spirituality’ on ‘the thoughtful love of life’. He reflects on such themes as eros, trust, the rationality of emotion, confronting tragedy, life as gift, the transformation of the self and fi nally the challenge of confronting death.3

Frameworks of meaning: Science Apart from philosophy, another framework of meaning that has begun to engage with spirituality is the world of science. This will perhaps be surprising to some people because of science’s historic emphasis on the exclusive power of human reason rather than of imagination and its promotion of empirical data as the foundation of all human knowledge. Eminent scientists continue to differ in their views about whether the wonder of nature and the cosmos, progressively revealed as ever more extraordinary and mysterious, leaves room for some underlying transcendent reality. In an earlier age, maverick individuals like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), a French priest, paleontologist and geologist, sought to evoke the mystic elements of science. More recently, a number of scientists have moved away from an emphasis purely on what is ‘provable’. Leading scientists in their various fields admit that they are never ultimately certain but are always ready to respond to ever-expanding knowledge and the production of new theories. This counters a popular misconception about science that uncertainty implies a lack of rigour. On the contrary, many modern scientists suggest that uncertainty is central to their craft. In a new scientific paradigm,

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scientists do not seek fi nal ‘truth’ but test models of understanding in a never-ending process of discovery and refi nement. At its heart, science does not inherently contradict all notions of ‘the holy’, the spiritual or the religious although it is clearly incompatible with all forms of literalism whether religious or, indeed, pseudo-scientific. While science studies natural phenomena, it stands in the face of open-ended mystery when it asks what most deeply ‘nature’ actually is. Contemporary science is not afraid of the numinous even while it refuses to presume that this implies a God or some transcendent power. Whether people approach scientific inquiry through astrophysics and cosmology or through microbiology, they confront deeper questions that counter the certainties of old-fashioned dogmatic materialism such as specifiability, predictability and total analysis. Indeterminacy and unpredictability are an essential part these days of an open-minded scientific quest. A spirituality of science is not merely an intellectual exercise. At its deepest point, science itself provokes awe and demands a creative imagination. Science is not merely analytical but is a form of experience. This allows space for people to make spiritual connections. Indeed, some scientists would say that the secular scientific quest makes its own clear spiritual demands. The boundaries of former certainties have been eroded. There no longer seems to be a single, unmoving cosmos as many people assumed in the past. We now confront the possibility of innumerable galaxies in an ever-expanding version of what we defi ne as ‘the universe’. There is also now a theory that our universe is merely one among many. Such a ‘multiverse’ may be a sequence in which the big bang from which our universe orginates may have resulted from the death of a previous universe and so on perhaps in an infi nite regression. Alternatively a multiverse may be simultaneous. That is, there may be an indefi nable number of parallel universes. Either way, our ‘universe’ may be merely one component in a more mysterious reality. Trying to defi ne the totality of ‘existence’ nowadays seems to be impossibly complex. This leaves us with the profoundest of mysteries, second only to the ultimate mystery of why there is anything at all rather than absolutely nothing. To quote one contemporary American philosopher of science, Holmes Rolston, ‘Nature is now less material, less absolutely spatiotemporal, more astounding, more open, an energetic developmental process’.4

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Human development Another area where there is a growing body of literature on spirituality is psychology and psychotherapy. This often involves a consideration of the question of identity and issues of maturity in relation to holistic spiritual development. In another context, it is not unfair to say that for a range of people in Western countries, therapeutic relationships are effectively replacing religiously based ideas of individual confession to a priest in Christianity or more broadly the role of spiritual guidance as a medium of growth. The psychologist or psychotherapist often becomes a quasi-spiritual guide where non-judgemental acceptance and empathy are deemed to be central values. In the context of an interface between psychology and spiritual development, among the most important psychological works are the influential theories of such people as Abraham Maslow, the writings of Rollo May or Ken Wilbur, who was influenced by Buddhism. In more general terms, psychological writing also explores such themes as states of awareness beyond ‘adjustment’ therapy; self-understanding as the medium for reordering our inner life; therapy as a spiritual process and finally the achievement of a harmonious connectedness with self and others as a response to alienation. Writers like David Fontana explore the engagement between psychology and spirituality and William West conducts a dialogue between psychotherapeutic models and ‘the spiritual’.5 Addictions and recovery from addiction are also treated increasingly as a spiritual issue, and some classic approaches to recovery, such as variations on Twelve-Step programmes, explicitly encourage a personal belief system based on some form of spiritual self-discovery. As we shall see later, even the British Royal College of Psychiatrists has produced a volume on spirituality and spiritual needs. Common to all of these approaches to psychiatry, psychology or therapy is a movement beyond narrowly medical models of treatment in the direction of holistic understandings of therapy. This perspective will be further explored later in reference to spirituality and health care. In terms of human development, contemporary reflection on spirituality also includes the consideration of stages of life such as childhood, education and ageing. Rather than being merely passive

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recipients of their parents’ values and perspectives, children are now understood to be active agents in relation to their own spiritual experience and spiritual knowledge. Current writing on childhood spirituality notes the strong presence of creative thought and play, wonder, fascination with mystery and sheer joy. Childhood research in recent years has also underlined that there is what might be called a mystical predisposition in children which is an important key to their spirituality. For example, in younger children the priority of emotional sensitivity over intellectual reasoning enables the development of an acute perception of ‘the sacred’ in relation to spatial realities, to symbols and to the visual. While adults often tend to interpret children’s worlds as mere fantasy or play, there is in fact a deep layer of meaning available to children simply by existing in their story worlds. This runs contrary to the adult tendency to want to analyse meaning.6 In terms specifically of education, the concept of ‘spiritual development’ has found a place in the English Government Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) documentation on secondary (high school) education. Here ‘spiritual development’ is defi ned as ‘the development of the non-material element of a human being, which animates and sustains us’. The value of including this in the curriculum is: ‘. . . about the development of a sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose. It is about the development of a pupil’s “spirit.”’ 7 If we are to allow spirituality a role in wider reflections about education, ‘the spiritual’ is also linked to the need to nurture in students core social and citizenship values and also to broaden what is understood by the inherent value of ‘learning’ both for individuals and for society more generally. A ‘spirituality of education’ must surely ask what education is for, what it means to be an educated person and what makes for an educated society. Spirituality also fi nds its place in some current thinking about ageing. While gerontology notes the value of spiritual resources in countering the sense of loss in the ageing process, a spirituality of ageing should be much richer than this. For example, a number of eminent humanistic or transpersonal psychologists talk of the possibility of ascending stages of development throughout life, rather than simply decline, culminating in a higher stage in older people. This is associated with some understanding of moral or spiritual integration. For example, in the writings of Erik Fromm

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there is the stage of ‘integrity’, in Lawrence Kohlberg there is the notion of a progressive embracing of Universal Principles and in Abraham Maslow there is the concept of self-actualization. These insights are not simply an attempt to recover respect for the dignity and status of older people. They also promote a retrieval of the notion of the wisdom of age. Indeed, in the models proposed by Fromm, Kohlberg and Maslow, every life stage has a particular task for the person involved in it and important lessons to teach everyone else.8

Identity, gender and sexuality The notion of spirituality has also been connected in recent years with approaches to human identity, particularly questions of gender and sexuality. As we have already noted in Chapter six, the question of gender and spirituality is taken up by writings on feminist spirituality. Until the 1980s, spirituality was discussed in very general terms without reference to the specifics of women’s and men’s experience or to different experiences of human sexuality. However, because spirituality relates to the core of human life, the relationship of gender and sexuality to spirituality is vitally important. The women’s spirituality movement, of which feminist spirituality is an important example, creatively re-imagines this relationship not least by emphasizing the centrality of embodiment to spirituality against older dualistic separations between the body and the spirit and an unbalanced ‘other-worldly’ ethos. A new male spirituality movement also arose in response to the women’s spiritual movement. This emphasizes the spiritual challenges posed to men by stripping away former patriarchal certainties about human identity. Where are men now to look for wisdom? What are men to do by way of spiritual practice? There are several important themes in men’s spirituality. First, there is a more inclusive approach to God or ‘the sacred’. Second, it embraces sexuality and embodiment as authentic spiritual realities. Third, it cultivates the notion of ‘wildness’ or play in contrast to the classic male culture of duty. Fourth, it promotes a counter-intuitive acceptance that life is fluid as against a desire for certainty. Finally, male spirituality seeks the recovery of emotional intelligence. In addition, the ethos of feminist spirituality and male spirituality

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has appealed to some lesbian women and gay men as a way of countering the past exclusion of lesbian and gay identity from any sense of ‘the spiritual’ not to mention its moral condemnation by religious authorities. There has also been some more broadly based reflection on the connections between spirituality and sexuality. In this context, sexuality is no longer treated merely as a psycho-physical reality. Sexuality has a spiritual dimension precisely because it relates to our fundamental human identity. Equally, a balanced valuing of pleasure may indeed be a way to self-transcendence. Such views are sometimes related to a contemporary Western fascination with tantra, adopted from Indian religions. Tantra is very difficult to define but it is essentially an amalgam of esoteric ideas and practices that seek to tap into the energy that is believed to flow through the whole universe.9

Spirituality and social practice Apart from individual identity and human development, spirituality has also been connected in recent years with the question of social practice and also with professional values, especially in the commercial and business world. In terms of social or public values, ‘spirituality’ takes on different forms in specific contexts. However, in broad terms, its increasing use relates to a desire to move discussions beyond a purely mechanistic or pragmatic approach to social systems and behaviour towards some sense of underlying values. Four areas where there is a growing body of reflection and literature are health care, cyberspace, economics and urban theory and practice.

Spirituality and health care Health care is one of the most significant areas where the language of spirituality is increasingly used. There are a number of centres, networks and medical interest groups in North America, the United Kingdom and wider Europe. For example, in the United Kingdom, there are at least three key resources on spirituality and health. The fi rst is an ongoing research project ‘Spirituality, Theology and Health’ at Durham University. There is a Centre for

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Spirituality, Health and Disability at the University of Aberdeen, and fi nally the Royal College of Psychiatrists has a Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group. Europe wide, there is the Swissbased ‘European Network of Research on Religion, Spirituality and Health’. In the United States, there is the well-known Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University, North Carolina.10 The 1999 report from the United States medical schools noted that spirituality is not only a factor that contributes to health but that it expresses a person’s search for ultimate meaning. This may be through participation in religion, family life, naturalism, humanism, rationalism or the arts. The British Royal College of Psychiatry ‘Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group’ suggests that spirituality is the ‘essentially human, personal and interpersonal dimension that integrates and transcends cultural, religious, psychological, social and emotional aspects of the person’. In the context of health care, defi nitions of spirituality overall tend to refer to ‘beliefs about life’. These may include explicitly religious beliefs. Spirituality is seen as helping people to relate to ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ and to ‘the sacred’. In terms of care, spirituality is defi ned as something that offers a sense of purpose or of hope. It also encourages forgiveness and reconciliation as vehicles for moving a person on from experiences of fragmentation to a sense of wholeness. Spirituality not only broadens how we understand ‘healing’ but also expands the experience of healing. This is partly a question of introducing the power of love into the process of healing but spirituality also enables people more effectively to confront fear and all that threatens their psychic well-being. It is not surprising that spirituality is discussed in terms of a way of responding to situations for which there is no medical cure. Spirituality may also help people to understand suffering as paradoxically both a painful experience yet potentially a way to human growth. There is also a body of literature which purports to offer ways of measuring spirituality, including the practice of prayer, in relation to positive health outcomes such as the achievement of peacefulness, harmony, comfort, contentment and a sense of well-being. However, other commentators on spirituality and health sharply criticize this approach. Overall, spirituality in health care is a response to the need to move beyond a purely medicalized model of illness and care. Thus,

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on a medical model, illness is a condition linked to organic disease and to whatever falls below a professionally defi ned standard of acceptable capacity. On this model, those who defi ne health or illness are the medical personnel. The introduction of the concept of spirituality is part of a move towards a more person-centred approach to health. The ‘person’ is to be understood as a whole rather than simply in relation to their symptoms. If a ‘person’ is a psycho-spiritual-physical unity, ‘illness’ is a fragmentation of this essential unity. ‘Well-being’ must take account of the whole of our life and therefore ‘health’ is more than simply clinical ‘curing’. Alongside the notion of holistic models of health lies the question of what constitutes ‘spiritual care’. One important change these days relates to the question of who offers spiritual care. In some quarters there is a move away from limiting this to hospital chaplains. ‘Spiritual care’ is also, or should be, a dimension of what is offered by clinicians and nursing staff. This has two implications. First, ‘care’ must become a form of reflective practice with the patient rather than simply a response to the ‘clinical situation’ by medical staff focused solely on medical priorities. Second, such reflective care presupposes attentiveness by health-care professionals to their own spirituality. In other words, ‘spiritual care’ implies both nurturing the spirit of the person being cared for and equally something about the personality of the carer and the quality of what is offered.11

Spirituality and cyberspace Cyberspace has become the conventional term to describe the social experience associated with the internet as a whole, its use and its diverse culture. Clearly, this has a great deal to do with our sense of identity and therefore impacts on spirituality. For one thing, this new global culture has become a major context for pursuing, among other things, people’s desire for ‘the spiritual’. On a basic level, the internet is now an important medium for disseminating spirituality of all kinds. There is a vast amount of material about spirituality on the web and it is even possible to receive spiritual guidance or to make retreats online. The internet also creates a new kind of social space, cyberspace, for humans to ‘dwell’, to communicate and to make connections.

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Effectively, this has the power to change the way we actually exist and the values we promote. For many people, social networking has become vitally important through personal blogs as well as via such facilities as Facebook or Twitter. Interesting, a newly coined idea, ‘techno-monasticism’, implies a new type of virtual community that offers an immense network of ‘friends’ in comparison with physical connections in three-dimensional space. Indeed, some commentators even speak of cyberspace as a kind of ‘metaphysical gateway’. In other words, cyberspace not only enables us to ‘visit’ places or people who are physically thousands of miles away. It also enables us in some sense to transcend the limitations of bodily and material space. Sometimes the language used in relation to this new kind of ‘beyond’ is quasi-mystical. However, cyberspace is also an ambiguous reality. While it has the potential to enhance human capacities, it may also sometimes mislead us or even at worst lead to abuse. The problem is that cyberspace can create all kinds of illusions. There is the illusion of having life-changing encounters without actually needing to leave where we are. Equally people sometimes present themselves on the internet as someone other than they actually are and this can lead to all kinds of dangerous and destructive situations. This raises the deeper question of whether we can fully ‘know’ a person without sight, touch or bodily encounter. In all these senses, the expansion of cyberspace raises profoundly spiritual questions that demand careful discrimination about how we set about shaping our identities.

Spirituality and economics There is also an increasing interest in spirituality within the commercial world and in business schools. We will briefly explore this in the section on ‘Professional Life’. At this point, however, there are also some more broadly based attempts to relate spirituality to our thinking about the role economics plays in society. For example, ‘Spirituality in Economics and Society’ (SPES) is a European-based global forum that brings together individuals, academic centres and values-driven organizations that are engaged in socio-economic activity. The common concern is to make spirituality a public and social ‘good’ rather than purely a private and individual interest.

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A group like SPES holds two central beliefs about the nature and value of ‘spirituality’ in relation to economics. First, spirituality should not be confi ned to the private sphere but must be reconceived as a public value with social effects. Second, without in any sense rejecting ‘religion’, spirituality needs to fi nd an effective secular meaning to focus powerfully on the overall humanization of the world. In particular, SPES uses spirituality to make connections between people’s quest for meaning and everyday activities in social and economic fields. The forum explicitly promotes a spiritually based humanism derived in part from European personalist philosophy. In ‘personalism’ people are not objects to be exploited but are subjects to be respected. Importantly, the forum uses spirituality to produce a richer understanding of social ethics and to promote ‘hope’ as a key virtue in working to build a better future for the world. The SPES forum has sponsored three key areas of research and action. ‘Spirituality and the Economics of Frugality’ seeks to respond to the major global economic crisis of the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century. How may we reintroduce the concept of frugality as both a private and public virtue? What might its impact be on new approaches to economic life? How does it relate to sustainability in business, to an ethics of consumption and to social justice? A second area of research, ‘The Spiritual Identity of Europe’, suggests that spirituality needs to be a key factor in fresh thinking about the revitalization of Europe. How do we create a sense of spiritual identity to enable Europe to overcome its identity crisis? What is the ‘spiritual deficit’ in the European integration process and how may this be overcome? Finally, ‘Globalisation and the Common Good’ focuses on the concept of the common good as developed by both ancient Greek and Christian philosophy. This may be summarized as ‘the good of all is the key to the good of each’. In addition, the notion of ‘common good’ needs redefi ning in the context of globalization and its impact on the increasingly sharp socio-economic divisions in the world.

Spirituality and the urban In terms of spirituality and social practice, there is also increasing reflection on spirituality in relation to the meaning and future of

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cities. The related themes of spirituality and architecture, spirituality and planning and urban spirituality have also begun to make an appearance in recent times. For example, the internationally known urban planner Leonie Sandercock has written about ‘the spiritual’ in cities in her book Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities in the 21st Century and has also addressed the need to develop spirituality for the urban professions.12 Because the world is rapidly becoming urbanized, and cities shape identity, the meaning and future of human cities is a major spiritual as well as social challenge. While in 1950 some 29 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban environments, it had passed 50 per cent by the early 1990s and on current rates of increase will reach 70 per cent by 2050. In the fi rst part of the twenty-fi rst century, the ‘big story’ is a worldwide migration of people from countryside to city. A key question is: what are cities for? The city is the quintessential public realm. Since the days of Aristotle, cities have been understood as powerful symbols of human community and as paradigms of public life. Public life means the contexts where we interact with strangers and where diverse people struggle to establish a shared life. This is not an easy task. Yet precisely because cities combine differences of age, ethnicity, culture, gender and religion in unparalleled ways, they have a capacity to focus a range of physical, intellectual, creative and spiritual energies. Returning to the notion of ‘the spiritual’ in cities, this implies that a city should embody an inspiring vision of human existence and human possibility. In the end, a successful city is a state of mind that embraces a spiritual vision. Without some kind of shared vision, it is difficult to envision a viable urban future. In terms of enhancing ‘the spiritual’ in cities, we need to think about both spatial structures and urban virtues. First, we need city designs that express more than a purely utilitarian understanding of human needs. Also, many contemporary architects and urban commentators have reflected on the concept of ‘awe’. They ask: what actually makes buildings or spaces ‘awesome’ in a constructive sense? ‘Awesome’ implies more than sheer amazement at the overwhelming presence of massive buildings that dominate our skylines. Rather, the notion also reflects motive and purpose. Genuine awe is more likely in relation to buildings that reinforce the overall value of people rather than those that merely project the powerful profiles of socio-economic elites. Second, how do

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we design public spaces? Some architects talk of ‘open-minded space’ – a concept with spiritual resonances. Public spaces like the city square should be person-centred with their way of working left open rather than predetermined by planners or politicians. ‘Open-minded’ spaces prioritize human participation over mere efficiency. ‘Open-minded’ space promotes inclusivity, encourages diversity and invites creativity and play. Finally, what is the role of sacred spaces in today’s cities? How can we enable such spaces to be widely accessible? How might such spaces function effectively? A spirituality of cities also involves how people conduct their lives and interact with each other. This involves the notion of virtue. So, what are urban virtues for the twenty-first century? Some contemporary urban thinkers write about promoting ‘frugality’ while others suggest the related notions of renunciation and restraint in relation to the need to create a renewed sense of human mutuality. To live mutually demands that individual choice be balanced with a sense of the ‘common good’. The Greek philosopher Aristotle related it to leading a good life. A truly good life is orientated to what is shared with other people because our individual good is inseparable from the good of all. The main point is that the common good runs counters to a purely pragmatic approach to human welfare. It involves the difficult task of seeking to negotiate with others and then build up bonds of mutual loyalty that create authentic community. This demands dialogue – mutual listening and speaking across social, ethnic and religious boundaries.

Spirituality and the professional life Finally, contemporary interest in spirituality extends to the way professional life is viewed. The world of work should be understood as a spiritual issue not least because it relates to questions of human purpose and meaning. One example of the recovery of work as a spiritual value is the popularity of management and business spirituality. At the heart of this turn to spirituality in the commercial world is a recovery of the idea that work is a vocation rather than purely a pragmatic necessity. Some commercial companies encourage their employees and management teams to develop spiritual values and practices and even organize joint ‘retreats’ to build up a corporate spirit.

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Meditation space is available during the lunch break and there are libraries of spiritual books for the staff. The ‘business and spirituality’ movement also encourages an ethical approach by developing a clear value system and in giving attention to the ‘wholeness’ of the work force. The benefits of spirituality in the workplace are said to include an improvement of motivation by offering a sense of meaning beyond mere productivity. This is often related to better morale, deeper fulfilment and more effective team-building. Also some commentators note that those companies that articulate a sense of purpose tend to attract the brightest and best staff. Equally, where companies promote spiritual values performance seems to improve. Professional spirituality has also focused on leadership qualities. The spiritually imbued leader will possess courage, creativity and the capacity to be inspirational. This kind of leadership is capable of building team spirit and what is called a ‘self-enabled’ workforce. The effective leader will also possess what is called ‘spiritual intelligence’. This is what connects people beyond the immediate to a sense of possibility and vision. Some approaches to spirituality and business leadership also include the ability to foster a corporate sense of service and an ethos that suggests that business should seek to change the world for the better.13

Conclusion The concept of ‘spirituality’ is increasingly used outside religion to describe a quest for values and practices in the pursuit of a meaningful life. Sometimes spirituality is related to non-religious systems of thought such as philosophy or science. More generally, it is regularly discussed in relation to stages of human development or in relation to human identity, gender and sexuality. A significant area of development is the relationship between spirituality and areas of social practices such as health care, the spiritual impact of the internet and cyberspace, economics and the urban. Finally, there is a growing interest in spirituality and professional life, including the business world. In this context, a central concern is the relationship between a profession, the concept of service and social and public values.

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NOTES

Chapter one 1 See, Office for Standards in Education, Promoting and Evaluating Pupils’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development. London 2004 (OFSTED HMI 2125), 12. 2 See Jeremy Carrette and Richard King, Selling spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. London: Routledge, 2004. 3 The magisterial work of Kees Waaijman, Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods, Leuven: Peeters, 2002, explores the breadth of the new academic field. On the increasing variety of disciplines and defi nitions that relate to spirituality, see also Peter Holmes, ‘Spirituality: some disciplinary perspectives’, in Kieran Flanagan and Peter Jupp (eds), A Sociology of Spirituality. Aldershot/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007, pp. 23–41. 4 See Peter Versteeg, ‘Spirituality on the margins of the Church: Christian spiritual centres in The Netherlands’, in Flanagan and Jupp (eds), A Sociology of Spirituality, pp. 101–14. 5 See, Olivier Roy, Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 6 On the overall adaptation of Buddhism to the West, see, for example, J. Coleman, The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 7 See A. Faivre and J. Needleman (eds), Modern Esoteric Spirituality. In the ‘World Spirituality Series’. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1992.

Chapter two 1 David Tracy, On Naming the Present: God, Hermeneutics and Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994, pp. 115–18.

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2 B. Hall and D. Jaspers (eds), Art and the Spiritual, Sunderland: University of Sunderland Press, 2003. 3 See Sandra Schneiders, ‘The Study of Christian Spirituality: Contours and Dynamics of a Discipline’, in Elizabeth A. Dreyer and Mark S. Burrows (eds), Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), pp. 5–24; also Schneiders, ‘Approaches to the Study of Christian Spirituality’ in A. Holder (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005, pp. 15–33. 4 Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. 5 See Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, Volume 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 6 Michel de Certeau, ‘Culture and Spiritual Experience’, in Concilium 19, 1966, pp. 3–31. 7 See K. Flanagan and P. C. Jupp (eds) A Sociology of Spirituality. Aldershot/Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2007.

Chapter three 1 For example, see the volume in this series, Mysticism: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Paul Oliver, especially Chapter 1, ‘The Concept of Mysticism’. 2 On the history of the word, see Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 3 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, New York: Classic Books International, 2010. 4 See, for example, S. T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1978 and S. T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Language. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 5 Bernard McGinn’s ongoing series is entitled The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1991 onwards. Five volumes have been published as of late 2013. 6 Grace Jantzen, Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 7 For one edition of Julian’s writings in modern English, see E. Spearing (ed.), Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. London/New York: Penguin Classics, 1998.

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8 See J. Wiseman (ed.), ‘The Spiritual Espousals’. John Ruusbroec: The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. Also Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1993 (originally 1911). 9 See Segundo Galilea, ‘Liberation as an Encounter with Politics and Contemplation’ in R. Woods (ed.), Understanding Mysticism, London: Athlone Press, 1980. 10 Ju˝rgen Moltmann, Experiences of God, Philadelphia Press: Fortress Press, 1980. 11 Dorothee S˝olle, ‘To be Amazed, to Let Go, to Resist: Outline for a Mystical Journey Today’ in J. Ruffi ng (ed.), Mysticism and Social Transformation. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001, pp. 45–51.

Chapter four 1 Phyllis Tickle, Rediscovering the Sacred: Spirituality in America. New York: Crossroad, 1995. 2 On spirituality and interreligious dialogue, see Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life. New York: BlueBridge, 2008, Chapter 4 ‘Spirituality and Interfaith Dialogue’. 3 For a contemporary edition of the Spiritual Exercises in English translation with an introduction and notes, see Joseph Munitiz and Philip Endean (eds), Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings. London/New York: Penguin Classics, new edition 2004. 4 See Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard and Pierre Mayol, The Practice of Everyday Life, Volume 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998; Luce Giard, ‘Introduction to Volume 1: History of a Research Project’, pp. xiii–xxxiii. 5 Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St John of the Cross. London: Darton, Longman and Todd/Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1990, p. 2. 6 For Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics, see Gerard J. Hughes, Aristotle on Ethics. London/New York: Routledge, 2001, p. 179. 7 For an overview of pilgrimage in different religions, see Simon Coleman and John Elsner (eds), Pilgrimage Past and Present: Sacred Travel and Sacred Spaces in the World Religions. London: British Museum Press, 1995.

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8 On the relationship of spirituality to defi nitions of sacred space and the architecture of medieval cathedrals, see Philip Sheldrake, Explorations in Spirituality: History, Theology and Social Practice. New York: Paulist Press, 2010, Chapter 10 ‘Materialising the Sacred: Churches as Spiritual Texts’.

Part two 1 Useful and substantial essays on all the religions mentioned here, as well as some pages on Neo-Paganism, may be found in John R. Hinnells (ed.), The Penguin Handbook of the World’s Living Religions. London/New York: Penguin Books, 2nd edition 2010.

Chapter five 1 Mark H. Ellis, Towards a Jewish Theology of Liberation. London: SCM Press, new edition 2002. 2 For an authoritative study of Jewish spirituality, see the multiple author essays in Arthur Green (ed.), Jewish Spirituality, 2 volumes. New York: Crossroad/London: SCM Press, 1987. For some briefer references to Jewish spirituality, see Alan Unterman, ‘Judaism’, pp. 13–56, in John R. Hinnells (ed.), The Penguin Handbook to the World’s Living Religions. London/New York: Penguin Books, 2010.

Chapter six 1 For a summary of the scriptural and early doctrinal foundations of Christian approaches to spirituality, see Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality: A Brief History, 2nd Edition. Oxford/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, Chapter 2. 2 For a recent edition, see Aleksei Pentkovsky (ed.), The Pilgrim’s Tale. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. 3 Translated from the Italian by Sister Frances Teresa in Living the Incarnation: Praying with Francis and Clare of Assisi. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1993, p. 129. 4 For a contemporary selection of the writings of Ignatius Loyola, see Joseph Munitiz and Philip Endean (eds), Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings. London/New York: Penguin Classics, revised edition 2004.

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5 Columba Hart (ed.), Hadewijch – The Complete Works. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. 6 B. McGinn and E. Colledge (eds), Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense. New York: Paulist Press, 1985 and B. McGinn and F. Tobin (eds), Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher. New York: Paulist Press, 1987. 7 See Elizabeth Spearing (ed.), Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. London/New York: Penguin Classics, 1998. 8 For translations of the texts, see K. Kavanaugh and O. Rodriguez (eds), Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle. New York: Paulist Press, 1979 and K. Kavanaugh (ed.), John of the Cross: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1987. 9 See Dietrich Bonheoffer, The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone (Simon and Schuster), 1995; also Letters and Papers from Prison. New York: Touchstone, 1997. 10 Gustavo Gutiérrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 20th anniversary edition, 2003 and On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998. 11 Grace Jantzen, Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Chapter seven 1 For a general introduction to Islam, see the essay by Alford T. Welch ‘Islam’ in John R. Hinnells (ed.), The Penguin Handbook of the World’s Living Religions. London/New York: Penguin Books, 2010; also Tamara Sonn, Islam: A Brief History. Oxford/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2nd edition, 2009. 2 For a general introduction to spirituality in Islam, see Joel Beversluis (ed.), Sourcebook of the World’s Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2000. 3 On Sufi mysticism, see Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983. 4 For a comprehensive multi-author collections of essays on spirituality in Islam, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr (ed.), Islamic Spirituality, 2 volumes. London: SCM Press/New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1991.

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Chapter eight 1 For a general background to Hinduism and useful bibliography, see Simon Weightman, Chapter 5 ‘Hinduism’, in J. Hinnells (ed.), The Penguin Handbook of the World’s Living Religions. London/ New York: Penguin Books, 2010. 2 For a study of Hindu spirituality, see Arvind Sharma, A Guide to Hindu Spirituality. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006. 3 See Carl Olson, The Mysterious Play of Kaˉlī: An Interpretive Study of Raˉmakrishna. American Academy of Religion. Scholars Press, 1990. 4 For a recent study, see Swami Ritananda, ‘Swami Vivekananda: The personification of Spirituality’, in Swami Vivekananda: New Perspectives: An Anthology on Swami Vivekananda. Kolkata: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 2013. 5 Peter Heehs, Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography. Oxford/New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005. 6 See G. S. Mehta, Philosophy of Vinoba Bhave: A New Perspective in Gandhian Thought. Himalaya Publishing House, 1995.

Chapter nine 1 For two reliable and comprehensive multi-author volumes on Buddhist spirituality, see Takeuchi Yoshinori (ed.), Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Early Chinese. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1995; also Takeuchi Yoshinori (ed.), Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1999. 2 For ‘sainthood’ in Buddhism, see George D. Bond, ‘The Arahant: Sainthood in Theravada Buddhism’, pp. 140–71; Donald S. Lopez Jr, ‘Sanctification on the Bodhisattva Path’, pp. 172–217 in R. Kieckhefer and G. D. Bond (eds) Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. 3 Thich Nhat Hanh, Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1993. 4 Phra Prayudh Payutto, Buddhadharma, English translation. New York: SUNY Press, 1995.

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Chapter ten 1 See Xinzhong Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 2 Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. 3 See John Cottingham, The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; André Comte-Sponville, The Book of Atheist Spirituality. London: Bantam Press, 2008; Robert C. Solomon, Spirituality for the Skeptic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 4 See Holmes Rolston, Genes, Genesis and God. The Gifford Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. See also Michael Ruse, Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 5 David Fontana, Psychology, Religion and Spirituality. Oxford/ Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003; also William West, Psychotherapy and Spirituality: Crossing the Line between Therapy and Religion. London/Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000. 6 See, for example, David Hay and Rebecca Nye, The Spirit of the Child. London: HarperCollins, 1998. 7 Office for Standards in Education, Promoting and Evaluating Pupils’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development. London 2004 (OFSTED HMI 2125), 12. 8 See, for example, D. O. Moberg (ed.), Ageing and Spirituality: Spiritual Dimensions of Ageing Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. New York: Haworth Press, 2001. 9 For one approach to a spirituality of sexuality, see Philip Sheldrake, Befriending Our Desires. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, revised 2nd edition, 2012, Chapter 4 ‘Desire and Sexuality’. 10 Spirituality, Theology and Health at Durham University: www.dur.ac.uk/spirituality.health/ Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability at University of Aberdeen: www.abdn.ac.uk/cshad/ Royal College of Psychiatrists, Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/college/specialinterestgroups/ spirituality.aspx European Network of Research on Religion, Spirituality and Health: www.rish.ch

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Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University, North Carolina: www.spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu 11 See, for example, Helen Orchard (ed.), Spirituality in Health Care Contexts. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2001. 12 See Leonie Sandercock, Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century. London/New York: Bloomsbury, 2003; also ‘Spirituality and the Urban Professionals: The Paradox at the Heart of Planning’ in Planning Theory and Practice, 7/1 (2006), pp. 65–97. 13 For example, R. Giacolone and C. Jurkiewicz (eds), Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 2003.

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Beversluis, J. ed. (2000) Sourcebook of the World’s Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality. Novato, CA: New World Library. Bonhoeffer, D. (1995) The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone. —. (1997) Letters and Papers from Prison. New York: Touchstone. Carrette, J. and King, R. (2004) Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. London: Routledge. Coleman, J. (2001) The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Coleman, S. and Elsner, J. eds, (1995) Pilgrimage Past and Present: Sacred Travel and Sacred Spaces in the World Religions. London: British Museum Press. Comte-Sponville, A. (2008) The Book of Atheist Spirituality. London: Bantam Press. Cottingham, J. (2005) The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. De Certeau, M. (1966) ‘Culture and Spiritual Experience’, in Concilium 19. —. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Volume 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. De Certeau, M. (1992) The Mystic Fable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. De Certeau, M., Giard, L. and Mayol, P. (1998) The Practice of Everyday Life. Volume 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Dupré, L. and Saliers, D. eds, (1989) Christian Spirituality III: PostReformation and Modern. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Ellis, M. H. (2002) Towards a Jewish Theology of Liberation. London: SCM Press. Faivre, A. and Needleman, J. eds, (1992) Modern Esoteric Spirituality. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Flanagan, K. and Jupp, P. eds, (2007) A Sociology of Spirituality. Aldershot/Burlington VT: Ashgate. Fontana, D. (2003) Psychology, Religion and Spirituality. Oxford/ Malden, MA: Blackwell.

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Frances Teresa (1993) Living the Incarnation: Praying with Francis and Clare of Assisi. London: Darton Longman and Todd. Galilea, S. (1980) ‘Liberation as an Encounter with Politics and Contemplation’, in R. Woods (ed.) Understanding Mysticism. London: Athlone Press. Giacolone, R. and Jurkiewicz, C. eds, (2003) Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance. Armonk, NY: Sharpe. Green, A. ed. (1987) Jewish Spirituality. 2 Volumes. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing/London: SCM Press. Gutiérrez, G. (1998) On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. —. (2003) We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Hadot, P. (2006) Philosophy as a Way of Life. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell. Hall, B. and Jaspers, D. eds, (2003) Art and the Spiritual. Sunderland: University of Sunderland Press. Hart, C. ed. (1980) Hadewijch – The Complete Works. New York: Paulist Press. Hay, D. and Nye, R. (1998) The Spirit of the Child. London: HarperCollins. Heehs, P. (2005) Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography. Oxford/New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Heelas, P. and Woodhead, L. (2005) The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Hinnells, J. R. ed. (2010) The Penguin Handbook to the World’s Living Religions. London/New York: Penguin Books. Hossein Nasr, S. ed. (1991) Islamic Spirituality. 2 Volumes. London: SCM Press/New York: Crossroad Publishing. Hughes, G. J. (2001) Aristotle on Ethics. London/New York: Routledge. James, W. (2010 reprint) The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Classic Books International. Jantzen, G. (1995) Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Katz, S. T. ed. (1978) Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. Oxford/ New York: Oxford University Press. —. (1992) Mysticism and Language. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Kavanaugh, K. ed. (1987) John of the Cross: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press. Kavanaugh, K. and Rodriguez, O. eds, (1979) Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle. New York: Paulist Press.

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Kieckhefer, R. and Bond, G. D. eds, (1990) Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. King, U. (2008) The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life. New York: BlueBridge. Lamm, J. ed. (2012) Wiley–Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism. Oxford/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Office for Standards in Education (2004) Promoting and Evaluating Pupils’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development. London: OFSTED HMI 2125. Oliver, P. (2009) Mysticism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum. McGinn, B. (1991 onwards) series The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Five volumes have been published as of 2013. McGinn, B. and Colledge, E. eds, (1985) Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense. New York: Paulist Press. McGinn, B., Meyendorff, J. and Leclercq, J. eds, (1985) Christian Spirituality I: Origins to the Twelfth Century. New York: Crossroad Publishing. McGinn, B. and Tobin, F. eds, (1987) Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher. New York: Paulist Press. Mehta, G. S. (1995) Philosophy of Vinoba Bhave: A New Perspective in Gandhian Thought. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House. Moberg, D. O. ed. (2001) Ageing and Spirituality: Spiritual Dimensions of Ageing Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. New York: Haworth Press. Moltmann, J. (1980) Experiences of God. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Munitiz, J. and Endean, P. eds, (2004) Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings. London/New York: Penguin Classics. Nhat Hanh, T. (1993) Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press. Olson, C. (1990) The Mysterious Play of Kaˉlī: An Interpretive Study of Raˉmakrishna. American Atlanta, GA: Academy of Religion. Scholars Press. Orchard, H. ed. (2001) Spirituality in Health Care Contexts. London: Jessica Kingsley. Pentkovsky, A. ed. (1999) The Pilgrim’s Tale. New York: Paulist Press. Prayudh Payutto, P. (1995) Buddhadharma. New York: SUNY Press. Raitt, J. ed. (1987) Christian Spirituality II: High Middle Ages and Reformation. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Ritananda, Swami (2013) ‘Swami Vivekananda: The Personification of Spirituality’, in Swami Vivekananda: New Perspectives: An

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Anthology on Swami Vivekananda. Kolkata: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. Rolston, H. (1999) Genes, Genesis and God. The Gifford Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Roy, O. (2007) Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press. Ruse, M. (2010) Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sandercock, L. (2003) Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century. London/New York: Bloomsbury. —. (2006) ‘Spirituality and the Urban Professionals: The Paradox at the Heart of Planning’, in Planning Theory and Practice, 7/1. Colchester UK and Philadelphia: Routledge. Schimmel, A. (1983) Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Schneiders, S. (2005) ‘The Study of Christian Spirituality: Contours and Dynamics of a Discipline’, in E. A. Dreyer and M. S. Burrows (eds) Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. —. (2005) ‘Approaches to the Study of Christian Spirituality’, in A. Holder (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality. Oxford/Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Sharma, A. (2006) A Guide to Hindu Spirituality. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom. Sheldrake, P. ed. (2005) The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality/The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. London: SCM Press/Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. Sheldrake, P. (2010) Explorations in Spirituality: History, Theology and Social Practice. New York: Paulist Press. —. (2012, revised 2nd edn) Befriending Our Desires. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. —. (2013, 2nd edn) Spirituality: A Brief History. Oxford/Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Sivaraman, K. ed. (1989) Hindu Spirituality I: Vedas through Vendanta. New York: Crossroad Publishing. S˝olle, D. (2001) ‘To be Amazed, to Let Go, to Resist: Outline for a Mystical Journey Today’, in J. Ruffi ng (ed.) Mysticism and Social Transformation. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Solomon, R. C. (2002) Spirituality for the Skeptic. New York: Oxford University Press. Sonn, T. (2009) Islam: A Brief History. Oxford/Malden, MA: WileyBlackwell.

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Spearing, E. ed. (1998) Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. London/New York: Penguin Classics. Sundararajan, A. and Mukerji, B. eds, (1997) Hindu Spirituality II: Postclassical and Modern. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Tickle, P. (1995) Rediscovering the Sacred: Spirituality in America. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Tracy, D. (1994) On Naming the Present: God, Hermeneutics and Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Underhill, E. (1993 reprint) Mysticism. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. Waaijman, K. (2002) Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods. Leuven: Peeters. West, W. (2000) Psychotherapy and Spirituality: Crossing the Line between Therapy and Religion. London/Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Williams, R. (1990) The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St John of the Cross. London: Darton, Longman and Todd/Boston, MA: Cowley Publications. Wiseman, J. ed. (1985) John Ruusbroec: The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York: Paulist Press. Yoshinori, T. ed. (1995) Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Early Chinese. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing. —. (1999) Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World. World Spirituality Series. New York: Crossroad Publishing. Xinzhong Yao (2000) An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Spirituality and health-care websites Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability at University of Aberdeen: www.abdn.ac.uk/cshad/ Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University, North Carolina: www.spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu European Network of Research on Religion, Spirituality and Health: www.rish.ch Royal College of Psychiatrists, Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/college/specialinterestgroups/ spirituality.aspx Spirituality, Theology & Health at Durham University: www.dur.ac.uk/ spirituality.health/

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INDEX

Abraham 80, 122 Abulafia, Abraham 93 Aelred of Rievaulx Spiritual Friendship 22 Al Basri, Rabiah 127–8 Al-Fasi 125 Al-Ghazali 44, 125, 127, 128 Anthroposophy 17, 18–19, 24 Aquinas, Thomas 6, 23, 83, 128 architecture 24, 68–70 Aristotle 60–1, 182 art and aesthetics 22–5 asceticism 14–15, 19 Augustine 23 Aurobindo, Sri 133, 145–6 Baal Shem Tov 94 Bach, Johann Sebastian 23 Baha’i 77 Beguines 107 Benedict, Rule of St 102–3 Bernard of Clairvaux 47 Bhave, Vinoba 146–7 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich 17, 51, 110 Buddha 149, 150, 151, 152 , 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159 Buddhist spirituality 2 , 13, 47, 60, 64, Chapter 9 passim Engaged Buddhism 53, 160–1 monasticism 157–9 origins 150 practices 155–7 sources 153–4

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spiritual life 154–5 teachings 150–3 business and economics 2 , 10, 167, 168, 179–80, 182–3 Cage, John 25 Carrette, Jeremy 9 Catherine of Siena 47 Christian spirituality 2 , 8, Chapter 6 passim ascetical 102–4 and doctrines 101–2 Eastern Orthodox 103–4, 106 feminist 111–12 and mysticism 106–9 origins 97–9 practical 104–6 prophetic 109–11 sources 100–2 teachings 99–100 Clement of Alexandria 106 Cloud of Unknowing, The 48 Comte-Sponville, André 171 Confucianism 31, 75, 169–70 Cottingham, John 171 cyberspace 9, 167, 178–9 Dalai Lama 162–4 De Certeau, Michel 34–5, 59 De Chardin, Pierre Teilhard 171 De Laredo, Bernardino 130 De Osuna, Francisco 44, 130 Donne, John 25

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Eckhart, Meister 42 , 48, 108 education 2 , 9, 10, 20, 174 Ellis, Marc H. Towards a Jewish Theology of Liberation 89 esotericism 17–19 Essenes 83, 90 ethics 60–1 Evagrius Ponticus 44 Feng Shui 24 Francis of Assisi 13, 16–17, 28, 47, 104–5 Freemasonry 18 Freud, Sigmund 88 Galilea, Segundo 49–50 Gandhi, Mahatma 17, 53, 147, 169 Gasquet, Cardinal 40 Gutiérrez, Gustavo 110–11, 124 Hadot, Pierre 31, 170–1 Hakuin 16 Hare Krishna Movement 138 Hay, David 10 healthcare 2 , 10, 30–1, 167, 176–8 Heelas, Paul 10–11 Heidegger, Martin 23 Herbert, George 23, 25 hesychasm 44–5, 104 Hildegard of Bingen 46 Hindu spirituality 2 , 13, 60, 64, Chapter 8 passim gurus 141–7 origins 132–3 sources 135 and spiritual life 136–8 spiritual practices 138–40 teachings 133–5 Hirsch, Samson Raphael 89 Hopkins, Gerard Manley 25

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INDEX

Ignatian spirituality 13, 16, 49, 59, 105–6, 130 interpretation, textual 31–4 Jainism 75 James, William 16, 41, 43 Jantzen, Grace 46, 112 Jennings, Elizabeth 25 Jesus Christ 48, 51, 55, 97, 98, 99, 100–2 , 104, 107, 112 Jesus Prayer 65, 104 Jewish spirituality 2 , 15, 44, 60, Chapter 5 passim and asceticism 89–90 and everyday life 87–8 Hassidism 84, 93–4 and Kabbalah 53, 84, 91–3 and liberation 88–9 and mysticism 53, 91–4 origins 80–1 and philosophy 83 prophetic 88–9 sources 82–3 and spiritual life 83–6 teachings 81–2 John of the Cross 25, 44, 108–9, 130 Julian of Norwich 46, 108 Kabbalah, esoteric 18 Kandinsky, Wassily 24 Kant, Immanuel 23 King, Martin Luther 17, 169 Lectio divina 103 Levinas, Emmanuel 83 Lewis, C. S. 25 literature 25 Llull, Ramon 44, 129 Luria, Isaac 93 McGinn, Bernard 45–6 Maharaj ji 142

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INDEX

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 140–1, 142 Maimonides 83, 93 Maimuni, Abraham 129 meditation 64–6, 155–6 Merton, Thomas 103 Messiaen, Olivier 25 Michelangelo 23 Mindfulness Meditation 13, 64–5, 155–6, 168 Moltmann, Jürgen Experiences of God 50–1 monasticism 102–4, 122 , 123, 137, 157–9 Mondrian, Piet 24 Moses 80, 82 Moses de Leon 93 Muhammad 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122 , 123, 124, 130 Musar Movement 87–8 music 24–5, 168 Muslim spirituality 2 , 8, 60, 63, Chapter 7 passim and Christianity 126, 129–30 and Judaism 129 and mysticism 124–7 origins 116–17 and Pillars of Islam 119, 120–3 prophetic 123–4 sources 119–20 and spiritual life 120–3 teachings 117–18 mysticism 15, 19–20, Chapter 3 passim apophatic 48 defi nition 39–43 kataphatic 48–9 and religious mixture 43–6 and social transformation 49–53 and union 46–8 and visions 45–6

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Neo-paganism 2 , 77–8 O’Connor, Flannery 25 OFSTED 9, 174 Origen 43–4, 106 Part, Arvö 25 Payutto, Prayudh 17, 161 Philo 83 philosophy 2 , 10, 30–1, 167, 169–71 pilgrimage 66–8, 122 , 140 professions 2 , 20, 167, 182–3 Pseudo-Dionysius 44, 106 psychology 2 , 10, 167, 173–6 Rajneesh 142 Ramakrishna 1, 53, 133, 143 Ramakrishnan Mission 16, 53, 60, 144–5 Rosicrucianism 18 Roy, Olivier 11 Rublev, Andrei 23 Rumi 25, 123, 127, 128–9 Ruusbroec, John 49 sacred 8, 12 , 23, 24, 58, 66–7, 68–71, 83, 120, 122 , 130, 139, 140, 153, 174, 175 Sai Baba 142 Salanter, Yisrael Lipkin 87–8 Sandercock, Leonie Cosmopolis II 181 Schneiders, Sandra 27, 36–7 Schutz, Roger 103 science 20, 167, 168, 171–2 scriptures Buddhist 153–4 Christian 100–1, 112 Hindu 132 , 135 Jewish 16, 80, 82–3, 84, 86, 87, 88, 91, 100, 111 Muslim 119–20

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secular spiritualities 19–20, 168–9 sexuality and gender 175–6 Shariati, Ali 123–4 Shinto 76 Sikhism 74–5 Sivananda, Swami 141 social sciences 10, 34–6 social work 20, 167, 168 Sölle, Dorothee 51–2 Solomon, Robert 171 space, sacred 68–71 spiritual practices 13, 61–8 Spiritualism 18 spirituality approaches to 10–14 contemporary 7–12 origins of word 5–7 and religion 10, 29–31, 56–8 and study methods 25–36 traditions of 12–13 types of 14–20 sport 14, 19–20, 167, 168 Steiner, Rudolph 19, 24 Stoicism 170 Sufism 23, 44–5, 47, 109, 121, 122–3, 124–30 Suger, Abbot 68–9

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INDEX

Tagore, Rabindranath 25 Taizé 103 Taoism 47, 75–6 Teresa of Avila 44, 108–9, 130 Theosophy 18 Thich Nhat Hanh 53, 160–1 Thomas, R. S. 25 Tikkun Movement 89 Tolkien, J. R. R. 25 Tracy, David 22 Transcendental Meditation 140–1 Triratna Buddhism 13 Underhill, Evelyn Mysticism 49 urbanism 10, 20, 167, 168, 180–2 Vedanta 16, 132 , 135 Veersteg, Peter 11 Vivekananda, Swami 7, 53, 133, 142 , 143–5 Williams, Rowan 60 Woodhead, Linda 10–11 yoga 13, 14, 58, 137–8, 141, 168 Zen 16, 25, 58, 64, 156–7 Zohar, The 92–3, 109 Zoroastrianism 74

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