Philosophy of Christian Spirituality
Before we start speaking about Christian spirituality lets literally explain the meaning of this notion. So what is spirituality Christian spirituality refers to both a lived experience and an academic discipline. In the first instance, the term describes the whole of the Christians life as this is oriented to self-transcending knowledge, freedom, and love in light of the ultimate values and highest ideals perceived and pursued in the mystery of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit in the church, the community of disciples. That is to say, spirituality is concerned with everything that constitutes Christian experience, specifically the perception and pursuit of the highest ideal or goal of Christian life, e.g., an ever more intense union with God disclosed in Christ through life in the Spirit. At a second level, Christian spirituality is an academic discipline, increasingly interdisciplinary in nature, which attempts to study religious experience and to promote its development and maturation. Now what is Christian spirituality To be highly a spiritual person within Christian philosophy means not only to be a good, kind person, who doesnt say lies and sometimes helps your mother about the house, but it means to lead a holy life that is described in a Bible on the example of Jesus Christ. The pursuit of holiness, which means becoming more like Christ is a daily task of every believer. While Jesus says Be holly, because I am holy (1 Peter 113-16). When people accept Jesus as their personal Saviour the Holy Spirit becomes to live in them and He guides them in their Christian life. It is considered that once the application is made the person allows Holy Spirit to take full control over hisher life. That means listen to the Spirit, listen to your consciousness and not to the wants of your sinful nature. The Christians also believe this way of living is not produced by self-effort, but the born-again believer receives the Holy Spirit as a Gift from Above. Now lead by the Spirit he will live his life in the accordance with the Word of God- the Bible. The book of Leviticus which is the part of the Old Testament contains the rules of holy living. Given once to the Israelites these laws of Christian morality continue to guide modern Christians in their life with God.
Spirituality comes from Hebrew ruach that has meanings like spirit, breath. So Spirituality is what moves a persons life of faith to the perfection. There exists a certain set of beliefs in Christianity that can be found in Church doctrines originally based on the Holy Bible a certain set of values, which basically are faith, hope, love- that is hope and promise of redemption, love for others, denial of self and a certain way of life, obviously based on all said above, that is the real everyday life that where the Christian beliefs and values are embodied and expressed. So Christian Spirituality is a part of a specific way of life which involves having strong values of Christianity and practicing them in day-to day life.
Bible is the very essence and source of holiness. Some of the basic aspects that demonstrate the holiness of God are He is morally pure (always speaks the truth), He is righteous (he always acts in a just manner), He is merciful (He forgives people their sins), He is loving (because His great love for humanity He gave His only Son to help the people to avid eternal punishment). When a person lives in a manner that is consistent with the will of God, this way of living is called a life of holiness. God requires the people to live a life of holiness All who truly have faith in God follow the way of Holiness (Hebrews 1214).You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth. (Acts 18)
Today, millions of Catholics in more than 115 countries are involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. What accounts for this dramatic growth Those involved in the Renewal say that God has touched them in some profound way, releasing the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The goal of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is to serve the mission of the Church by enabling people to live a renewed and Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is called to be charismatic that is, to be equipped with gifts of service for the good of the Church. (1Cor.12). In the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Catholics speak of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This statement does not change the Catholic teaching about the Sacrament of Baptism. It simply means that the power of the Spirit received in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation often awaits a fuller release in the lives of many Christians.
Here Id like to present you some quotations which demonstrate the modern usage of and definition of such notions like the Life of Holiness, the Contemplative Life, the Life of Social Justice, the Charismatic Life, Evangelical Witness, the Incarnational Life. As you follow them, keep in mind that all these principles of Christian Spirituality have their focus on community service, which is supposed to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ.
Reading Brian McLarens book, A Generous Orthodoxy, I thought for a moment Hank Kimball had become a theologian. The subtitle gives more than a slight hint as to why it reads like this Why I am a missional evangelical postprotestant liberalconservative mysticalpoetic biblical charismaticcontemplative fundamentalistCalvinist AnabaptistAnglican Methodist catholic green incarnational depressed-yet-hopeful emergent unfinished Christian. If this confuses you, welcome to post-modern Christianity in the age of despair.
HYPERLINK httpwww.globalaidsprayer.orgindex.phpoptioncontenttaskviewid88 3 Million Voices
3 Million Voices seeks to mobilize an army of faith-filled Christians, of all ages, to live a lifestyle of Prayer Care Share directing our efforts collectively toward an end of AIDS and as such serve as a discipleship model for incarnational living. Those who commit to join 3 Million Voices are encouraged to sign the Declaration of Commitment indicating your intention to a lifestyle of Prayer - Care -Share to end AIDS.
Traditionally the Corporate Spirituality is based upon six major dimensions of the spiritual life Contemplative The Prayer-Filled Life Holiness The Virtuous Life Charismatic The Spirit-Empowered Life Social Justice The Compassionate Life Evangelical The Word-Centered Life and Incarnational The Sacramental Life (Renovar). All these principles of Holiness and Spirituality were practiced by Jesus Christ. To analyze further let me explain first what Holiness is. Holiness the state or quality of being holy.
Today we will look at the Incarnational Tradition, and what it means to live a sacramental or incarnational life. Richard Foster says, The Incarnational Stream of Christian life and faith focuses upon making present and visible the realm of the invisible spirit. This sacramental way of living addresses the crying need to experience God as truly manifest and notoriously active in daily life. I believe that the incarnational life can help us to avoid our modern temptations to over spiritualize Gods work, and to forget that Gods love is concrete and real and active in
real people who live real lives. God weeps with weeping people, and celebrates with us
when we are rejoicing. And God sent Jesus as the ultimate object-lesson, to show us that
the realm of human life could be lived by one who was also divine. In Jesus Christ, we
see Gods Word made flesh, and we understand that Gods love for us is real and
incarnate. The question it raises for us is how well we are living an incarnational life. Do
we tend to separate our spiritual and religious life from the life we live at work, the life
we live at home, the life we live with our families and the way we spend our money
How would any of that relate to my church life And how about the life we live at
college
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