The Spirituality of LoveHouston Graduate School of Theology

Introduction to Christian Spirituality

CS 501

Christian spirituality is dependent upon a biblical understanding of love Longsuffering – what love is

Greek meaning is “patience” or the act of bearing with someone.

OT – Describes God Ex 34:5-7 Ps 103:8-13 Jonah 4:2

NT – Since God has been patient with us, we should be patient with one another.

Biblical love (contd.) Descriptions of “longsuffering” in the

negative sense Love is not easily provoked or not easily drawn

into anger. Love thinks no evil. Love is not envious.

Biblical love (contd.) Kind – what love does

OT – Describes God and is usually partnered with “longsuffering.” http://biblecommenter.com/psalms/145-8.htm

NT – Believers are to love as God loves. Therefore, believers are to be kind and bear the stamp of the Holy Spirit by displaying kindness as a fruit of the Spirit’s presence. Gal 5:16-25 Eph 4:29-32

Biblical love (contd.) Descriptions of “kindness” in the negative

sense Love is not boastful, proud, or arrogant.

Boasting – intellectual pride emphasized through speech

Arrogance – action or the way boasting comes across Pride – seeks to build itself up by tearing others down

Love is not rude. Love is not self-seeking.

Loving and being loved It is fundamental to human nature to love and

to seek love. Rightly loving God orders all the other loves

common to human existence.Longing for God, 19

Origen of Alexandria Ultimate goal of human life – intimate and

continual communion with God 42 Stages toward intimacy with God from the

42 camps of the children of Israel in the wilderness.

The path to intimacy with God, then, is viewed by Origen as the soul’s journey from earth to heaven.

Origen’s Ordering – a three-level summary Body – finding God through the five senses

(Proverbs is an example of moral knowledge producing ethical understanding)

Soul – finding God through enlightened knowledge, i.e., Scripture (Ecclesiastes is the key book at this level, enlightenment based on a combination of active love and contemplative reflection)

Origen’s Ordering – a three-level summary Spirit – finding God through perpetual

communion with God (Song of Solomon is an example of the state of being absorbed into God, no longer controlled by desire). The goal is to enter into union through

contemplation. The result is a life of pure love and active charity.

Foster’s prayer, 25.

Augustine of Hippo Humans are estranged from God. It is difficult to return to God because of three

temptations: Love of power; Pervasiveness of lust; Inability to find contentment.

Therefore, Augustine reasons, either we love self or we love God; either we align our wills with God or we are self-willed.

Bernard of Clairvaux Twelve Steps of Spiritual Demise, 36 Twelve Steps of Spiritual Progress, 37

Bernard’s Degrees of Love Love Self for Self’s Sake: self-love Love God for Self’s Sake: seeking eternal life

through God; self-preservation Love God for God’s Sake: thanksgiving for

who God is and what God does; trumps self-preservation

Love Self for God’s Sake: loving self the way God loves

Blaise Pascal Definitions of the human condition:

Boredom; Inconstancy (moody, uncertain, unsettled); Anxiety.

These conditions are troubling diversions, cultivated to keep humanity from considering the reality of God, the nature of life, and the need for a remedy that God alone provides

Pascal The truth of Christianity is relevant when the

true conditions are addressed Pascal’s ordering of the life of love

Body: governed by desire, any life lived on the order of the body alone will end in emptiness

Mind: natural and unable to bring humanity into direct contact with God; living on the order of the mind yields arrogance

Pascal Heart: the will is ordered to the will of God,

enabling humanity to order the intellectual concerns of the mind and satisfy the physical needs of the body through proper expressions

Paschal’s defining contribution to religious thought is that humans are both “great and wretched,” without emphasizing the greatness or wretchedness to the exclusion of the other or ignoring one’s need for a remedy.

What is love? Small groups Come up with a definition of love based on

today’s discussion