Studying Christian Spirituality

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

ISBN: 9780415394741 | 0415394740
Cover: Nonspecific Binding
Copyright: 8/28/2007

Rent

(Recommended)

$30.79

Term

Due

Price

Semester

Dec 13

$32.40

Quarter

Aug 16

$30.79

Short Term

Jul 13

$29.16

*This item is part of an exclusive publisher rental program and requires an additional convenience fee. This fee will be reflected in the shopping cart.
Buy New

Usually Ships in 3-5 Business Days

$44.28
eBook

Available Instantly

Online: 180 Days

Downloadable: 180 Days

$32.18

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.

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.

Please wait while the item is added to your bag...

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Studying Christian Spirituality

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials