One of the major assignments in my Exploring Christian Spirituality class taught by Gerry Ediger is to come up with a personalized working definition of Christian Spirituality. As food for thought, I want to share my working definition with you. This definition tries to get at what it means to be a Christian.
A Definition of Christian Spirituality
Christian spirituality is a life lived in God’s loveIn self-acceptance and freedom.
Once this love, ever present, is realized,
then we are able more and more fully
to return God’s love and to love others.
In order to receive this closeness to God, it helps to spend time
cultivating an intentional relationship with God.
There is no “right” way to do this, but for guidance we can look to the spiritual disciplines
of Christians before us.
The end goal is towards relationship and away from alienation from God and others.
We can see examples of this inner transformation
In the people around us, and in the example we have in Jesus Christ.
Examples of people
unconstrained by the fear and anxiety which seizes so many
and instead courageously involved
in freeing others from this anxiety.
Hey David! Rob Walker in Toronto here (studying to be clergy as usual). :) I love this, and it's very thought-provoking. But I have to say I'm surprised - there isn't a single reference to either Christ or the Trinity in your definition.
ReplyDeleteI note this because I know that your own faith is very Christ-centred in a way that I always found refreshing and calm. :)
Keep pressing in,
Rob
Never mind, there's one to Jesus Christ. Don't know why I missed it. :) Do you think your definition is as Christ-centred as you are comfortable with?
ReplyDeleteHi Rob!
ReplyDeletehmm.. I didn't think about that when I was writing it. When I wrote "God" in the definition I really meant God/Christ. I end up mixing them together until I can't differentiate between the two in my thinking. That said, when I think of God I think of a person. If I were to write it again I might put Jesus before other people as examples. Both are very necessary to me. :)