Spirituality in the 21st Century

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Spirituality in the 21^st Century context is less about ‘spirituality’ or being ‘spirit filled’ and is increasingly more about ‘feeling good’ in an instantaneous sort of way. Many people seem to feel that spirituality is easily attainable; available on a shelf and that it is something that has little personal cost. This is what may be seen as the ‘self-help’ sort of spirituality that one finds in Ottaker’s (other bookshops are also available). The spirituality journey on offer may be Buddhist or ‘new-age’ in nature or from other traditions and may adopt values that are very far from Christianity. However, in such contexts ‘spirituality rarely has reference to the Trinity or to a Christian conception of God.

In saying this, I am not making an exclusive case for positive experiences within the context of Christianity in isolation and there is always a place to explore experience and wisdom from other traditions. I also know of people who are not at all consciously religious who exude a sense of serenity and  they manifest a certainty about the future which is comforting and also calming but this is to confuse matters further. I have a colleague in secular employment who denies any faith in religion who has the effect of immediately dropping my blood pressure when she speaks and I suspect that she  is a natural healer if she only understood that role within herself. However, healing, feeling good and self-help are not the same as spirituality.

In some ways people now look to the far East for a spiritual dimension in their lives and we find images of the Buddha in John Lewis as an example of where peoples feelings, hopes and expectations are in the matter of spirituality. Perhaps 100 years ago people in England may have ‘crossed the Tiber’ when they considered spirituality or even made the journey towards Orthodoxy when they considered a more spiritual direction. The direction now is clearly much further East than Istanbul.

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Yet, traditional Christian spirituality is alive (if not completely well)  without looking to the far East or to other religions and faiths. Catholic spirituality, as one facet of Christianity, is set within a strong Christian context replete with history, prayer, hymns, meditations, art and sculpture. Similarly, the Church of England has an Anglo-Catholic tradition that utilises ‘smells and bells’, as part of a rich, diverse and musical  liturgy. We also have a British Orthodox Church that is linked to the Copts of Alexandria. All of this rich heritage is already in the UK and evidences a truly Christian (and home grown) spirituality driven by the Holy Spirit. I would suggest that people may find a Spirit driven experience within the Christian Churches in the UK without trying some sort of 21^st Century religious shopping experience.

However, for many people (for whom Christianity has no contemporary relevance) spirituality equates to some sort of Pelagian self help or leads to a religious syncretism where we experience  something of a religious ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ of ideas.

Greek Orthodox Funeral

The Funeral of Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi, July 2009

Saint Mark's Norwich

Urban dereliction
Saint Mark's New Lakenham, Norwich [Link]

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Addolorata Cemetery - Paola

Addolorata Cemetery - Paola

"Deeper than Sheol" (Job 11:8)

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Writers  have argued that ancient Israel had a very poorly developed idea of the afterlife for the body and the spirit compared to the cultures that geographically surrounded it with little hope for a bodily resurrection.  There is no generally accepted idea that ancient Israel possessed a developed and coherent view of spiritual existence after death or of a physical resurrection of the body.

In historical terms, Israel shared a geographical border with Egypt where there was a particularly well documented belief in the survival of the personality into the afterlife and associated rituals to ensure this survival although there is no evidence that a developed belief system transferred from Egypt into Israel.  Although Israelite society did not take part in a large-scale importation of Egyptian ritual and belief, 1 Chronicles 10:12   indicates that the human body should be treated with dignity and respect and we have evidence for the ritual involved in burials  throughout Palestine. However, it is not then clear what people believed in the Old Testament period about the survival of personality or physical resurrection. The subterranean nature of burial in caves and crypts within ancient Israel may reference a belief in Sheol (the undefined and shadowy underworld) or the underworld common in earlier Caananite belief systems.



© Godric Godricson



It is not clear if the ancient peoples of Israel believed widely in life after death or, if indeed, they believed widely in bodily resurrection from the dead. Genesis 3:19 teaches that mankind can expect nothing other than the return of his body to the Earth from which it came. Psalm 103:14-16 gives no hope of physical resurrection and speaks of the transience of human existence on Earth. In effect, Israelites appear to be ‘here and now’ people rather than hoping for a better life to come.  Despite such negative expressions surrounding the survival of personality beyond death and to any physical resurrection we can see the book of Isaiah containing more definite hope for the future. Isaiah intones, "Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall rise".  This fragment, along with 2 Kings 13:20-21 (an indication of the efficacy of contact with the bones of Elisah) is an indication that there were at least competing views in the Old Testament period as to what happened after death and what a faithful person may hope for after death.  Ecclesiastes. 3:2I, takes a characteristically more hope-less stance and asks the reader to remember; “To him that is joined with all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. We can see that ancient Israel did indeed have a poorly developed view of the afterlife although we  can see competing views existed about the nature of life.  Elijah is seen to have ascended into heaven (2 Kgs. 2:11-12)  and in this image we may have another, although unusual, way of humans surviving physical death; by ascension into heaven.

We can perhaps agree that the ancient Israelites had a poorly developed sense of the afterlife that stood in stark comparison to the Egyptian and Caananite people around them. This apparent lack of a coherent belief in an ‘afterlife’ continued through the Old Testament period. The faith of Israel was, in essence, a simple obedience to God as a creator of the physical world and, for many, that simple faith was enough. In considering Jewish eschatology we may contemplate such matters either with the zeal of the literalist or the indeterminism of the poet either extreme may lead to a misunderstanding.   It may be that in an exploration of Jewish eschatology,  many competing views existed in relation to the afterlife and resurrection in addition to the pervasive and accepted view taught in Jerusalem?