What is Spirituality?
"Spirituality I define as becoming conscious of and intentional about
our relationship to God. I say conscious of because I firmly maintain that we are all already in a relationship with God and we have been so since our very beginning, whether we know that or not, believe that or not. Spirituality is about becoming conscious of that relationship. I say intentional because I see spirituality
as being about paying attention to that relationship, being intentional about deepening that relationship and letting that relationship grow. Just as human relationships grow and deepen through spending time in them and paying attention to them, so also our relationship with God grows in this same way."
--from the sermon "Jesus and the Christian Life"
by Dr. Marcus J. Borg
2 comments:
Oooh, boy! Now go and tell this to your ten favourite atheists: resistance is futile. Just for kicks, bring along a candid camera crew...
I think I agree with this, but it might just come off as a wee bit arrogant depending on its presentation. For starters, most of the world would define "spirituality" more broadly than this.
I think most Christians would have a problem with Borg, maybe even more so than atheists. The context of the conversation was how the mission of a school might be to make students more conscious of their relationship of God in history/science/music etc.
While it may sound arrogant, I also think it is at the heart of being reformed--do we really believe that all of creation (people, vocation) belongs to God. In a sense, the term "spiritual life" lends itself to dualism: if we think we have a "spiritual life" does that mean parts of our life aren't spiritual? I would say it all belongs to him. I would also agree the world would define it differently, but maybe even in language we need to be a little counter cultural.
Thanks for the comment, Brad. I appreciate it.
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