Christian Spirituality Unit

1. Selling Spirituality/Commodifying Wellness: Holding Paradoxical Perspectives. 

There is a growing awareness and interest in spirituality across many different groups and in late capitalism this results in high prices for spiritual retreats, wellness, and other forms of "well-being." What is gained in this increasing popularity? What should we be wary about? What does Christian spirituality have to contribute to assess the increasing commodification of wellness in its many forms of expression? 

Another way of critically examining this issue is by assessing the use of “prayer apps.” Prayer apps are flooding the market and provide a lucrative investment for big business. But what is their true impact on Christian Spirituality? Are they facilitating an awakening to life in Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit or are they drawing people into privatized "stress-free zones" isolated from community, which, paradoxically, elevate the stress and restlessness they are meant to counter?

2. Spirituality and Themes of Rest. 

According to Christian spirituality, rest is not simply what we do so that we can work harder and be more productive. Rest is an end in and of itself and is a natural limit, even embraced by God. How is rest something counter-cultural and how can it be re-discovered in contemporary and rest-less times to contribute to human flourishing on all levels?

3. Spirituality, Freedom, and Resistance. 

Christian spirituality plays a crucial role in opposing injustices of all kinds through non-violent resistance, conflict management and the exposure of systematic oppression on multiple levels. By exploring how spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and fasting can support resistance to oppression and commitment to justice, this topic invites the analysis of the lives of historical and contemporary figures or groups, such as Iltizar Morrar, the Rosenstrasse Group, Truus Wijsmuller, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King Jr. and Desmond Tutu, who used their faith to promote peace and justice against all odds. Conflict brings suffering and hardship, but it can also become an opportunity to reflect on the challenges of the world, and to transform oneself and one’s community into an opportunity to live differently, that is, to live in freedom. What, in the end, is the lived meaning of freedom?

4. Modalities of Sacrifice. 

The philosopher René Girard likened religious sacrifice to a form of “pure violence” that averts “impure violence”: rituals of purification, for example, sanctify deep, aggressive impulses, with Christ’s sacrifice serving as the ultimate example. In our current era, ecological crises and the crisis of excessive consumption raise anew, with heightened urgency, questions about the place of sacrifice and asceticism of all forms. Given the reality of overconsumption and waste, a Christian eco-spirituality of personal sacrifice or asceticism makes good sense and is indeed necessary. 

But given the histories of Christian theological reflection on sacrifice, especially as something that can be used and abused (as feminist and womanist theologians, as well as scholars of race and class have noted), how should Christian spiritual and theological reflection speak of sacrifice and asceticism? Might Christian spirituality help us both understand and live into the sacrifices our ecological, social, and cultural moment seems to demand? What good can come from a Christian spirituality of sacrifice and asceticism?

5. The Study of Spirituality: Whose Imagination? Which Methodology? 

Since the formal foundation of the academic study of Christian spirituality, methodological questions have remained crucial for the guidance of research in the discipline. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in this topic: What kind of "imaginary" should spirituality draw on for an understanding of its basic parameters of inquiry? How do different methodological starting points impact the discipline's self-understanding? 

Suggestions for foundations include the appropriation of Bernard Lonergan's notion of "authentic subjectivity," the philosophical tradition of the American pragmatists, and the philosophical hermeneutical approach of Paul Ricoeur. This session calls for creative proposals and evaluations regarding foundations and inspirations for the methodology of Christian spirituality.

6. Mysticism, Inter-Spirituality, and Multiple Religious Belonging co-sponsored with the Mysticism Unit

“Inter-spirituality” and “multiple religious belonging” are categories that scholars utilize to describe individuals and communities that lie beyond the borders and boundaries of traditional religious affiliation or identification. This panel invites papers that investigate the relationship between mysticism and inter-religious, inter-monastic, and/or “multiple” religious identification(s). Proposals can include recent trends and contemporary inter-spiritual mystics or movements, as well as past examples of persons or communities who embody or exemplify multiple or religious cross-identification based upon their own mystical experience or praxis.

Sample topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Apophatic and cataphatic approaches to inter-spirituality/multiple religious belonging
• “Universal” and “perennial” currents: methodological concerns and lived praxis
• Mystical transgressions across religious borders: Sufi Mystics; Ramakrishna
• Bede Griffiths, Swami Abhishiktananda, and Hindu-Christian dialogue
• “New monasticism” and inter-spirituality
• Synthesis vs. syncretism