Doesn't it make your toes curl slightly to hear someone say this? I read it in a magazine recently, as spoken by an actress, and wanted to reply, no, you're not. You just have a vague idea of how wonderful it would be if everything was love and bliss and peace and we were all nice to each other as though we lived in a yoga retreat on a tropical island. You think materialism is crude and competitive, and you disapprove of argument and violence. We should all love each other and the world would be a better place.
I exaggerate to make a point but you get my drift. To call yourself a spiritual person is intended to show that you care and are not greedy but someone who is concerned for others and the environment because everything is one. You are a good person, someone who sees beyond the selfishness of ordinary mortals. But what is this so-called spirituality? Does it include the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom or does it see that as an insult to love? Does your spirituality mean you recognise yourself to be a fallen soul in need of salvation or do you see the mere acceptance of the idea of the spiritual enough to make you a spiritual person?
It's not what you believe that makes you spiritual. In fact, the only really spiritual people are the saints and they would never call themselves spiritual. They know that they of themselves are nothing and any good in them comes from God. This is the opposite attitude to the modern "spiritual person" who is happy to dub him or herself thus simply because he or she believes in some kind of undefined spiritual something or other beyond this world. You might think I am being over-critical here but I am trying to expose the falseness of much modern-day spirituality which wants to have its worldly cake but with a spiritual icing on top. If you do not reject the world you are not a spiritual person, and if you really are a spiritual person you would not dream of describing yourself as such because what you are effectively doing is saying I don't need God, I can do it on my own. My spirituality comes from me. This is the opposite to the truth.
I'm sure a lot of this comes down to naivety and ignorance because we have virtually no proper spiritual education these days and the field is wide open to charlatans with books to sell. Nevertheless it is important to make clear that what the world needs now is not spirituality but proper spirituality which is spirituality grounded in a proper understanding of God. Unfocused spirituality can be exploited in just the same way good intentions can be. Remind me where they lead.
I've given this post thought. I agree, except that it does seem helpful to be able to say - somehow - that one sees the spiritual as vital; in addition to or instead of church membership and prescribed behavious. Spiritual is a corrupted word, but there isn't really a better one - which is perhaps why I feel compelled to keep inventing new terms such as 'primary thinking' or 'direct Christianity'!
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the implied meaning of the word spiritual in this context really. Are you saying you merely believe in the spiritual world or are you somehow claiming to have reached a degree of genuine spiritual transformation simply because your opinions have changed? For me only a fundamentally worldly person could make such a claim about himself.It's like saying I'm a good person.
ReplyDelete@William - I think it should be possible for someone to know that they are more spiritually advanced or more Good than another person, as they might know anything else. They may be mistaken, or dishonest or manipulative - as about anything; and we probably should not state such things; but surely we must be able to evaluate such matters?
ReplyDeleteOh I quite agree even though people are often deluded on that score. We should be able to evaluate roughly what our state is. But what I'm talking about here is the kind of person who announces their spirituality as a kind of proof of personal authenticity.
ReplyDeleteOthers can see it better than ourselves. As in " the gift of self-forgetting".
ReplyDeleteThe cover of your book always reminds me of my friends in the Beachy Head Chaplains,I think they are spiritual people but there's nothing very otherworldly about them,they are incredibly practical and grounded but also highly focused and effective. It's not particularly glamorous looking for suicidal people in the dark when you'd rather be in bed. I think it might be an indication of spirituality though....
I chose that picture because I used to live in Eastbourne and often walked on the downs around there. I think it is a spiritual place and one of the gateways to Albion.
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