My first post of the year... and I don’t know what to write! Well that is not completely true, but while throwing
around topics I decided to try something different for a while. I am finally getting around to reading the
book that inspired my blog, David Augsburger’s Dissident Discipleship (so we will see how close I actually come to
reflecting it). While I have not read
this particular book, I am familiar with Augsburger’s other writings and
lectures and consider him to be one of the most important Christian thinkers of
our day. Nevertheless, as I complete
each chapter I plan on writing a brief reflection on it. This might flop in terms of “reader’s
interest,” but I am hoping it will raise some good discussions... or any discussion period... or at least food-for-thought.
To set up
the premise for the book, Augsburger challenges the dominant perceptions of
spirituality. The definition of one’s
“spirituality” is often a subjective and personal as many tend to make up their
own meaning for it as-well-as its parameters. Yet, the spirituality one is attracted
to will inevitably shape its person. It is precisely because of this that some
preliminary defining must be done. Augsburger
offers three degrees of spirituality one will arrive at, though we tend to often
straddle, in some way, between them rather than sets on just one. These three are:
Monopolar
Spirituality: This is the most common as it (by definition) is the
encounter with the inner spiritual self that is individually present within all
human beings. It is often summed up in
realizations of self-discovery, oneness with nature and/or a new found
sensitivity towards humanity. Though
this is a crucial step for sure, when it does not move past personal-spirituality
the person themselves become an isolated religion made up of their personality
and preference. They more or less are their own god, or the highs-of-experience
(i.e. pleasure of nature or euphoria of climbing a mountain, etc…) become their
god and its vagueness a wall of comfort, but spiritual fullness will lack. Ultimately there is a loss of “confidence
that anything beyond the self exists or can be trusted.”[1]
Bipolar Spirituality:
Bipolar-spirituality also embodies the inner subjective experience in which the
true self is revealed, but it stands vis-à-vis the objective experience of
one’s existence before God. This
spirituality is a subjective and reflective life that lives in search for,
lived before and compliant with the Divine.
The inner soul is called to new life with the Divine because it knows
that, while separate from God, the two are inextricably linked. This means that bipolar spirituality
questions whether the true-self can be known without coming to know God. So
also, one cannot really meet God as the Entity outside of the self without the
humble recognition of one’s inner-self/soul.
“This new vision of who I am before a God who knows me as I am and
accepts me in spite of what I am is a brush with a truth that is greater than
my personal truth and leads to a transforming moment of grace that breaks
through my narcissism.”[2] This certainly reflects the spirituality within the
Christian (both Catholic and Protestant) traditions. It is God that calls and redeems persons
(rather than the spirit-self, nature-spirit or human-spirit), yet it is persons that discover and are open to, and participate in, a life with God.
Tripolar Spirituality:
It might be hard to believe, but bipolar spirituality still does not go far
enough because it manages to isolate itself.
Tripolar-spirituality, however, does make necessary adjustments. It can
be defined as a threefold dimension of inward directedness, upward compliance
and outward commitment. Outward commitment
is central to our spirituality. It is the co-human journey of relations characterized
by both integrity and human-solidarity amongst friend and enemy, neighbor and
persecutor. Moreover, the three spiritualities cannot be sustained by
themselves, but are mutually dependent parts each authenticated by the others. Though we may not think of relations and
community as a spiritual dimension, it is how one comes to know the self, “not
alone, but in the company of fellow travelers… Coming to know others not merely
in collusion, but in shared commitment to the One who brings us together justly
and safely in the triumphant surrender of ultimate trust.”[3] Such a spiritual community committed to one
another will come to know not only God with us and for us, but also God between
us.
We could then determine that this
spirituality is one of radical attachment rather than the detachment and
independence many cultures says is “human-maturity”.
Within Christianity specifically, the tri-dimensional spirituality which
practices a discipleship that expresses love for others and results in inner
depth practices ultimately becomes the only way to truly know Christ. As Augsburger says:
“I come to know myself truly as a
spiritual being by knowing God. I come to know who I truly am by being known by
God. I come to know others by seeing in them the reflected image of God, the
Other. I come to know this Other when meeting God in others, sister, brother,
neighbor, stranger, friend, or enemy.”[4]
With such a robust, holistic and concrete spirituality like
this our entire ecumenical life should be a little more radical in all its
aspects, a little more like the Gospel. This sets the stage for how Augsburger is
going to show what this implies for all the streams of the Christian life.
[1] These are Parker Palmer’s
words as quoted by David Augsburger.
David Augsburger Dissident Discipleship (Grand
Rapids, MI: Brazo Press 2006), 12.
[2] Ibid, 12-13.
[3] Ibid, 13.
[4] Ibid, 21-22.
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