Thirsty for God: A Brief History of Christian Spirituality

By Bradley P. Holt

A landmark text on the history of Christian, this accessible history provides an excellent primer on the two-millennium quest for union with God. Holt traces the practice of Christian devotion, prayer, and contemplation from early Christianity through the Reformation and modern eras. Globally framed, the book highlights the local contributions of people from a wide array of traditions.
This updated edition provides perspective on spirituality in the digital age and in a globalized world. It also includes new bibliographies, spiritual exercises. discussion questions, and an online resource guide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: Aug 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781506432540

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Introduction

I am inviting you, dear reader, to an intercontinental and intergenerational conversation about spirituality. This book surveys the varieties of Christian spirituality both in space and time. From an early twenty-first century American perspective, it looks back in time and around the continents to point out the experiences, concepts, and practices that are valuable for spiritually thirsty people today. It tells the multicultural story of Christian history by focusing on spirituality as opposed to institutions, philosophy, or architecture, for example.

After a preliminary discussion of the term spirituality and an overview of the Christian community on a global scale (in the first chapter), the discussion will focus on the Bible, the essential literary source of Christian spirituality (in the second chapter). Then in succeeding chapters we explore the early centuries, the medieval age, the reformation era, the modern period, and recent developments, especially interfaith spirituality and the effects of ecology and technology on spirituality.

Spiritual exercises that relate to the themes of each chapter will be interjected in the text. Do try them out! Experiment with new ways of living. These suggestions may widen your horizons or deepen your experience. Each person has different needs in terms of practice, as you may know from the Enneagram or from Myers-Briggs types.

The movements and individuals selected for review in this book reflect my vision of spirituality. More will be said about this later, but for now, let me indicate some criteria for choosing the subject matter that follows. I have included the most influential figures that any history of Christian spirituality must include, for example, Augustine, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross. But I have also gone outside the usual canon to include (a) Protestants and Orthodox as well as Catholics, (b) many women, and (c) non-Western Christians.

Like everyone, I have a lot of biases, yet I will seek to treat traditions other than my own with fairness and appreciation. I am a North American male whose skin is mislabeled as white (though it is usually something like pink, and sometimes when I goof, it is red!). I am a Lutheran who has spent a lot of time studying and teaching theology. I am also a spiritual director (mentor, companion, or coach), a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I taught at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria for most of a decade and then at Augsburg College in South Minneapolis, have travelled to about forty countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, and have led pilgrimages, courses, and retreats abroad. I play racquetball, go to the movies, and read detective stories.

Having studied for many years in institutions of higher education, my approach to religion has been very intellectual, academic, left-brain. My interest in spirituality is due in part to the needs of the other side of my human nature—the experiential, artistic, emotional, spontaneous, right brain. On one level, this book is an attempt to bring these two together.

The spiritual tradition includes some well known names, but it also includes the practices of countless ordinary folk whose names have been forgotten; popular piety is also part of this story. The spirituality written about in spiritual classics[1] both reflects and influences common Christians. Some of this book will describe popular movements such as charismatic Christianity, pietism, or twelve-step spirituality. A great deal of it, however, will recount the stories and writings of the elite who have influenced many others by the potency of their devotion and the power of the pen. Philip Sheldrake’s Spirituality and History reminds us that interpreting the past is complex, and there are many pitfalls. One needs to have a critical eye both for those whose books are remembered and for the interpreter of the texts who sees value in them for the present.[2]

Many people find it helpful to be reminded about the background events that shaped the history of spirituality. Sometimes I will include matters of general history or church history for background, even though these are not strictly matters of spirituality. But since this is a brief history, there is not enough space to describe the complete theological, cultural, and economic background of the texts and movements that are introduced here. (I have studied those backgrounds for some subjects in this book, enough to realize how much has to be omitted for the sake of brevity.) A time line is included in Appendix A for those of you who would like to consult it. I have tried to explain specialized terms in the text as they are introduced, but in case you are confused, please consult the glossary or the index. If a place name is unfamiliar to you, please look at the maps.

The goal of this book is that you come to understand more about these and other ways that Christians relate to their Lord and Savior. The underlying message is that there are many authentic ways to be Christian, to practice Christian spirituality. Thus we have not only many spiritualities in the world, but also many Christian spiritualities, many views on how to live the Christian life. Though I will make wry comments from time to time as I tell the stories of Christian spiritualities, I will be appreciative of every kind. I see great value in Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical, and Ecumenical Protestant traditions. I also value the indigenous Christianities that have grown up in the Two-Thirds world outside of Europe and North America. And I see value in the spiritualities of those outside the Christian community.

I realize that you readers are diverse in the way you relate to religions in general and to Christianity specifically. First, are you a reader who checks off None when asked about your religion? Are you eager to learn about spirituality but not about Christianity? Perhaps you are on a personal search for a meaningful relationship with the sacred, but are put off by church attendance, meager instruction in technique, and the casual nature of much church life. Other traditions may be attractive to you because they have a meaningful discipline, an ancient tradition, and an openness to discovery. I ask you, seeking reader, to consider with an open mind whether Christianity has these very elements, when considered in its wholeness.

Perhaps you resist the path of Christianity because you have been wounded by the church, by its indifference, its gossip, its sexism or racism. Does your bumper sticker read Jesus, please save me from your followers? As a member of the Christian community, the church, I also want to ask your forgiveness. I invite you to look further and deeper. Please reconsider the validity of the Christian walk, the Christian spiritualities described in this book. The treasure of the gospel of Jesus is contained in the earthen vessels of human followers. It is the message of that gospel and the healer to whom it points that attracts people, in spite of the faults of local and national churches, as well as individual Christians.

Or maybe you are a Christian who has a hard time with the word spirituality. Many Christians, especially pastors and theologians, are put off by the teachings found in popular books on spirituality. They suspect that spirituality is nothing more than the latest fad in self-improvement, and that people use the term spirituality to include anything they want. For Protestants in particular the term is unfamiliar, not part of the traditional language. Furthermore, spirituality looks suspicious to some Christians because it sounds like a method of do-it-yourself salvation, instead of salvation by grace. If you only do this or that—books and teachers may suggest—you will find fulfillment or self-realization. This is very different from finding peace with God just as you are, through God’s initiative and gift. Christ saves us, not we ourselves. Let me assure you: the term spirituality was first used among Christians. One need not be Christian to practice spirituality, but Christianity can be the basis for a vibrant and personal spirituality.

You might belong to yet another group: Christians who have no problem with the word spirituality, and who in fact are studying to become spiritual directors, mentors, or companions. Then I invite you on the journey of this book so as to become a better director. You bring a valuable gift to the above groups by offering a dimension of Christian life often neglected in practice. Your study will enrich the church spiritually, and this book will lay the foundation for your learning to listen well and ask the key questions that unlock new perspectives in your directees!

If you would like a larger, colorful book, please find The Story of Christian Spirituality for which I wrote one chapter.

All four of the above groups are in my mind as I introduce you to this varied and fruitful story of how people around the world and through the ages have lived out their spiritualities. I think of you, dear reader, and hope that this book will broaden your horizons of knowledge and deepen your relationships.

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The issue of what constitutes a classic is addressed by Arthur Holder, Christian Spirituality: The Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). ↵

Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality and History: Questions of Interpretation and Method (New York: Crossroad, 1992). ↵

1

What is Christian Spirituality?

Dear reader, would you like a drink of water? You may be dehydrated right now but not realize it! Part of the human predicament is not always knowing what one really needs or longs for. For example, I have had a problem listening to my body. I get tired, depressed, or listless during the day and take a break to eat. Or I get upset or discouraged and eat. I smile at the refrigerator motto: If all else fails, eat! For a long time, I did not know that my body craved water, not food. I have discovered that just plain water will usually perk me up better at mid morning or late afternoon than the various combinations of caffeine, sugar, and fat that settle on my front. I have come to recognize thirst as different from hunger, and to respond to my body’s genuine need (some of the time)!

One of the basic premises of any spirituality is that our non-physical selves also thirst. We may not know what we need, and we may try to satisfy our needs with possessions, foods, or relationships that do not satisfy and which may bring dangerous side effects. Christian spirituality identifies what we really long for as the living water of God, fresh and sparkling and pure. Thus the title, Thirsty for God. Long ago a woman from Samaria thirsted for this water.[1] She met Jesus, who saw her spiritual need and offered her living water. This water is not merely moving liquid, as she at first supposed, but is the Spirit of the living God.[2]

Spirituality

The term spirituality is easily misunderstood. It is commonly used, for example, to refer not to a style, but to a degree of spiritualness, as if it could be measured like temperature or humidity. This usage has the negative result that people tend to measure themselves or others as being more spiritual or less spiritual, and some people even use the term as a club to batter others thought to be less spiritual than they think they are themselves. Further, spirituality may be seen as a goal to be attained or a work to achieve merit. I will avoid these ways of using the term.

Spirituality is rooted in the term spirit, an important biblical word for Christians. In both Hebrew and Greek, the same word (ruach and pneuma, respectively) is used for breath, wind, and spirit. The Bible refers both to human spirit and to divine Spirit. That divine Spirit is called Holy Spirit, who is the whole basis of spiritual development. Because of various difficulties, the Holy Spirit has historically been neglected in Christian theology and in local church life. We do not easily form an image of Spirit the way we do the other two members of the Trinity: fathers and sons we know, but how to picture a spirit? Biblical pictures of spirit are all non-human: fire, water, wind, and dove. Yet the Holy Spirit is God at work in the world today; the Spirit loves us and is just as human as the other two.

Spirituality actually refers to three distinct realities: a capacity, a style, and an academic discipline. First, it is a capacity that all people have. For example, when some people say, I am so happy to discover my spirituality, they are referring to a dimension of the human being that makes it possible to integrate spiritual meanings with physical activities, to integrate intellectual work with ethical action. Human beings do relate to the unseen world; we call this spirituality.

Second, we use the word to refer to a spirituality as a type or style of relating to God and the world. Thus one might speak, for example, of postmodern spirituality, family spirituality, Methodist spirituality, or liturgical spirituality. In each case, the adjective describes one style among others. Furthermore, I prefer to speak of spiritual formation, rather than simply of spirituality. The word formation here suggests development and shape, not just an abstract dimension of life.

Third, spirituality is a newly emerging academic discipline, the study of the first two meanings of the word. This is an interdisciplinary field that enjoys contributions not only from theologians but also from historians, sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, and so forth.[3] The book you are holding is an example of one kind of study in the field of spirituality. Thirsty for God is an introductory book that invites you to join this enterprise by further practice and study.

How one understands spirit will determine how one understands spirituality. For example, if spirit is separated from physical reality, in a realm of its own, apart from the daily life of human experience, the resulting spirituality will become an escape into another world. But if God created the world good, and later became flesh, as the Gospel of John asserts, then spirit is a dimension of reality, compatible with physical existence. Then humans are not divided, but rather unities of body, mind, and spirit. The result of such an understanding of spirit is that spirituality has a much more holistic and down-to-earth meaning than we usually consider. It encompasses the whole of human life and will develop in a variety of styles, depending on cultures, denominations, personalities, and gifts.

In the early 20th century, Catholic theology first used the term spirituality in something like the present day understanding. It is only in the past forty years or so that Protestants have used the term spirituality, but the ecumenical opening in the years since Vatican II has increased the conversation between the two traditions. Now there are studies describing the distinctive types of spirituality in the Protestant denominations, just as in the Catholic orders. For example, here is a recent description of spirituality from The Zondervan Dictionary of Christian Spirituality:

Christian spirituality is the domain of lived Christian experience. It is about living all of life—not just some esoteric portion of it—before God, through Christ, in the transforming and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.[4]

Investigate the various meanings of spirituality. Write your own description, within and outside of Christianity.

Being, Relating, Doing

Another way of thinking about spirituality divides its aspects in a different way: across the dimensions of being, relating, and doing. Of course spirituality is about experience, not theory, yet its comprehensiveness can better be seen when we name these dimensions. In this section we will be looking at these matters according to the third meaning of spirituality discussed above.

Spirituality consists of the existential forms of life that we adopt in order to live in this universe. It is walking in the spirit. For Christians, this means walking in the Holy Spirit of the risen Jesus. In this walking, we may distinguish our being, our relationships, and our practices, for these three constitute our humanity.

Spirituality is about being, because we are small yet significant persons in a big universe. The way we picture that universe and its creator will determine how we see the meaning of our own existence. We have reached a high level of spiritual life when we are able to view all of our doing as secondary and to exist simply before God: For ‘in him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). This is a view that Paul, as a Christian, shared with Greek philosophers. Fundamental to Christian views of spirituality are convictions about God as creator who loves and values the result of God’s work. This God has made mortal human beings to share the joy of being.

Spirituality is about relating, for loving is a way of relating. Perhaps we are even constituted by our relationships. We could not grow up to be human beings without the care of many others, who make it possible for us to relate. We choose to relate to God, to different persons, to ourselves, to all things, by compassion, by indifference, by hostility, and this is the very stuff of life, and of spirituality.

People express their being and their relationships in actions. If I am a mother, I take care of my children. If I am a son, I honor my mother. If I am an artist, I make beautiful things or words or music. If I love my girlfriend, I talk to her on the phone. If I respect my mentor, I observe carefully how she or he deals with real situations in life. If I love my God, I give time and energy to this relationship.

These habits are called spiritual practices or disciplines. We do them again and again because they nourish us. Just as the rhythm of the day may include sleeping, waking, eating, and working, so it may include praying, reading, writing, and singing, for example. These are called disciplines not because they have to do with punishment but because they are like physical or mental training that involves saying no to sloth. We lift weights as a preparation for team sports; we practice scales as a preparation for playing in the orchestra or band; and we engage in spiritual practices as a preparation for communal life in the church. Note that term discipline comes from the same word as disciple. As followers of Jesus, we must pay attention, act responsibly, love without limit. Our Lord expects self-discipline from all who claim to follow him.

There is no finite list of spiritual practices. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, however. We can learn from the experiences of so many who have gone before us in the life of the spirit. On the other hand, our time is different, and each of us is different, so the methods of the past must be applied not woodenly but flexibly. Each person must find her or his own pattern of habits in order to express a vision of being, relating, and doing.

Potentially, any good action can be seen as a spiritual discipline. But certain actions have been seen as particularly valuable. In Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, Richard Foster discusses twelve disciplines, labeling them as Inward (meditation, prayer, fasting, study), Outward (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and Corporate (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). On the other hand, Marjorie Thompson, in her book Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life, discusses a different list: spiritual reading, prayer, worship, fasting, self-examination, spiritual direction, and hospitality. She concludes with a chapter encouraging the reader to choose among the disciplines a rule of life.[5]

Both of the above books give a detailed account of the practice of these habits and how to develop them. This book, too, will give you a number of suggestions about spiritual practices, this time in the context of their historical development—that is, in telling the story of Christian spirituality, I will identify some practices and will invite you as a reader to try them in your own experience. The story of Christian spirituality cannot be fully appreciated merely by reading. We have the intellectual equipment for analysis, but we need the experience for evaluation and appropriation. Spiritual practice will become real to us insofar as we experience it. This is an appeal to you, to take up the challenge of my suggestions for short practices scattered through the book.

Metaphors for Spirituality

Several systems have been used to classify types of spirituality. One places the types on a graph in which kataphatic and apophatic (see p. 89) are at the left and right, heart and mind at the top and bottom, creating four quadrants.[6] Individuals place themselves in one of the quadrants depending on the degree to which they feel drawn to each of the four dimensions. Such a chart can help identify psychological tendencies in persons or schools of thought. Another helpful method for people comes from Geoffrey Wainwright, who connects H. Richard Niebuhr’s well-known typology from Christ and Culture to spirituality.[7] Here I will not attempt to classify all types of Christian spirituality; rather, I will try to illumine certain metaphors that dominate some of the writers and schools of spirituality.

In an attempt to understand our lives, we use fundamental images, or root metaphors. Each image has value, but none is adequate by itself. For example, the Bible pictures God as rock, light, and fortress; lion, bear, and eagle; king, father, and shepherd; and mother, lover, and friend. None of these images alone adequately describes the nature of God. The same is true of our pictures of the Christian life.

The basis of Christian life, our relationship with God, may be pictured as rescue, redemption, or justification. Jesus saves means most simply that Jesus rescues the sinner from the powers greater than any person: sin and death. Redemption refers to setting free a slave by purchase. Justification takes place in the courtroom: the guilty one is declared innocent on the basis of another’s interceding. All of these metaphors have in common the initiative of God, who loves and frees us from the internal and external powers that bind us.

Some might argue that these images refer only to the inception of the Christian life, but the most experienced and mature saints have clung to them. Whatever role our efforts play in Christian living, these metaphors imply that fundamentally we remain in need all of our lives and rely on God’s love to save, redeem, liberate, and justify. The spiritualities of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions place these metaphors in the center.

Another set of images suggests the process of Christian living. Growth, unification, and healing all describe gradual changes. Biological growth in plants and animals is taken as a model of maturing in the Christian walk. A second view is that we are divided, broken, as selves and that the Christian life is a matter of being put back together again, both in terms of integrating our person and in the sense of uniting with God. Third, healing can be both metaphor and reality in Christian spirituality. As metaphor, it suggests that the Christian walk is the process of healing what is diseased or wounded in the same sense that the man on the road to Jericho was cared for by the Samaritan and the innkeeper (Luke 10:25–37). As a reality, healing is an important experience for many whose prayers for physical or emotional healing bring noticeable results. Augustine and Pentecostals use these images: Augustine uses them as metaphor; Pentecostals, as experience.

Traveling and returning are both involved in the metaphors of walking, journeying, climbing, and homing. Living life through time has often been compared to moving through space, as in walking down a road. This is the image used by Paul when he speaks of walking in the Spirit. The motif of journey underlies John Bunyan’s classic allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. It suggests both that we are on the move and have not arrived yet, and that we do have a destination. Climbing, whether a mountain or a ladder, as an image of the spiritual life is an ancient one, going back at least to Genesis; the metaphor visualizes making progress toward God and being able to look back over one’s path. This image does have problems, however, for those of us who see grace as the fundamental reality of the walk, from start to finish. It seems to imply an accomplishment that could be a temptation to pride in one’s efforts. Homing as an image focuses not on travel but on return and on settling into one’s appropriate place. Some feminist writers have preferred this image, while the Roman Catholic medieval tradition used a Neo-Platonic version of the journey: we came from God, and we are on our return journey to God.

Death and resurrection become metaphors for Christian falling away and restoration, sin and forgiveness, despair and hope. The death and resurrection of Jesus are seen as the type, or the powerful first instance of, this pattern. Luther spoke often of daily baptism in these terms (see Rom 6:1–11). One might also consider the cycle of Israel’s departure from and return to God as fitting here.

We are told that a monk, given thirty seconds to describe life in his monastery for a television interviewer, replied, We fall down, then we get up. We fall down, then we get up. We fall down, then we get up. We fall down, then we get up. . . .

Another way of picturing the Christian life is vocation. The model here is call and response. The call comes from God, the self, and the world to indicate who we are to be and what we are to do. We live out our response in our vocation. The call and response are repeated throughout one’s lifetime. They may be as simple as a mother standing on the back porch calling to her young son, Brad, time to come home! (as God also calls us to come back home). Or they may be as complex as the call to balance career, home life, and responsibilities to society and the world.

Battle has also been a recurring image in discussions of Christian spirituality. The writer of Ephesians advises Christians to put on the whole armor of God to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Another view of the battle is Paul’s internal struggle; different parts of himself are struggling in Romans 7. Later writers expanded on the theme of fighting with spiritual powers, with the old self, and with the powers of the world. Starting with Johann Arndt, Pietist and Evangelical writers have been accustomed to this image.

Finally, thirst and hunger suggest human need for the Divine. Human beings are not self-sufficient, however much they may seek to be. It is God who is able to supply the bread of Life (John 6) and water of life (John 7). Celebration (John 2) demands wine at times!

These metaphors all help to shape our experiences. They give us a handle on interpreting our lives. Each needs the others; none is adequate by itself.

Relationships

As I have attempted to describe the comprehensive nature of spirituality, it seems that the widest context in which to describe it is in the realm of connections, disconnections, and what we have to do with the whole universe. So, spirituality is about relationships, all human relationships. Spirituality is not the same as beliefs. It is also not the same as ethical imperatives. I view the raw material of spirituality as all human relationships—not only romantic relationships—including the way we relate to the Source of all things, to the cosmos that came from that Source, to all people, and to our very selves. Thus, to bring it down to daily life, spirituality is the framework for the way I relate to bills, voting, buying, praying, having sex, looking at a sunrise, picking up the dog poop, talking to a stranger, etc.

I believe that there is a Source of all things who is at the same time indescribable by human language and revealed by the cosmos and by historical events and persons. For me, the Bible is the key record of those revelations, though I believe the Holy Spirit continues to reveal more that could not be seen in former ages. For me, Jesus the Christ is the face of this Source, whom he called Abba. The teachings of Jesus invite us to relate to this Source in a personal way, confident of his/her care, compassion, and forgiveness. Thus the shorthand way of referring to these convictions of mine is that I am Christian.

People can be Christians in different ways. There are differences in beliefs, but most differences have to do with culture, ethnicity, and experience. For example, some believe that Christian spirituality is best practiced by withdrawing from the world and spending the whole day in solitary prayer. Others value hard theological thinking as most important. Still others believe that working for social justice is the whole of Christian spirituality. Some feel the Spirit of God most keenly when they are witnessing to their faith to another person, others when they are praising God in tongues, and others while receiving bread and wine in the Eucharist.

Yet spirituality as the study of relationships is also integrally related to both theology (studying what is true) and ethics (studying what is good). Taking a human-to-human relationship for example, how we relate to another is affected by what we believe about them and what we believe about what is good and bad, right and wrong. Can I trust this person? Is he willing to disagree but still be friends? Is she scheming to ruin my reputation? Does this person love me? All of these beliefs will enhance or prevent a full relationship.

Make a list of your most important human relationships. Consider what you give and what you get from each one. Now give the same attention to your relationship with the Other, or the Source, or your Higher Power, or God.

The necessity of including what we believe and how we evaluate applies to relating to spiritual powers. How I relate to God, the Cosmos, my Higher Power, the Metaphysical, or other exalted One depends on what I believe to be true and what I think is right. Is this One good? Can I trust? Is this One remote and uncaring? Is this One personal and nearby? Does this One respond to prayer? How do I know what I think I know about this One?

Christian spirituality includes more than an introspective search for psychological health; it fits together relationships to God and creation with those to self and others. Therefore, spirituality includes loving the neighbor, which is not always easy. Seeking a spiritual thrill or high without concern for the one who lacks food or clothing is spiritual malpractice.

There are many kinds of spirituality in the world today. Though spirituality can be distinguished from religion, it is usually connected, just as relationship can be distinguished from belief, yet is closely related to it. I am convinced that spirituality is the heart of any religion. So there are different kinds of spirituality specifically related to each religion, be it Islam, Judaism. Buddhism, or any other. There are also spiritualities that clearly state that they are not related to a religion, such as Twelve Step (Alcoholics Anonymous) and various New Age and Eastern spiritualities.

Perhaps you find my use of the plural spiritualities surprising. My spell checker does too! The way I use the word spiritualities is descriptive of certain styles or types of relating to the world and its spiritual powers, whether they are called God, or Source, or Cosmos, and whether they include chakras, angels, demons, or ancestors. So there can be different kinds of spirituality, not just one. As noted above, spirituality is not about a degree of spiritualness but rather a distinctive quality of human experience concerning our relationships. Thus the nature of those relationships may reflect the worldview of what is real and meaningful in a religion. Jews believe in a Creator who also has a special relationship to Jews. Buddhists do not relate to a Creator, but to the process of overcoming their attachments.

A helpful way of relating spirituality to religion is that of Baron von Hügel, an early-twentieth-century scholar who wrote that religion has three dimensions: the intellectual, the institutional, and the mystical.