Evolving Methodologies Conference: Reflections on Christian Spirituality Studies vs. Spiritual Theology

The Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (SSCS) co-sponsored with the Forum of Spiritual Theology Professors of Italy (FPTSI)¹ an international conference on methodology in Rome, September 2019. The conference had two goals: 1) To offer a forum for the presentation of new methods by scholars from different parts of the world. 2) To offer the possibility of dialogue between the Anglophone perspective of Christian Spirituality, and the Latin-European (mostly Italians and Spaniards) perspective of Spiritual Theology, especially as pursued in Italy, which has eleven universities and seminaries offering postgraduate studies in spirituality to students from throughout the globe.

In terms of the first goal, the conference succeeded in making possible a truly global exchange as there were presenters from Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, North and South America and a number of European countries, including Latvia. Methodologies proposed by representatives of Spiritual Theology included historical methods, personalistic method, Old Testament historical-critical method, and artistic contemplation. Anglophone scholars of Christian spirituality described a broad range of methodologies: qualitative and ethnographic sociological approaches, city planning methods, literary methodologies, philosophical approaches such as mimesis, mystagogy in Biblical spirituality, self-implication as method, as well as methodologies based on systematic reflection on contemplative practice (and this is not an exhaustive list). Those wishing to read the texts of these presentations will find them available at the online journal, Mysterion.²

KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS: SIMILARITIES

From conversations with presenters and participants, both at the conference and afterwards, it became clear that many had not been able to appreciate fully the presentations of participants from the sister discipline. I propose that, in large part, this was due to a lack of information about some of the assumptions each discipline makes; these assumptions are in turn related to different academic and cultural contexts. For cultural context influences the questions asked in one’s research, and the interpretive tools used to explore the questions. Scholars in Latin-European contexts work in Catholic university/seminary settings, where students assume Catholic belief, where their studies in spirituality are most often a path to teaching in seminaries and/or to offering formation once they return to their home countries. Italian institutions function in the context of a country where the doctrine of the Catholic Church is a major concern of the highest Church authorities located in Rome, seat of a majority of theological universities and seminaries. Accordingly, Spiritual Theology in Italy is based on the presuppositions of a mainline Christian tradition, and assumes students and professors are engaged in the practice of that tradition. This contrasts with Christian Spirituality studies in Anglophone contexts where universities and seminaries function in a pluralistic world. In these contexts, interest in spirituality is frequently unrelated to particular religious traditions or is the fruit of hybrid traditions. As Mary Frohlich of Catholic Theological Union pointed out in her keynote address, the context for her attempt to start with a pre-theological understanding of the spiritual is “the global trend for younger people to be less and less likely to identify with a religious group. In the U.S., at least a third of those ages 18–29 reject affiliation with any religious group, and a far higher percentage do not participate in religion practice. . . Yet . . . still remain attracted to ‘spirituality’.”³ She argued that in order to engage those who are attracted to spirituality and spirituality studies but do not have traditional religious affiliation, methodology requires constructs and language that are not conditioned by a particular religious and theological orientation.

An important contextual reality for Anglophone scholars is to keep in mind that today’s Spiritual Theology, as represented by Jesús García of the Salesian University, is not the Spiritual Theology addressed in the 1980’s discussions in the Anglophone world regarding the disciplinary identity of Christian spirituality. Contemporary Spiritual Theology as represented by García, does not delineate and prescribe what is valid spiritual experience, though it does interpret experience according to Revelation. García explicitly states that spiritual experiences should be studied not because they are representative of...