Spiritual Capital: Spirituality in Practice in Christian Perspective ed. by Michael O’Sullivan and Bernadette Flanagan (review)

This new series of short essays on spiritual capital aims to define, refine and disseminate the concept of spiritual capital. The contributors to the anthology are all Irish practitioner-scholars, in what they term “applied spirituality.” As such they are truly interdisciplinary—cutting across art, ecology, sociology and religion—though they offer a distinctly Irish perspective tied to All Hallows College in Dublin. The first sentence of the book quotes my own work as a sort of “father of spiritual capital” and claims that the work over the last decade on the subject is “concerned more with the nature of capital than the nature of spirituality.” This book emphasizes the latter.

The tension between the two sides of the spiritual-capital equation is present throughout the entire book, though it need not be. I agree with the editors when they say “much spiritual capital literature recognizes that the development of human authenticity enriches a society and the organizations and communities of that society.” This is indeed the true value of spiritual capital. It provides a vision, mission and strategy for living out a faith tradition, be it Irish Catholic, Southern Baptist, Zen Buddhist, Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or Zoroastrian. Spiritual capital as a concept is agnostic about the particular spiritual tradition observed and should not favor one over the other. It is descriptive in that sense but also normative in that it does not dismiss religion or deny its value in individual, corporate and or societal cultures. There could profitably be such a field as comparative spiritual capital. This kind of language, as the editors suggest and at times applaud, is now seeping into fields from management to leadership, from development to education. They lament the fact that it is largely unfamiliar to what they term the “academic study of Christian spirituality.” From my location, however, I see a near ground swell of interest in the topic and its application in a variety of ways, from new courses, conferences, and much innovative research, some of which is empirical, some theoretical.

This book proposes to cross the span between the socio-economic side and the spiritual side of the discussion that is wanting among spirituality scholars and especially practitioners. A gulf between them is perceived at three levels: concepts, issues and practices. The book works at each level, albeit with varying degrees of satisfaction and originality. At the conceptual level a new argument is offered around the dynamic evolution of spiritual capital as a resource for personal, social and ecclesial transformation. The second part of the anthology reflects on issues as diverse as the ecological crisis, leadership, international development, homelessness, workplaces, and suicide. The final piece explores discrete practices, namely: pilgrimage, gardening, poetry, and song. It covers a lot of territory and that can be seen as both its value as well as its limitation.

Framed by Paul Ricoeur’s tension between Christocentrism and pneumocentrism, this text decidedly follows the pneumocentric path. It looks at, “the out-pouring of the Spirit beyond the disciples at Pentecost, and on the diverse races, creeds and tongues by which glory is given to God.” As such the narrative focuses on lived Christianity open to the many diverse ways individuals tell their stories in the communities to which they belong. Here spiritual capital is conceived as “ultimately a heuristic device.” The chapters are “critical engagements” with fields of interest (spiritually defined) and this emerging socio-economic concept that the authors approve but also acknowledge distance, since they are not social scientists.

I find the conceptual section the least compelling of the three sections. The argument suggests that the interest in spiritual capital is due to the emergence of post-secular society, its use in public policy, and its theoretical relationship to the older and more generally understood concept of “social capital.” Quoting Habermas favorably, the book tends to see...