Editorial

“Spirituality is Popular and Sought After by Many,” declared a recent editorial. We hear a lot about the rise of the “spiritual, but not religious” (SBNR), those who pick and choose from different sources for spiritual nourishment. The isolation of the Covid pandemic has only increased the hunger for spirituality, as many individuals seek wholeness and meaning in a fractured landscape.

Yet “spirituality” and “mysticism” remain nebulous concepts to many, including Christians. Despite a longing for the sacred in our everyday lives, perspectives vary widely on valuable spiritual practices and their relationship to tradition. The current issue of Interpretation brings together five experts for their wisdom on spirituality and spiritual disciplines from antiquity to the present day, with special attention to Christian practices.

First is the essay by Diana L. Villegas, who provides a useful overview of the origins of mysticism within Christianity, including thoughtful consideration of such figures as Origen, Augustine, and Dionysius. She also discusses spirituality in our present context, including the helpful argument that mysticism is an essential aspect of Christian practice.

Christine Luckritz Marquis also offers a fascinating historical retrospective, with an eye towards the declining church of the present day. Along with Paul’s mystical encounters in the New Testament, Luckritz Marquis examines the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Evagrius of Pontus, and Hildegard of Bingen. She demonstrates the vital importance of these voices for understanding the history of Christian spirituality, but also for thinking about how we might find meaning in our lives while still respecting science and the entirety of creation.

Healing and wholeness are often a goal of spiritual disciplines, especially when illness strikes. Andrew Crislip explores the correspondence among a group of monks in late antiquity in the Gazan monastery of Thavatha. This largely unknown trove of letters includes poignant reflections on illness and healing, human sin, and complex beliefs in demons. These monastic figures wrestled with debilitating illness and how to explain it, the value of their medical resources, and how to approach Scripture during periods of suffering. Crislip’s lucid essay offers a window into the complex interplay between disease and spirituality, a dynamic that remains highly relevant during a pandemic.

All teaching occurs in a particular context, and Collin Cornell’s article traces innovative approaches he undertook with students in a New Testament class at the University of the South (Sewanee). In conversation with Willie James Jennings, his place-based pedagogy focused on observance of nature (“Forest Kinship Project”), a “Passion Project” that highlighted the Trail of Tears journey of Indigenous persons, and an “Exorcism Project” that addressed the legacy of slaveholding and White supremacy among some of the university’s key benefactors. Cornell shows that place-based readings of the Gospels have the capacity to foster spiritual transformation.

Finally, Barbara Brown Taylor has long been attuned to spirituality, nature, and the development of religious practices. In the current essay, she arrives at a helpful understanding of “spirituality,” how “spiritual” practices differ from “wellbeing” practices, the evolution of customs during the pandemic, and the importance of the natural world in one’s journey. She also gives some helpful analysis for churches at this precarious moment. With characteristic eloquence, Brown Taylor encourages all of us to cultivate an intentional spirituality: “I mean actively pursuing the God I did not make up—in vocation, in creation, in nearest neighbor, and in unexpected stranger. I mean coming to my senses through spiritual practice that is regular, intentional, embodied, and life-giving for me and all my relations.” This essay and the others in the issue provide invaluable resources for just such a journey.