CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: DEFINITION, METHODS AND TYPES1

1. Definition
A. Spirituality as lived experience
Spirituality, like experience, is notoriously difficult to define. However, in the last
two decades during which spirituality has emerged as a focus of widespread interest
in and outside the churches and the academy a certain consensus has built up around
the need to distinguish between and to define both the human experience
denoted by the word and the academic discipline which studies that
experience.
Spirituality as lived experience can be defined as conscious
involvement in the project of life integration through selftranscendence toward the ultimate value one perceives.
This general definition is broad enough to embrace both Christian and non-Christian
religious spiritualities as well as secular spiritualities. However, it is also specific
enough to give the term some recognizable content.
First, spirituality is not a doctrine or simply a set of practices but an
ongoing experience or life project. Second, its ultimate purpose is life
integration. Thus, negative patterns such as alcoholism or consumerism (which
can become the organizing principle of a persons life) do not constitute a spirituality.
Third, the process of self-transcendence rules out a narcissistic self-absorption
even in ones own perfection. And fourth, the entire project is oriented toward
ultimate value, whether this is the Transcendent, the flourishing of humanity, or
some other value.
The ultimate value which generates the horizon of any spirituality relates the
one who lives that spirituality to the whole of reality in some particular way. When
the horizon of ultimate value is the triune God2 revealed in Jesus Christ and
communicated through his Holy Spirit, and the project of self-transcendence is the
living of the paschal mystery3 within the context of the church community, the
spirituality is specifically Christian and involves the person with God, others and all
reality according to the understanding of these realities that is characteristic of
Christian faith. For example, trinitarian monotheism,4 incarnation, a morality which is
based on the dignity of the person created in the image and likeness of God,
sacramentality,5 are constitutive features of Christian spirituality, not because it is a
spirituality but precisely because it is Christian.
The contemporary understanding of Christian spirituality differs significantly
from that which preceded it in the modern period. First, the emphasis is on the
holistic involvement of the person in the spiritual quest which is itself understood
holistically.
Thus, the body as well as the spirit, gender and social location as well as
human nature, emotion as well as mind and will, relationships with others as well as
with God, sociopolitical commitment as well as prayer and spiritual practices, are
involved in the spiritual project. Second, the emphasis on the spiritual life as a
personal project highlights the uniqueness and initiative of the individual in contrast
to an earlier understanding of spirituality as the more or less uniform behavioural
application of Church doctrine. Third, the understanding of spirituality as a project of
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self-transcendence emphasizes an openness toward the infinite that does not deny
the particularity of the individual seeker but subverts any tendency to reduce
spirituality to the purely private or narcissistic quest for ones own self-realization.
The contemporary recognition of the necessity of the community context and the
commitment to social transformation contrast with the overly individualistic
understanding of spirituality encountered in many manuals from the eighteenth to
the twentieth century.
B. Spirituality as an academic discipline
The contemporary academic discipline of spirituality which studies the lived
experience of Christian faith has a long and complex history. In the patristic and
early medieval periods, prior to the divorce between spirituality and theology in the
thirteenth century, spirituality as living and lived faith was the context and the
purpose of all study, both sacred and profane. Theology was articulate spirituality
and spirituality was lived theology. Scripture was the source and norm of all
knowledge.
When theology relocated from the monastery to the universities in the high
Middle Ages this integrated approach to knowledge was shattered. In the schools
philosophy became the handmaid of theology which began its long journey into
modernity understanding itself increasingly as a scientific rather than a spiritual
enterprise. Mystical theology or the wisdom acquired in prayer through meditation
on the Scriptures became, virtually exclusively, a monastic enterprise.
As theology entered the modern period it embraced the increasingly
rationalistic ideals and agenda of the Enlightenment. By the nineteenth century it had
become, in both Catholicism and Protestantism, a highly scholastic discipline,
whereas spirituality was now considered a non-academic practice of devotion or
piety or even the cultivation of mystical prayer which was suspect in both branches
of Western Christianity.
From the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century the discipline of spiritual
theology emerged in Catholic seminaries as a sub-discipline of theology. It derived
its principles from systematic and moral theology and was organized according to the
scholastic patterns of theology in general. Future clerics studied it in order to be able
to guide the faithful, especially persons seeking perfection, in the confessional. It was
defined as the science of perfection and usually subdivided into ascetical theology
which dealt with the active stages of the spiritual life (the purgative and illuminative
ways) and mystical theology which dealt with the higher reaches of contemplation
(the unitive way). The discipline of spiritual theology was deductive in method,
prescriptive in character, and concerned primarily with the practice of personal
prayer and asceticism. It was the task of the confessor or spiritual director to
mediate the general theory to the particular individual taking account of her or his
temperament and individual traits, but it was assumed that the spiritual life was
essentially the same for all (although not all attained its full realization). The
individuals experience was defined by rather than contributed to the general theory.
Manuals of spiritual theology (e.g., those of A. Rodriguez, A. Tanquerey, and A.
Saudrau) were textbooks for confessors rather than products of research in
spirituality or explorations of actual experience.
In the 1970s and 1980s a new discipline, which gradually came to be called (at
least by most of its practitioners) spirituality rather than spiritual theology, began
to emerge in the academy. The reasons for the new interest are complex, cultural as
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well as theological, but the interest centred on the experience of the search for
meaning, transcendence, personal integration and social transformation which
engaged many people in the West in the aftermath of the world wars, the
depression, the cold war, the theological and ecclesial upheaval of Vatican II, and the
explorations of inner space that the development of the human and personal
sciences, especially clinical psychology and psychoanalysis, had unleashed. Although
many people found resources for their spiritual quest in the mainline churches, an
increasing number of people did not. They turned to eastern mystical religions, to
mind-expanding drugs, to new religious movements, to occult practices, or to
idiosyncratic syntheses of beliefs and practices. Others began to discover riches in
the Christian tradition that had been underemphasized or even deliberately obscured
for centuries, for example the mystical literature, monastic practices, retreats,
personal spiritual direction, and various kinds of group spiritual practice which
seemed to offer a more personal and authentic religious experience than did the
routines of organized religion.
Some scholars in the traditional theological disciplines, i.e., biblical studies,
church history, systematic and moral theology and practical theology, became
interested in studying what was occurring in the culture and the churches under the
vague term spirituality and its relation to the classical texts and traditions. By the
early 1980s these scholars were beginning to realize that they shared an interest
which did not have a recognized place in the theological academy. They began to
reflect on that interest, raise questions about its subject matter and specific focus,
try to articulate their methodology, and to distinguish the field from other
disciplines.
The contemporary research discipline of spirituality was born of this growing
interest in studying Christian religious experience, both as it had occurred in the past
and as it was evolving in the present. In rapid succession new publishing ventures
were undertaken to provide critical English language translations of the spiritual
classics (e.g. the Paulist Press series, Classics of Western Spirituality)6 and analytical
studies of figures, movements, and schools of spirituality within particular historical
periods (e.g. Crossroads World Spirituality series). The Society for the Study of
Christian Spirituality was formed to bring scholars together annually and in 1993 the
Society founded a newsletter, Christian Spirituality Bulletin, which, in 2001, became a
refereed academic journal, Spiritus. During this period several seminaries, theological
schools and consortia in the United States and Europe began to offer courses in
spirituality and graduate programmes at the masters and doctoral level were
initiated. The number of students seeking preparation in the field of spirituality,
either in its more practical expressions in ministry or as a research discipline,
increased notably during this period. By the 1990s, despite ongoing challenges from
without and considerable confusion within, spirituality was emerging as a new,
interdisciplinary research field distinct from systematic and moral theology on the
one hand and from psychological or pastoral counselling on the other, although
related to both.
2. Methods
As scholars began to interact in the context of the emerging discipline major
questions arose concerning the definition of the discipline, the object of its study,
and the methods by which to pursue research in the field. A lively exchange on these
subjects in the form of major definitional articles by senior scholars in the field took
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place in the pages of the Christian Spirituality Bulletin (see vols 1.1 and 1.2 [1993]; 2.1
[1994]; 4.1 and 4.2 [1996]; 5.1 [1997]; 6.1 [1998]) and continued in Spiritus. In
general, three approaches to the study of spirituality began to be recognized: the
historical, the theological and the anthropological or hermeneutical.
The historical approach consists basically in the use of contemporary
historical methodology for the study of Christian religious experience as it is
mediated in texts and other artefacts. It differs from church history and historical
theology primarily in its focus on such topics as mysticism, saints, schools of
spirituality, movements such as monasticism or the vita apostolica, that is, on the lived
experience of the faith in various historical contexts rather than on ecclesiastical life
or the development of theology. The historical approach is more easily situated in
the secular or religious university context where its basic methodology and
categories are already established. Historical studies in spirituality are more
methodologically defined, more clearly related to the fields predecessors, and
provide essential resources for all other research in the field.
The theological approach, more easily situated in the denominational
seminary, sees spirituality as one area of theological investigation among others (such
as systematic theology, moral theology, or biblical studies). It uses the categories of
theology to examine the practice of Christian faith. Thus spirituality is understood as
a form of practical theology. This approach is closer to the nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century understanding of spiritual theology described above (and its
practitioners sometimes prefer that terminology) but it is both more holistic and
integrated in its approach and less dogmatic and prescriptive than its predecessor.
The theology operative in the theological approach to spirituality is contemporary
critical rather than scholastic theology. But the theological approach is necessarily
denominational and often more interested in contributing to the formational agenda
of the churches than in research.
The anthropological or hermeneutical approach is distinctively new in that it
sees Christian spirituality not as a particular subject matter or as an area of Christian
theological study but as a regional area within the broader field of spirituality which
is neither necessarily religious nor necessarily Christian. It begins with the
recognition that the capacity for the spiritual quest belongs to the humanum as such
and can be, and has been, realized in many ways within the traditions of the great
world religions and in primal religions. This approach is more at home in the
graduate theological or religious studies context. It is interdisciplinary, cross-cultural,
and interreligious in its approach, taking seriously its own Christian focus but
oriented primarily toward research into what is actually experienced in the Christian
search for God in its concrete and experiential reality and in the constructive work
of reinterpreting that experience in and for the contemporary context.
The three approaches are mutually enriching and scholars espousing all three
recognize that they share common, as yet unresolved, disciplinary questions.
Particularly urgent are questions about the self-implicating nature of studies in this field
and how this feature can be a resource for research rather than a threat to
appropriate critical rigour. The methodological question of interdisciplinarity, that is, of
how to relate the specifically Christian resources derived from biblical, historical and
theological studies to such non-theological disciplines as psychology, sociology,
aesthetics and science in order to analyse religious experience in its concrete,
holistic particularity is far from resolved. Finally, the scholar of Christian spirituality
faces the challenge of how to be fully involved in the broader discussion of the
human quest for the ultimate while remaining focused on Christian experience. The
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discipline of Christian spirituality is a bona fide field-encompassing field of study

which is not only a valuable resource for Christian practice but is also a serious and
challenging field of research whose results are increasingly important in the
postmodern world marked by passionate interest in ultimacy and meaning and also
by dangerous religious extremism and even fanaticism.
3. Types of Christian spirituality
While it has been correctly maintained that all spirituality which is authentically
Christian is related normatively to Scripture and lived within the context of the
Churchs faith and practice the fact is that the lived experience of Christian faith is
enormously varied in practice. It resists all attempts to adequately or
comprehensively catalogue it. Any typology depends on the principles of division
used and these are usually dictated by the focus of the researchers interests.
An ancient principle divides spiritualities into active and contemplative
depending on the relative dominance of human effort and divine influence in the
overall experience. Closely related is the distinction between apophatic (ineffable and
imageless) and kataphatic, or more richly imaginative and symbolic, experiences of
ones life with God. Also related is the distinction between apostolic spiritualities and
more monastic ones. The last also suggests a taxonomy of spiritualities according to
the charisms and spiritual traditions of different religious orders (e.g., Benedictine
Carmelite, Dominican) or denominations (e.g., Lutheran or Catholic).
Spiritualities have long been distinguished by state of life or vocation, for
example marital/religious or clerical/lay. And within the religious category the basic
types (eremitical/communitarian; monastic/mendicant/ministerial; cloistered and noncloistered) have been studied as types. In recent years the determining influence of
gender (masculine/feminine) and/or sexual orientation (hetero-/homosexual) has
become a focus of particular attention.
Spiritualities of particular dimensions of human experience, for example
work, culture, art, social involvement, peace, ecology and so on, have been
elaborated in recent years as individuals and groups have focused their spiritual quest
through the lens of these commitments or experiences. Particularly significant today
is feminist spirituality, which may be religious or secular, but which involves a serious
critique of traditional androcentric and patriarchal Christian spirituality and the effort
to elaborate an alternative that will be life-giving for women and other oppressed
groups, liberating also for men, and protective of the environment.
This survey of types of spiritualities is suggestive rather than exhaustive of the
rich variety within Christian spirituality. The twenty-first century bids fair to be a
time of burgeoning interest in and commitment to the quest for the ultimate among
people of all religions and none. The discipline of spirituality will be a formidable
resource for understanding this phenomenon, critiquing it, and perhaps for helping to
guide it.
Kenneth J. Collins (ed.), Exploring Christian Spirituality: An Ecumenical Reader, Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000; Michael Downey, Understanding Christian Spirituality,
New York: Paulist Press, 1997; Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright and Edward
Yarnold (eds), The Study of Spirituality, New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1986; Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian
Mysticism, 3 vols, New York: Crossroad, 1991, 1994, 1998; Sandra M. Schneiders,
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The study of Christian spirituality: contours and dynamics of a discipline, Christian

Spirituality Bulletin 6.1 (Spring 1998), 1, 3-12; Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality and Theology:
Christian Living and the Doctrine of God, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.
SANDRA M. SCHNEIDERS
Sandra M. Schneiders IHM, Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at
the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, California.

Sandra M. Schneiders, Christian Spirituality: Definitions, Methods and Types, in The New
Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (ed. Philip Sheldrake; Louisville, KY: 2005. Emphasis (block
letters) in section A, together with the following notes, added by John Cantwell fsc, for Lasallian
Education Services, Melbourne, Australia.
2
That is, the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
3
Paschal mystery: the redemption effected by Christ above all through his death, resurrection and
ascension in which Christians participate through baptism, the eucharist, the other sacraments and
their whole life. See Gerald OCollins and Edward G. Farrugia, A Concise Dictionary of Theology
(London: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 173. Note that in his article The Gospel Journey of John Baptist de
La Salle, 1651-1719) [in our resources, Sauvage Gospel Journey.pdf], Michel Sauvage uses the term
paschal mystery in connection with De La Salles (and our own) experience of difficulties in his
establishing of the schools: all of these are expressions of the paschal mystery, of a life that grows out
of your suffering and a certain kind of death. The expression Gospel Journey itself conveys
something of the pattern of Jesus life, suffering, death, and resurrection that De La Salle was called to
emulate.
4
The Christian belief that God is one, but Three-in-One.
5
See the article Catholicism-McBrien.pdf, p. 1, for an outline of this key dimension of Catholicism.
6
This series includes John Baptist de La Salle: The Spirituality of Christian Education (The Classics of
Western Spirituality; edited and introduced by Carl Koch, Jeffrey Calligan, FSC, and Jeffrey Gros, FSC;
New York/Mahway, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004.

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