Luke Bretherton in chapter 10 of Remembering Our Future argues for a 'mundane holiness: the theology and spirituality of everyday life.' He claims that too much Christian spirituality is divorced from Christian theology and that Christian spirituality is offered as a consumer option or technique to be learned and also one that is about transcending the everyday (pp.228-229). The main sections of the chapter discuss how 'spirituality is true materiality', so Bretherton says "Paul's advocacy of the spiritual life points to neither an ethereal, otherworldly life nor an interior realm of consciousness, but to a whole pattern of life which is truly material, truly itself, human life as part of creation healed and fulfilled' (p.234). He points to the church year and says there are times of fasting and lament, as well as times of feasting and joy, but the clearest indicator of how a mundane holiness is true description of Christian spirituality is the existence of ordinary time: 'it is ordinary time that is the focus of a mundane holiness and it is ordinary time that is, perhaps, the major key or predominant mode of the Christian life ... to refuse to live faithfully in ordinary time and constantly seek times of ecstasy or insist that all life is a fast is to refuse ... a definitive part of Christian discipleship' (pp.236-237).
Bretherton concludes with five marks that should be present in Christian spirituality: 1) it should be about relationship with the Father, through Christ, in the Spirit and not about focusing on exercises, experiences or techniques (p.245); 2) it should have a community dimension and focus because 'a Christian spirituality can be either individualistic or simply therapeutic' (p.245); 3) it should not see time and place as enemies to be overcome (p.246); 4) it must show concern for ecological, political, economic and social justice, without these it 'can hardly be said to be Christian' (p.246); and 5) it should be eschatological, that has a right understanding of the 'now and not yet' (pp.246-247).
I welcome this description of Christian spirituality, that seeks to recognise the Spirit in the everyday Christian life and not only in visits to Spring Harvest, Soul Survivor or the such like. I think finding appropriate habits and practices (is that different from exercises and techniques?) are necessary in order to encourage a Christian spirituality of mundane holiness.
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