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Summary
This book provides a new introduction to the study of Christian spirituality, exploring it through the human sciences and ranging from philosophy and hermeneutics to psychology, history, sociology and anthropology. Systematic and progressive, it introduces the key approaches and shows how they relate to the understanding, study and practice of spirituality. Covering a vast amount of ground - from traditional themes such as images of God, spiritual direction and pilgrimage to more contemporary issues, such as place and space, cyberspace and postcolonialism - the author takes an ecumenical, inclusive stance, allowing the book to be used in a wide variety of courses and across denominations.
Author Biography
David B. Perrin is President of St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, Ontario, is a former Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, and is former President (2005-6) of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Preface | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Goals of this book | p. 2 |
| Christian spirituality and the human sciences | p. 2 |
| No one field of study has all the answers | p. 2 |
| Refinement of research strategies | p. 5 |
| Christian spirituality is self-implicating | p. 7 |
| Methodology for studies in Christian spirituality | p. 9 |
| Core methodological principles | p. 10 |
| Notes | p. 14 |
| Questions of definitions | p. 15 |
| Introduction | p. 16 |
| Spirituality | p. 16 |
| Spirituality in everyday life | p. 23 |
| Christian spirituality | p. 26 |
| Christian spirituality and theology | p. 32 |
| Methods in the study of Christian spirituality | p. 35 |
| Spirituality and religion | p. 44 |
| Christian spirituality and experience | p. 47 |
| Conclusion | p. 50 |
| Recommended reading | p. 51 |
| Notes | p. 54 |
| Questions of context | p. 57 |
| Introduction | p. 58 |
| The expulsion of God from ordinary place | p. 60 |
| Images and symbols come from place | p. 63 |
| Geography and sacred space: the desert and the city | p. 64 |
| The contribution of sociology to context | p. 69 |
| Modernism to postmodernism: the context of being ôin-betweenö | p. 76 |
| Conclusion | p. 88 |
| Recommended reading | p. 89 |
| Notes | p. 92 |
| Questions of God | p. 95 |
| Introduction | p. 96 |
| Models of God | p. 98 |
| Models of God reveal a philosophy of life | p. 101 |
| Which models of God? | p. 103 |
| Evolving models of God and cosmology | p. 105 |
| The apophatic and kataphatic ways | p. 111 |
| Conclusion | p. 114 |
| Recommended reading | p. 117 |
| Notes | p. 118 |
| Questions of Christian anthropology | p. 119 |
| Introduction | p. 120 |
| The imago Dei | p. 122 |
| The nature of the self | p. 124 |
| The self as defined by culture: the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern self | p. 128 |
| The nature of self-knowledge | p. 130 |
| Profiles of the self | p. 133 |
| Conclusion | p. 145 |
| Recommended reading | p. 146 |
| Notes | p. 147 |
| Questions of history | p. 149 |
| Introduction | p. 150 |
| What is history? | p. 152 |
| The nature of historical inquiry | p. 159 |
| History of Christian spirituality and theology | p. 168 |
| Christian spirituality and its particular history | p. 170 |
| Christian hagiography | p. 175 |
| Role and place of tradition in history of Christian spirituality | p. 177 |
| Conclusion | p. 178 |
| Recommended reading | p. 179 |
| Notes | p. 180 |
| Questions of text | p. 185 |
| Introduction | p. 186 |
| What is a text? | p. 188 |
| Interpretation of texts | p. 190 |
| The reading and interpreting community | p. 203 |
| Why the hermeneutical method of interpretation is helpful | p. 204 |
| Classic Christian texts | p. 208 |
| Conclusion | p. 214 |
| Recommended reading | p. 215 |
| Notes | p. 217 |
| Questions of human-spiritual development | p. 219 |
| Introduction | p. 220 |
| Fundamental points of reference: models | p. 222 |
| The intersection of psychology and spirituality | p. 225 |
| The experience of Christian human-spiritual development: Christian mysticism and asceticism | p. 238 |
| The threefold classical spiritual itinerary: mysticism, asceticism, and human-spiritual growth | p. 248 |
| Conclusion | p. 257 |
| Recommended reading | p. 258 |
| Notes | p. 260 |
| Questions of spiritual practice | p. 265 |
| Introduction | p. 266 |
| The nature of spiritual practice | p. 267 |
| Prayer | p. 276 |
| Bible reading | p. 278 |
| Spiritual direction | p. 282 |
| Pilgrimage | p. 286 |
| Conclusion | p. 290 |
| Recommended reading | p. 290 |
| Notes | p. 293 |
| Questions of critical edges | p. 297 |
| Introduction | p. 298 |
| Science | p. 298 |
| Work and leadership | p. 302 |
| Health | p. 305 |
| Politics, government, and globalization | p. 307 |
| Cyberspace | p. 311 |
| New Age | p. 314 |
| Gender | p. 319 |
| Feminism | p. 322 |
| Men's movements | p. 326 |
| Conclusion | p. 329 |
| Recommended reading | p. 329 |
| Notes | p. 334 |
| Index | p. 339 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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