Category: Spiritual Theology

The theology of spiritual growth & sanctification

How Can We Reach the Lost in a Society in Spiritual Decline? – Lessons From History

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How Christianity Transforms People and Society: The Highest Priority for Engaging Our Culture Many believers are disturbed by the decline in their country (e.g. America, England, Germany) of an interest in Christianity or even in living healthy constructive lives. People seem to less able to form healthy relationships and don’t seem to seriously seek a transcendent life. This situation is not too different from what the Christians faced in the first three centuries of the Church. The early Christians did not take an adversarial approach to their society. Sometimes Christian writers would point out the sinfulness of their culture but they did not focus on this. Instead, they focused on living the Christian life. In other words, they had a different spiritual theology concerning social engagement. Perhaps one could refer to their approach as “magnetic engagement”: the Church focused on drawing people by living attractive lives. A few believers were Continue Reading →

Augustine on the Fulfillment and End of Scripture for Believers, i.e., the Center of His Spiritual Theology

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Here is an inspirational excerpt from Philip Schaff’s translation of Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine. In these sections Augustine makes it clear that his view of the fulfillment of God’s word is love of God and love of neighbor. I believe it is the center of his spiritual theology. This is a contrast to other early Christian writers who emphasized knowledge of God as preeminent. This was probably influenced by Plato’s similar emphasis on knowledge as the highest good of the soul. Augustine is also a contrast to the famous Westminster Catechism that states the “chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” While there is obvious overlap the emphasis is different in Augustine, since love is a more focused view and leads to different Christian living. (For those who are new to Augustine he is arguably the most influential Christian writer and theologian in history. He Continue Reading →

Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful: Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology – Part 2

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Doctrine does not make fellowship life-giving, rather, doctrine with practice. In other words, the practice of the faith keeps church from being boring or hurtful. It is the joy and even excitement of growing in a community and in watching others become part of your community that makes fellowship life-giving. But historically the theology related to growth in community became separated from doctrinal theology. This is a big reason why churches are often boring or hurtful. This blog looks at this problem. With the advent of the skepticism and modernism of the 18th and 19th centuries the western church found itself on the doctrinal defensive again. The church responded in the 20th century by reasserting its fundamental doctrines, as it needed to. But much of the church became preoccupied with fighting unbelief. By allowing skeptics to focus the church primarily on doctrine the church once again neglected brotherly love inside Continue Reading →

Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful: Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology – Part 1

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The theme of this post is that spiritual theology became separate from doctrinal theology in the Middle Ages and Reformation and that this has seriously damaged the transforming power of Christianity. The purpose of this blog is to inspire Christian leaders and theologians to reunite spiritual theology with doctrinal theology, and to encourage believers to read spiritual theology. The ultimate purpose is to free believers from the burden, boredom and pain of bad spiritual theology, and edify and equip believers to live effective Christlike lives in the Spirit. This blog is based on the chapter in the book Flourish titled: “Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology, or Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful”. “Spiritual theology” can be defined as the study of how Christians grow spiritually including patterns and stages of growth in their relationships. It also includes the biblical and doctrinal structures behind spiritual growth. It is what the Continue Reading →

Why Theology Can Be Boring

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[Some of this is repeated in a later post on reuniting spiritual theology with doctrinal theology.] In the Middle Ages theologians began to separate doctrinal theology from spiritual theology (ie practice) or perhaps just neglect spiritual theology. This makes theology boring. Before then theology and practice were integrated. Classic works that integrated spiritual theology with doctrine include Augustine’s On the Trinity in the 5th century and Bernard of Clairvaux’s Commentary on the Song of Songs in the early 12th century. After Bernard theology became focused on greater systemization of doctrine, and spiritual theology (or sanctification as the Reformers came to call it) received less attention in theological systems. The classic example of greater systemization is Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica, written near the end of the 13th century which became the dominant theology in the Roman Catholic Church. The Summa contains helpful teachings on practice of the faith but it is Continue Reading →