Handout on ReEd 1

Initium Fidei: An Introduction to Doing Catholic Theology

Lesson 2: A Conversation Between Spirituality and Theology

Introduction
This lesson aims to introduce students to the concept of spirituality, which we can
describe as the experience of conscious involvement in the project of life-integration
through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives. Spirituality is a vital
part of the theological activity. Therefore, misconceptions regarding spirituality and
religion will be addressed in light of practical theology.

Learning Objectives

1. Explain spirituality as the experience of conscious involvement in the project of

life-integration through self- transcendence toward the ultimate value one
perceives;

2. Distinguish and relate spirituality and religion, presenting the need for both roots
and wings in the life of faith as well as in theology; and

3. Appraise the necessity of practice in faith, considering the approach of practical

theology.

According to Sandra Schneiders (Professor of New Testament and Christian Spirituality)

there are three ways people view the relationship between spirituality and religion as

1. “strangers to the banquet of transcendence who never actually meet or

converse”
2. “rivals, if not enemies, vying for the allegiance of the serious seekers
3. partners, two dimensions of a single enterprise

Spirituality as Life Integration

Spirituality refers to the logic, or character, or consistent quality of a person’s or a group’s

pattern of living insofar as it is measured before some kind of ultimate reality.
Religion refers to a set of beliefs, values, and practices that together identify what
ultimate reality is and help establish the relationship that obtains between this ultimate
reality and the practitioners.

Spirituality is “the experience of conscious involvement in the project of life-integration

through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives.” (Schneiders,
Religion vs Spirituality 2016:116).

In this sense, Spirituality can provide foundation (life-integration) and direction (self-
transcendence) for a generation of youth seeking answers to their existential questions.
Christian spirituality is “the lived experience of Christian faith.” (Schneiders, 2016: 417).

Deconstruction of Schneider’s Spirituality (Lived Experience):

1. Spirituality denotes experience.

2. Spirituality is an experience of conscious involvement in a project.
3. Spirituality is a project of life-integration which means that it is holistic.
4. This project of life-integration is pursued by consistent self-transcendence toward
ultimate value. This implies that spirituality is essentially positive in its direction.

Augustinian Spirituality as Pattern

There are many kinds of spirituality that exists within the Catholic Church, but collectively,
various kinds of spiritualities in community have emerged within our history in order to
provide guidance and pattern for developing proper practice and belief, in order to provide
a pattern for directing our progress in self-transcendence toward God.

One possible pattern is the Augustinian spirituality, patterned after the Rule of Augustine,
as well as through the lives of Augustinians over the many centuries since the time of
Saint Augustine.

The Three Principles of Augustinian Spirituality

1. Veritas (Truth)
2. Unitas (Unity)
3. Caritas (Love)
 1. Veritas (Truth): Within Augustinian spirituality, one important aspiration is the
understanding of the truth of oneself, and in that, the truth of God: “O God, let me
know myself, so I may know you.”

2. Unitas (Unity): There must be openness and willingness for collaboration

amongst members of the community, as well as with those engaged by the
community (Augustinian community).

3. Caritas (Love): For Augustine, love is the why and how of our knowledge. “Use
knowledge as a kind of scaffolding to help build the structure of love and
understanding, which will last forever even after knowledge destroys itself.
Knowledge is useful when it is used to promote love. But it becomes useless, even
harmful in itself, if separated from such an end.”

The Need for Roots and Wings

The Three Types of Spirituality by William Spohn:

1. Dwelling Spirituality (Shallow Roots and No Wings)

2. Seeking Spirituality (With Wings but No Roots)
3. Practicing Spirituality (Having Roots and Wings)

Dwelling Spirituality:
Its emphasis is the reliability of traditional religious institutions, and the living out of
person’s spiritual lives within the traditionally drawn bounds of such institutions.

Seeking Spirituality:
Without a religion dictating them what ultimate value to follows, those who adopted the
seeking spirituality worked to find paths to ultimate value on their own terms.

Practicing Spirituality:
It is of great importance to recover the communal dimension of spirituality that can help
ground its direction. This leads directly to the final kind of spirituality.
Spirituality and Practice

From the perspective of an understanding of secular spirituality, Peter Van Ness

characterizes spirituality as: “the quest for attaining an optimal relationship between what
one truly is and everything that is; it is a quest that can be furthered by adopting
appropriate spiritual practices and by participating in relevant communal rituals.”

The living out of spirituality is often referred to as “practice.”

According to Alasdair MacIntyre, in the secular sense, practices can include scientific
inquiry, musical artistry, and even expertise at games such as chess.

However, there must be a distinction made between practice and other kinds of activity
known as techniques:

Techniques are deemed to be worthwhile only because they produce some kind of output
or effect, but beyond that expected result, they are not in themselves worthwhile.

Practical Theology is a strand of theological thought that attempts to heal the division
between theory and practice that has marred theological discourse throughout the years.

Practical theology aims at the harmonization of the knowledge of the faith, and the
practice of the faith. Orthodoxy and orthopraxis are not made separate, but two united
elements of the same whole.

Three Distinct Features of Practical Theology in the Philippine Setting:

1. Integration
2. Inculturation
3. Community-Formation

Conclusion

Let us end with a reminder: “to be spiritual you need the roots of religious tradition and
community, while to be religious in a Christian way you need the wings of committed
spiritual practices.”