|
Stirrings of the soulEvangelicals and the new spiritualityHow's your personal experience of God?STIRRINGS OF THE SOUL Michael Raiter, currently Head of the Mission Department at Moore Theological College, has written an accessible and very helpful treatment of spirituality. I read most of this book in an airport surrounded by advertisements for products to help me in my spiritual journey. This is typical of our world and so Raiter's book is timely. It is a thoughtful and biblical exploration of why spirituality is now trendy on such a massive scale, what its different forms look like and offer to seekers, as well as some important reflections on evangelical spirituality. Western cultureI can think of two main reasons to recommend this book. First, Raiter provides a useful potted history of Western culture since the swinging (and seismic) 60s. He suggests that this decade led to the trends of anti-authoritarianism, freedom and consumerism as absolute rights, increased stress, and the flowering of various features of postmodernism such as philosophical pluralism and relativism. Raiter does the same with mysticism later in the book, exploring its roots in the Middle Ages, and brings this to bear on his evaluation of current evangelical flirtations with mysticism. The value of these explorations of why we are where we are today is that they aid apologetics and persuasive presentation of the gospel - they begin to expose precisely why it is that a form of spiritual hunger is so pervasive and help us to deal with the deeper issues and not just the presenting symptoms. Biblical presentationSecond, this book is worth reading because of its clear biblical presentation of spirituality and its challenge to evangelicals. Raiter grounds spirituality in exegesis, pointing out that spirituality in Scripture never refers directly to something humans engage in but is always connected to the work of the Spirit in the believer. This leads him to consider the work of the Spirit in Romans 8, Ephesians 5 and Galatians 5 and to paint a picture of what truly spiritual people look like. He constructs a Christian spirituality that is tied to the atonement, pursues righteousness, values both head and heart, and which is lived out in suffering and frustration. Along the way there are gentle but clear rebukes for those who have abused the Bible in pursuing more mystical interpretations of prayer, silence, solitude and meditation. By way of challenge, Raiter urges evangelicals to watch our language (we need to promote a Person as much as propositions); to be clear on what it means to experience God; and to be passionate in our expressions of faith. These points are carefully explained and argued for, although it might be argued that here Raiter lets us off rather lightly. There are at least a few more things that should be added to the list of challenges to evangelical spirituality - for instance, it often settles for a weak personal experience of grace, coupled with a tendency towards legalism in pulpit and pew. Features like this and those Raiter outlines lead many to migrate from evangelicalism to seek a spirituality which is developed in explicit opposition to their dogmatic past. This is tragic as in the process the gospel often becomes displaced as the means of shaping relationship with God. In a book which majors on rightly criticising so much of what we see around us, the challenge to examine our own hearts and grasp of the gospel is well worth some further reflection. David Gibson,
|