RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY According to Sandra Shneiders: There must be openness and willingness

Spirituality is “the experience of for collaboration amongst the members of

conscious involvement in the project of the community, as well as with those
life-integration through self- engaged by the community (Augustinian
Three (3) ways people view:
transcendence toward the ultimate value community).
The relationship between spirituality and one perceives”.
3. Caritas (Love/Charity)
religion as:
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY IS For Augustine, love is the why and how of
1. “Strangers to the banquet of “THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF our knowledge. “Use knowledge as a kind
transcendence who never actually CHRISTIAN FAITH”. of scaffolding to help build the structure
meet or converse”.
of love and understanding, which will last
2. “Rivals, if not enemies, vying for
forever even after knowledge destroys
the allegiance of the serious Deconstruction of Schneider’s
itself. Knowledge is useful when it is used
seekers”. Spirituality (Lived Experience):
to promote love. But it becomes useless,
3. Partners, two dimensions of a
1. Spirituality denotes experience. even harmful in itself, if separated from
single enterprise
2. Spirituality is an experience of such an end”.
According to Sandra Schneiders On conscious involvement in a
Spirituality. project. THE NEED FOR ROOTS AND WINGS
3. Spirituality is a project of life-
On Spirituality: “Spirituality refers to integration which means that it is
the logic, or character, or consistent holistic. THE THREE TYPES OF SPIRITUALITY
quality of a person’s or a group’s pattern 4. This project of life integration is BY WILLIAM SPOHN:
of living insofar as it is measured before pursued by consistent self-
some kind of ultimate reality”. 1. Dwelling Spirituality (Shallow
transcendence toward ultimate
roots and no wings)
On Religion: “Religion refers to a set of value. This implies that
beliefs, values, and practices that spirituality is essentially positive Its emphasis is the reliability of traditional
together identify what ultimate reality is in its direction. religious institutions, and the living out of
and help establish the relationship that person’s spiritual lives within the
THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF
obtains between this ultimate reality and traditionally drawn bounds of such
AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY:
the practitioners”. institutions.
1. Veritas (Truth)
Religion becomes that which aids people 2. Seeking Spirituality (With
in developing spirituality within its Within Augustinian spirituality, one wings, but no roots)
defined beliefs and practices, and in doing important aspiration is the understanding
Without a religion dictating them what
so, according to that religion’s tradition, a of the truth of oneself, and in that, the
ultimate value to follows, those who
person can grow closer and closer to the truth of God: “O God, let me know
adopted the seeking spirituality worked to
ultimate value or reality. myself, so I may know you”.
find paths to ultimate value on their own
2. Unitas (Unity) terms.
 3. Practicing Spirituality (Having PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
roots and wings)

It is of great importance to recover the

communal dimension of spirituality that
can help ground its direction. This leads
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”.
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.

The living out of spirituality is often

referred to as “practice”.

According to Aladair 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
themselves worthwhile.