What is this Thing Called "Spirituality"?

ASK GREG!

by Greg SingletonI will soon get back to answering questions that have been sent to me, but this week we'll consider a question that I have been asked several times since I became a part of the St. Luke community earlier this year. Before that, I had been asked the same question hundreds of times going back to 1962 when I was a first year seminarian and continuing on through my brief clerical career and my longer professorial career as a specialist in the History of Christianity.I'll blather on a little in this space about this thing called spirituality, but we will spend quite some time on this phenomenon during the Adult Education hour (9-10 am) on the following Sunday mornings: Nov. 10, 17, 24. I will be contacting some of you specifically to come and share your experiences and practices of spirituality, but please know that this is also an open invitation. I haven't gotten to know that many of you well enough to identify all who might have something to share and we need (and I need) as much input as we (and I) can get.That having been said, let me share with you my difficulty in grasping the concept of spirituality; and please note that I did not claim that I will be answering the question, "What is this thing called spirituality?" It is one I also have asked hundreds of times, and I have never found a satisfactory answer; perhaps more honestly, I have never found an answer that made sense to me (though some of them may be quite satisfactory to others). It may be that the problem is with me and not with the concept of spirituality. Thus, I need your help.Let me put my problem on the table with candor and without rancor. Some of you probably know the old Cole Porter song with the following refrain:

What is this thing called loveThis funny thingCalled love;Just who can solve its mysteryWhy should it makeA fool of me?

Well, this is where I am when it comes to spirituality. It is a mystery to me, and I feel foolish, as an academic specialist in religion, that I have never been able to get an experiential handle on this phenomenon that looms at least as large in contemporary Christianity (and other religious as well) as it has in centuries past. Don't get me wrong. I have read about the mystics (Evelyn Underhill, et al.) and have read most of the mystics themselves (particularly Hildegard, Francis, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Ávila plus a host of non-Christian mystics). Yes, I know that spirituality and mysticism are not synonymous, but they are first cousins at least-maybe even siblings.In addition I have tried a number of spiritual practices, including two forms of meditation-the milder form incorporated into Taiz? prayer and a more rigorous form sitting cross-legged in an ashram in Nova Scotia chanting "Jaya Sri Ramakrishna" repetitively. There are many I have not yet tried, like certain breathing techniques or the use of yoni eggs, or breathing exercises and yoni eggs together! I've heard these are great for getting in touch with your spiritual side and taking ahold of your emotions. In all of this I have come away with a profound appreciation for the literary quality and significant insights of the writings of the mystics, but they are (to me) of the same order of magnitude and significance as the writings of philosophers who have influenced me most (Josiah Royce, Edmund Husserl, Abraham Kaplan, Walter Kauffmann, Alfred North Whitehead, Rudolph Carnap, Alonzo Church, Hans Meyerhoff, and Charles Hartshorne). None of these thinkers made any claim to spirituality yet they had the same impact on me as did those who are classified (usually by others) as mystics.As for my various spiritual practices, they are useful and enjoyable, but none have come close to giving me a feeling of transcendence that comes close to what I experience about 35 minutes into a good aerobic workout, and that can be easily explained by endorphins in the realm of material reality. Indeed, I can offer plausible explanations for the benefits of these spiritual practices in the same material realm.Many friends whom I respect have tried to explain spirituality to me. The conversations have usually ended in mutual frustration as I begin offering rational explanations of the illustrative examples and my conversation partner suggests some variation of the "It's like jazz; if you have to ask you'll never get it" argument. I respond in the most irenic way possible that this introduces an esoteric barrier that requires blind faith on the part of those outside the boundaries of the claim of spiritual experience-something that I find unacceptable. Thus we reach an impasse. Don't get me wrong. I am not dismissing the possibility that there is such a thing as spirituality (neither am I affirming that there is such a thing). I am simply admitting that I don't get it. That is a confession, and not meant as a contentious challenge-nor is the following candid remark. In my more skeptical moments I entertain the hypothesis that spirituality does not fit well with incarnational theology. Thus, I wonder if it promotes a dualism that might be injurious to the integrative message of the Gospel. These are not conclusions, but simply wonderings. If you share my confusion, or if you can help me and others get a better handle on this thing called spirituality, please consider joining us for conversation over the next three Sundays.